Thursday, December 10, 2020

In Admiration of Beethoven and His Ninth Symphony

The great musical genius Ludwig van Beethoven was born 250 years ago this month. Although I made a blog post about Beethoven in 2017, I am writing about him again and especially about his marvelous Ninth Symphony.

Here is the image of his portrait that Joseph Karl Stieler painted 200 years ago, in 1820, when Beethoven was 50 years old: 

Composing the Ninth

Beethoven’s compositions consist of 722 works written over forty-five years, from his earliest work in 1782, when he was only twelve years old, until his last work just before his death in Vienna in 1827.

Beginning with Symphony No. 1, which was first performed in 1800, Beethoven composed nine symphonies. He composed No. 9, also called the “Choral” Symphony, between 1822 and 1824.

His Ninth Symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as Beethoven's greatest work and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music.

One amazing aspect of Beethoven’s composing the Ninth Symphony is that he was completely deaf during that time. He began to lose his hearing when he was still in his early 30s, and by 1815 he was totally deaf.

How one of the world’s greatest composers could write his greatest work, a complete four-part symphony, while being totally deaf is almost beyond comprehension.

Performing the Ninth

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 was first performed in Vienna in 1824, and since then it has been one of the most performed symphonies in the world.

At that initial performance, it seems that Beethoven was not the main conductor, but he was on the stage facing the orchestra. When the performance concluded, the contralto went over to Beethoven and turned him toward the loudly cheering audience whom he could not hear.

The Ninth is still being performed by premier orchestras around the world—and a number of those performances are, happily, available on YouTube.

In preparation for writing this article, I listened to the performances of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO, here), which has been viewed over 25,600,000 times since 2015, and the (audio only) London Symphony Orchestra (here), accessed an inexplicable 106 million times since 2010.

There is a long tradition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony being performed in Japan since it was first introduced there by German prisoners during WWI. The CSO’s website reports that in 2016 the Ninth was performed 175 times in Japan.

In Osaka, there is now a 20-year-old tradition of performing Beethoven’s Ninth with 10,000 musicians! (Here is the link to the fourth movement of their 2012 performance.)

Enjoying the Ninth

It is the fourth movement of Symphony No. 9 that makes it so enjoyable to so many people. In that movement, Beethoven used Friedrich Schiller’s 1785 poem "Ode to Joy,” in which he enthusiastically celebrated the kinship and unity of all humankind.

That fourth movement later morphed into one of my very favorite hymns, “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee," the hymn text written by Henry van Dyke in 1907.

A year ago, there were plans for many performances of the Ninth in this 250th anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth, including a performance of “All Together: A Global Ode to Joy” in Carnegie Hall this month. But, alas, the covid-19 pandemic has caused cancellations of most performances.

Nevertheless, thanks to the Internet, we can enjoy the Ninth in the comfort (and safety) of our own homes this month—and there are lessons we can learn from Beethoven along with enjoying his exquisite music.

A year ago, before the beginning of the pandemic, Arthur C. Brooks wrote about a lesson we can all learn from Beethoven: “Deafness freed Beethoven as a composer because he no longer had society’s soundtrack in his ears. Perhaps therein lies a lesson for each of us.”

Further, an article in the Nov. 21 issue of The Economist points out that like the pandemic-hit celebrations of his 250th birthday this year, Beethoven’s career was a struggle against adversity. Yet, “Fate has amplified Beethoven’s voice not as a struggler, but as a healer.”

So this month (and later), let’s listen expectantly (and repeatedly) to Beethoven’s stirring Ninth Symphony and enjoy deeply the encouragement found there, finding joy and hope in spite of the solemn times in which we now live.


9 comments:

  1. The first comments received this morning were from Thinking Friend Andrew Bolton in England:

    "Yes, I love Beethoven’s Ninth!

    "The Joyful, Joyful fourth movement, is a hymn in our hymn book, 'Community of Christ Sings.'"

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  2. Thanks for your comments, Andrew -- and thanks for mentioning the hymn, which appears in the hymnals of most Christian communities of faith.

    I wrote about that hymn in my 2017 blog post on Beethoven (linked to in today's blog article), and it is on the list of my "top ten" favorite hymns.

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  3. Next, I received the following comments from Thinking Friend Dan O'Reagan in Louisiana:

    "Thanks, Leroy. I'll be 90 in a few days. One of the things I dearly miss is my 33 1/3 speed collection of classical music and Beethoven’s Ninth’s Symphony."

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  4. Yes, Dan, we also had quite a number of LP records that we enjoyed decades ago, including Beethoven's Ninth. But now on YouTube, we can not only listen to that wonderful music, we can also see it performed, which is even better.

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  5. Here are lengthy, and valuable, comments from local Thinking Friend Vern Barnet:

    "You did not say this, but many people have the impression that the Ninth Symphony is somehow the pinnacle of Beethoven's career, the capstone, the ultimate musical testament. This may be in part because many people think of the symphonic form when they think of classical music.

    "But most classical music is not symphonic. It is chamber music. And Beethoven's most moving and profound music is not his symphonies, as fantastic as they are (the 7th is my favorite). Particularly Beethoven's late piano sonatas and string quartets are musically and spiritually beyond the symphonies. The extraordinarily difficult Sonata 29, the "Hammerklavier," which in my opinion reaches utter sublimity in the third movement, although every movement (even the 2nd with its humor) is a miracle, and the last amazing fugal movement always offers new connections. I have over a dozen recordings of the sonata, and the elasticity of the third movement is itself amazing -- John O’Conner plays it in 14:44, and Edith Vogel's version at 23:53 is the longest.

    "Then the last five string quartets. For me, the greatest spiritually are the A minor (#15) and the C-sharp minor (#14). I doubt that I would be alive today except for these quartets. In my poverty as a college freshman, I bought a second-hand turn-table without a needle, found a short piece of copper tubing, and attached a cartridge with a needle. I played those quarters in my despondency and they gave me the strength to move ahead because I knew there was a way to transmute suffering into bliss. Compared to this, the Ninth is a supreme joyous human affirmation, but the quartets and sonatas are divine interventions of a wholly other order.

    "If you find this comment worthy, feel free to post it as I am eager for folks to take the trouble to explore some of the greatest music ever written and the most intimate revelations of holiness."

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Vern, for sharing your comments, which I certainly did immediately find worthy to post here.

      And while I didn't use the word "pinnacle," I did write, with heavy borrowing from reputable websites, "His Ninth Symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as Beethoven's greatest work and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music."

      What you wrote made me want to go back and listen to the 7th, which I have not heard for quite some time, and as I write this I am listening to the delightful "Hammerklavier" sonata.

      Thanks for sharing your personal "testimony" of the wonderful healing power of Beethoven's music, especially, in your case, the string quartets.

      At this particular time, I still am thrilled with the Ninth, as in your words, it is "a supreme joyous human affirmation."

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  6. Yesterday evening I received these comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:

    "Thanks, Leroy, for sharing your thoughts about Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony, deservedly regarded as one of the greatest symphonies ever written. I have enjoyed hearing it many times on electronic devices. I do not recall ever hearing it at a concert. The fact that Beethoven was deaf when he wrote the Ninth is testimony to the human spirit--and utterly amazing.

    "I also enjoy Beethoven's Third and Fifth symphonies, but my favorite is the Pastoral, or Sixth, Symphony, another masterpiece along with his famous concertos for violin and piano."

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  7. And just after noon, local Thinking Friend Temp Sparkman sent the following brief comments:

    "I’d forgotten about Beethoven’s deafness, but not the beauty of the Ninth. It is as you say 'almost beyond comprehension.' It demonstrates the connection between mind and sensation."

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  8. I had barely begun reading this blog when Beethoven's music began thundering in my memory. May he help us find a decent end to 2020, and a better tomorrow in 2021. Thank you for reminding us that not everything is shattered by hate. May both Beethoven's music and Schiller's words fill us all with "Ode to Joy."

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