50 Fun Facts About Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

In which key is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony written?

It is Op. 125, and the finale turns to the parallel major.

In which year was the Ninth Symphony first performed?

Beethoven had wanted Berlin, but Viennese patrons petitioned him to keep it at home.

Which poet wrote the text that Beethoven set in the finale?

The poem was written in 1785 and revised in 1803, and Beethoven added a few words of his own.

What was the Ninth the first example of?

Four soloists and a chorus join in the last movement, in the parallel key of D major.

Which body first adopted an instrumental arrangement of the Ode to Joy as its official anthem, in 1972?

The European Communities followed in 1985; the anthem has no official words.

In 2001, Beethoven's Ninth manuscript became the first musical score added to which UNESCO register?

The manuscript is held by the Berlin State Library.

Which organisation originally commissioned the symphony in 1817?

It gave the British premiere in 1825, with the choral part sung in Italian.

Which 1808 Beethoven work, a piano concerto movement in which a choir joins the climax, foreshadows the Ninth's finale?

Beethoven himself told publishers the finale was like it, only on a much grander scale.

Beethoven wanted a Berlin premiere, feeling which Italian composer ruled Viennese taste?

His friends responded with a petition signed by prominent Viennese patrons.

In which Vienna theatre did the Ninth premiere?

The programme also included the Consecration of the House overture and three parts of the Missa solemnis.

How old was soprano Henriette Sontag when Beethoven recruited her for the premiere?

The contralto soloist was 20; both were recruited by Beethoven personally.

Which singer turned the deaf Beethoven around so he could see the audience's applause?

Testimonies differ on whether it happened after the scherzo or at the very end.

Who officially conducted the premiere while Beethoven shared the stage?

He told the musicians to ignore the almost completely deaf composer's beat.

How many complete rehearsals did the premiere reportedly have?

Some participants suggested the performance was uneven, but the premiere was a great success.

How many standing ovations did the audience give Beethoven at the premiere?

People waved handkerchiefs and hats so that the composer, who could not hear, could see the acclaim.

Which famous composer was in the audience at the 1824 premiere?

Chancellor Metternich and Carl Czerny were there too; it was his first stage appearance since 1814.

To whom was the Ninth Symphony dedicated?

The first German edition was printed by Schott in Mainz in 1826.

How many movements does the Ninth Symphony have?

Its finale alone is longer than several entire Classical-era symphonies.

What unusual ordering did Beethoven use for the Ninth's middle movements?

It was the first time he did this in a symphony, though Haydn and Mozart had tried it in chamber works.

The first movement opens with which interval, played by tremolo strings like tuning up?

The first main theme in D minor arrives at bar 17.

Which instruments play for the very first time in the trio of the second movement?

The trio is in D major and duple time.

The scherzo section of the second movement opens with what?

The scherzo also has timpani solos and modulates to the unusual key of C major.

In which key is the slow third movement?

It is a double variation form with a prominent solo for the fourth horn player.

Which instruments first introduce the Ode to Joy theme in the finale?

Three instrumental variations follow before a solo voice sings the first words.

Which voice is the first to sing in the symphony?

He sings words Beethoven wrote himself, urging friends to strike up more pleasing sounds.

Roughly how many minutes long is the finale, the longest of the four movements?

Charles Rosen described it as a symphony within a symphony.

Which style of music appears in the finale's Alla marcia section, complete with a tenor solo?

Musicologists argue whether that B-flat passage functions as a scherzo or a second subject.

Which opera composer admired the first three movements but said the last was 'very badly set' for voices?

He predicted others would use Beethoven's authority to excuse bad vocal writing.

Which conductor's 1864 Dresden performance first placed the chorus and soloists behind the orchestra?

Before that, singers stood between the orchestra and the audience.

Which composer heavily revised the Ninth's orchestration to suit a modern orchestra?

He extended Wagner's practice of doubling many woodwind passages.

Which orchestra gave the American premiere of the Ninth in 1846?

It was held at Castle Garden to raise funds for a new concert hall, with the words in English for the first time.

Which festival theatre did Wagner inaugurate by conducting the Ninth?

It was reopened with the same work after World War II.

What word did Bernstein substitute for Freude (Joy) at his 1989 Berlin concert celebrating the fall of the Wall?

The orchestra mixed players from both sides of the Wall with musicians from the USSR, the UK, the US and France.

Which conductor led the Ode to Joy at the 1998 Winter Olympics with six choirs on different continents?

The choirs sang from six countries across five continents.

In which year was the first complete recording of the Ninth made?

Bruno Seidler-Winkler conducted it using the acoustic process, issued by Deutsche Grammophon.

Legend says the CD's 74 minutes fit the Ninth. Which conductor's 1951 performance was cited?

Philips engineer Kees Immink recalled that the length really came from a Sony-Philips compromise on a 12 cm disc.

Which NBC news programme used the opening of the second movement as its theme from 1956 to 1970?

The theme came from Toscanini's 1952 recording with the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

The Ode to Joy served as the Olympic anthem from 1956 to 1968 for the combined team of which divided country?

Rhodesia later used the tune for its anthem Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia from 1974 to 1979.

Which 1907 hymn by Henry van Dyke is commonly sung to the Ode to Joy melody?

He wrote it while staying at Williams College.

How was the Ninth Symphony first introduced to Japan, where it became a December tradition?

German prisoners of war held at the Bandō camp during World War I gave the first Japanese performance; annual December performances later spread across the country.

What did Brahms reportedly say when told a theme in his First Symphony resembled the Ode to Joy?

His First Symphony was praised and derided as Beethoven's Tenth.

Which Danish composer stopped at eight symphonies, saying 'There is only one ninth'?

He lived another twenty years after finishing his eighth.

According to Schoenberg, which composer's superstition gave rise to the 'curse of the ninth'?

He disguised his ninth as Das Lied von der Erde, then died with his Tenth incomplete.

In which city and year did Schiller write the first version of An die Freude?

He was staying with his publisher Göschen and writing Don Carlos at the same time.

How did Schiller himself later regard his Ode to Joy?

He called it detached from reality in an 1800 letter to his friend Körner, whose friendship had inspired it.

Which conductor was asked to make the official arrangements of the European Anthem in 1972?

He chose a decidedly slower tempo than Beethoven's own marking.

How did blacklisted singer Paul Robeson perform the Ode to Joy for 5,000 Welsh miners in 1957?

His US passport had been revoked so he could not travel.

What is the opus number of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony?

Composed between 1822 and 1824, it was his final complete symphony and the first by a major composer to include vocal parts.

In what language was the choral finale sung at the 1825 British premiere in London?

Sir George Smart conducted it at the Argyll Rooms for the Philharmonic Society, which had commissioned the work; the 1846 US premiere was the first sung in English.

Which country used the Ode to Joy melody as its national anthem from 1974 to 1979?

Sung as 'Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia', it is one of the melody's more awkward political adoptions alongside its use as the Anthem of Europe.