Until the very last moment, he was on the point of putting off the Ode to Joy to a Tenth or Eleventh Symphony. One ought to notice that the Ninth Symphony is not entitled Choral Symphony, as it is now invariably called, but Symphony with a Final Chorus on the Ode to Joy. It narrowly missed having another conclusion. In July, 1823, Beethoven still thought of giving it an instrumental finale, which he used later on for the quartet Op: 132. Both Czerny and Sonnleithner say that even after the performance in May, 1824, Beethoven had not abandoned this idea.
He found great technical difficulties in introducing the Chorus into the Symphony, as is shown by Beethoven's note-books and his numerous attempts to make the voices enter at another part of the work and in a different manner. In the sketches for the second subject of the Adagio[1] he wrote Perhaps the Chorus could enter conveniently here." But he could not decide to part from his faithful orchestra. "When an idea comes to me," he said, "I hear it on an instrument, never on a voice." So he put back the place for employing voices as late as possible. At first he wanted to give the instruments not only the recitatives of the Finale[2] but even the Theme of Joy itself.
But we must go still further into the reason of these hesitations and delays. The explanation is
