A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Choral Symphony
CHORAL SYMPHONY. The ordinary English title for Beethoven's 9th Symphony (op. 125) in D minor, the Finale of which is a chain of variations for solos and chorus. Fr. 'Symphonie avec Choeurs.' Beethoven's own title is 'Sinfonie mit Schluss-Chor über Schiller's Ode An die Freude.' The idea of composing Schiller's Ode to Joy 'verse by verse,' occurred to Beethoven as early as 1792 (see p. 166 a); but no traces remain of music to it at that date. In 1811 we find a sketch for an 'Ouverture Schiller,' with the opening words of the ode set to notes (Thayer, Chr. Verz. no. 238), but no further mention of it has been discovered till 1822. The first allusion to the Symphony in D minor is as the third of three which he projected while writing nos. 7 and 8 in 1812 (p. 186 b). The first practical beginning was made in 1817, when large portions of the first movement and the Scherzo are found in the sketch-books. The Finale was settled to be choral, but Schiller's Ode is not named till after the revival of Fidelio, in Nov. 1822. It then appears in the sketch-books. After inventing with infinite pains and repetitions the melody of the Finale, and apparently the variations, a mode had to be discovered of connecting them with the three preceding movements. The task was one of very great difficulty. The first solution of it was to make the bass voice sing a recitative, 'Let us sing the song of the immortal Schiller.' This was afterwards changed to 'friends not these tones' (i. e. not the tremendous discords of the Presto 3-4—which follows the Adagio—and of the Allegro assai), 'Let us sing something pleasanter and fuller of joy,' and this is immediately followed by the Chorus 'Freude, Freude.' The whole of this process of hesitation and invention and final success is depicted in the most unmistakeable manner in the music which now intervenes between the Adagio and the choral portion of the work, to which the reader must be referred.
The Symphony was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society (Nov. 10, 1822), for £50, and they have a MS. with an autograph inscription, 'Grosse Sinfonie geschrieben fur die Philharmonische Gesellschaft in London von Ludwig van Beethoven.' But it was performed in Vienna long before it reached the Society, and the printed score is dedicated (by Beethoven) to Frederic William III, King of Prussia. The autograph of the first 3 movements is at Berlin, with a copy of the whole carefully corrected by Beethoven.
The first performance took place at the Kärnthnerthor Theatre, May 7,1824. First performance in London, by the Philharmonic Society, March 21, 1825. At the Paris Conservatoire it was played twice, in 1832 and 34, half at the beginning and half at the end of a concert. At Leipzig, on March 6, 1826, it was played from the parts alone; the conductor having never seen the score!