The finale of Beethoven's Ninth

It would appear that I'm neglecting this blog, but really I've been neglecting everything in my life apart from uni (including sleep). But the semester is finally over. And so I'm back with an essay I wrote on the Beethoven Ninth. I have to say, I'm extremely annoyed at blogger.com's ability to display the score extracts. In order to kept them within the text block I have to shrink some of them to the point where you can't even read them properly. Anyway to business!

Introduction

Beethoven was one of history’s greatest composers, so it should come as no surprise that his creative output contains many turning points. In this essay, I have limited the scope of my discussion to one work, the Ninth Symphony in D minor. Within this single work, I have limited my discussion to the final movement. However, this movement contains two major turning points which have influenced every generation of composers to be born since its creation, namely the addition of a choral element to the hitherto purely instrumental symphony form, and the organisation of the finale into a “symphony within a symphony”.

The choral finale

Beethoven’s Ninth was the first major symphony to include a choral setting of a written text (in this case Shiller’s An die Freude). This was a major turning point as it essentially precipitated what become known as the “War of the Romantics” or the controversy between proponents of programme and absolute music.  

First, we should examine how Beethoven went about setting the poem. Interestingly, Beethoven did not use the entire text, instead he selected parts that suited his purposes and supplemented them with his own written recitatives.

The key refrains are the opening verse:

                Joy, beautiful spark of the gods, daughter of Elysium,

                Intoxicated with your fire, heavenly one, we enter your shrine.

                Your magic power reunites what strict custom has divided;

                All men become brothers where your gentle wing rests.

And the opening chorus (which Beethoven places after the Fourth chorus):

            Be embraced, you millions! Here’s a kiss for all the world!

                Brothers! Above the canopy of the stars there must dwell a loving Father!

The “programme” thus outlines the power of joy to reunite humankind before God.

Musically, Beethoven prepares the vocal entry through the use of an instrumental recitative played by the cellos and basses:

Moreover, it is these instruments that subsequently introduce the Freude theme in full:

When the first vocal soloist appears at bar 217, he sings a recitative that closely follows the instrumental version:

The chorus enters with shouts of “Freude!” before the soloist sings us the first verse set to the theme previously introduced by the bass section:

The Chorus (apart from the sopranos) then enters with a repeat of the last couplet:

The significance of the Freude music is that Beethoven has introduced a vocal element to what had previously been a purely instrumental genre. Moreover, the way in which he prepared the entry, through instrumental recitatives, suggested to commentators like Marx that the instruments had subordinated themselves to the voice. The idea of vocal supremacy is further underscored by the reappearance of principal themes from the first three movements, which are quickly subdued by the bass section’s vocally-inflected recitatives.  Moreover, the baritone soloist’s opening words of “Oh friends, not these tones!” would become ammunition for the likes of Richard Wagner.

Wagner had a lot to say about Beethoven’s Ninth. He wrote numerous commentaries that touched on the work over a period of several decades. In fact, his thoughts on the Ninth probably helped develop his ideas on music in general, particularly with respect to music drama. In a written programme he conceived in support of an 1846 performance he conducted in Dresden, Wagner likened the choral entry to “Light break[ing] on Chaos” with the vocal soloist then supported by the “conquered elements of instrumental music”. Thus, like Marx, Wagner saw the finale as the triumph of vocal music over purely instrumental (absolute) music.

In subsequent writings, Wagner would develop this idea further by suggesting that Beethoven had developed the Symphony as far as it could be taken. For Wagner, Beethoven had “matured the Symphonic artwork to so engrossing a breadth of form” that it was not even remotely approached by the art of any other age. In the Ninth Symphony, Wagner saw Beethoven as a mariner sailing out of the realm of pure music into that of universal Art. Only the “perfect Art-work of the Future” could follow this path, and that art-form was music drama.

Thus, we can see how Wagner cast himself as the true musical descendent of Beethoven.

However, not all commentators saw the Ninth as the end of absolute music. Heinrich Schenker, in particular, sought to refute Wagner’s interpretation by attempting to show how the finale of the Ninth could be explained in purely musical terms. Moreover, according to Schenker, any attempt to invoke literary interpretations merely reflected an inability to grasp the work’s musical meaning. Beethoven, said Schenker, was keenly aware that the addition of a vocal element resulted in a contradiction but rather than yield to the demands of programme music, he attempted to overcome the problem by fulfilling the demands of absolute music as far as possible. This desire to smooth over the addition of a foreign element was the reason behind the instrumental recitatives. However, rather than accepting the Wagnerian view that this demonstrates the supremacy of the voice, Schenker pointed to the purely musical relationship between the sections (antecedent/consequent) as vindication of his absolute music argument.

Schenker had a harder time refuting the baritone’s cry of “Oh friends, not these tones!” which was penned by Beethoven himself. Under the Wagnerian interpretation, this demonstrates Beethoven casting off instrumental music as a whole. However, Schenker insists that the recitative refers not to instrumental music, but only to specific themes. It is difficult to see how he could draw such a conclusion without inferring that he did so out of intellectual stubbornness. This is not to suggest, however, that Wagner’s argument is unimpeachable. Indeed, it is obvious that Wagner shamelessly exploited Beethoven for his own creative agenda, seeking to capitalise on Beethoven’s prestige to lend some authority to his ideas of nationalism and the “music of the future”. Later in the 19^th century, Brahms would add his two cents by deliberately choosing a theme reminiscent of the Freude theme for the finale of his First Symphony in C minor, which Bonds refers to as “an implicitly vocal finale”. The obvious inference being that this represented his attempt to reclaim the Ninth for absolute music.

Although Beethoven included programmatic elements in some of his works (such as the Eroica and Pastoral Symphonies in addition to the Ninth) it did not necessarily follow that he was abandoning “absolute” music. This is aptly demonstrated by the purely instrumental music that he later composed, e.g. the Bagatelles Op. 126. On the other hand, the addition of programmatic elements to Beethoven’s works cannot always be explained in purely musical terms.

In the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven outlined a possible formal technique for balancing the seemingly contradictory demands of absolute and programme music. He was not advocating the choice of one over the other. As such, the Ninth need not have become a symbolic fork in the road, setting the two Romantic schools on divergent paths.

There were, at any rate, attempts by later composers on both sides of the debate to balance the requirements of symphonic and vocal music, and each of these was greatly indebted to the Ninth. One example is Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette which uses an instrumental recitative (played by the trombones) to prepare the initial vocal entry. Another is Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang Symphony, which follows Beethoven’s scheme of prefacing a choral finale with three instrumental movements. Yet another is Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, which follows the same outline. Even where the formal design of the choral movement differs, as is the case with the Mahler, the basic premise in which instrumental music serves as an introduction to vocal music remains intact.

The form of the finale

The finale of Beethoven’s Ninth was also an important turning point for more formal reasons. Indeed, there is much inventiveness in the way the composer constructed the movement. In this finale, Beethoven brought some previous structural experiments, such as in the finales of the Eroica and Fifth symphonies and the Choral Fantasy op 80, to ultimate fruition.

Perhaps the most significant innovation was to structure the finale as a “symphony within a symphony”. This interpretation, championed by the likes of Charles Rosen, holds that the movement functions as both the “finale” of the work and as its own self-contained four-movement symphony, with the movement divided into sections that follow the character of symphonic movements.

The first ‘movement’, which runs from bars 1-330, is expository and dramatic in character. It includes the instrumental recitatives and vocal entry that were previously discussed. Another interesting feature of this ‘movement’ is that Beethoven employs a narrative device to illustrate the search for a new theme (i.e. the Freude theme).

To this end the themes from all three previous movements are briefly recalled before being summarily dismissed by the bass and cello recitatives:

First movement:

Second movement:

Third movement:

Although Beethoven had previously used thematic reminiscences in other works, such as in the finale of the Fifth Symphony, he had never used it in such a narrative fashion. Commentators have argued that the use of thematic recollection “serves as a vehicle for linking the vocal finale with the earlier instrumental movements of the work”. Moreover, this technique would be borrowed by later composers such as Berlioz in his Harold en Italie.

The second ‘movement’ from bars 331-594 is a scherzo. As such the “inner symphony” follows the formal design of the symphony as a whole, with the scherzo being placed prior to the slow movement.

Musically, the scherzo starts off with a Turkish March in B flat, with the triviality of this music standing in contrast with Schiller’s more religiously-based verse:

            Brothers, go on your way as glad as the stars as they hurtle

                Through the heavens, as joyful as a hero on his way to triumph.

Later, Beethoven develops a purely instrumental fugue before closing the section with a tutti treatment of the Freude music in which the chorus is used to full effect: 

The third ‘movement’ from bars 595-654 is a slow movement in G major. Even more than the other ‘movements’, the third is decidedly choral in nature and sounds very much like church music, particularly where the chorus asks:

           

Do you fall to your knees, you millions? World, do you sense your Maker?

            Seek him beyond the stars! Beyond the stars he must dwell!

This has to be amongst the most sublime moments in all of music:

 

The final ‘movement’ from bars 655-940 opens with a quodlibet in which the Freude and Seid umschlungen, Millionen themes are contrapuntally combined. This section has the loose, joyous and exuberant feel of a finale and we get the sense that the work will shortly come to an end.

 

 

It is important to note some of the tools which Beethoven used to achieve this structural double function. The most obvious one is the use of variation form, based on the Freude theme, almost throughout the entire movement. By using this technique, Beethoven creates the expectation of contrast in the minds of the listener and prepares them for textual and tempo changes. Moreover, the use of thematic transformation to provide continuity between movements would influence the next generation of composers, such as Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasy and in the works of Liszt more generally.

Some commentators have argued that the last movement of the Ninth serves not only a double function but also a triple function. They argue that the finale also follows a sonata-allegro design, more specifically that of a classical concerto. Thus, the instrumental and vocal recitative sections form a double exposition, the B flat Turkish March is the second key area, the instrumental fugue forms the development section and the move to D major at the Freude chorus marks the start of the recapitulation.

While this interpretation is quite plausible up the development section, it runs into serious problems at the so-called recapitulation. The most obvious issue is that the section simply does not fulfil the requirements of a recapitulation. Indeed the treatment of the Freude theme as its opening is the last time we hear the ultimate manifestation of the theme, despite the work being only two thirds of the way through. Another issue is that the sonata interpretation does not account for the presence of a new theme – seid umschlungen, Millionen – and key area (G major) in the recapitulation. Indeed, the addition of new material to a section typically devoted to summing up is fatal to the sonata interpretation of the movement.

Although there is no triple function to the form, the presence of a double function has been hugely influential. Indeed many composers have taken up this design, with notable examples including Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, Strauss’s Don Juan and Schoenberg’s First Chamber Symphony.

Conclusion

The finale of the Ninth Symphony was a major turning point in 19^th century music. In this piece, Beethoven added a vocal element to a previously instrumental genre and in doing so set the dividing line for a debate on the merits of programme and absolute music that would consume the Romantic generation. Moreover his experimentation with a double function structure, in which the finale becomes a “symphony within a symphony”, would provide a blue-print for future composers to experiment with symphonic and sonata form.  

Beethoven’s Ninth means so many things to so many different people. However it also marked a turning point for the composer, who returned to the enlightenment ideals of his youth with the proclamation (in Schiller’s words) that “all men become brothers" when reunited by the magic power of Joy.