Beethoven's 9th - Ode to Joy

- [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided in part by Alan G. Benaroya, and Martin Messinger Symphony Orchestra Fund.

(orchestra music) (music) - It is a piece of extremes.

- It's a life changing experience.

- It's truly magical.

- Feeling this joy and celebration.

- Come and march forward victoriously.

- An important message behind the symphony is definitely hope and unity.

- It's just such an incredible experience of sound, and joy, and movement.

- There's so much drama.

- The spark, the divine spark that we are looking for, and that we find in humanity.

(orchestra music) (music) - When we think about who the greatest composers of the past were, Beethoven's name always comes up without question.

Throughout Beethoven's life, he was always interested in the advancement of humanity.

- There are so many lessons in Beethoven.

First of all, he was living through a time where the world was going from city states into larger empires.

Napoleon was a hero to him, and then he was a villain.

He was a very thoughtful person going through all this time of change.

And through it all, you know, music was his compass, and he worked so hard, he labored over his music to make it exactly the statement he wanted to make.

- Beethoven's 9th is a challenging work, because of the musical journey one has to take, both as a listener and as a performer.

- Just to make contact with this incredible work of art, it's really transformative.

- This is really what music making is about, there's so much that's just a great example of art for the sake of art.

- From the time Beethoven was a very young man, he had a passion for humanity, a passion for equality, a passion for freedom, joy, love, respect.

- It's interesting that 200 years ago, Beethoven was concerned with the same thing we're concerned with now.

Democracy is fragile, it's never to be taken for granted.

It's to be treasured, and it's to be always aspired to.

- Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770.

Once it was discovered that he had this great musical talent, it was decided that he had to go to Vienna to study with Mozart and Haydn.

And he spent the rest of his life living in and around Vienna, and he died there in 1827, a great cultural icon for all of Europe.

Beethoven one wrote nine symphonies.

The first was in 1800, the eighth was in 1813, but then it was 11 years before the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, May 7th, 1824.

- Beethoven was going deaf, struggling with his identity as a musician, and very much wanted to sort of find a path forward, a meaning, a reason to live.

- I think one of the things that makes Beethoven 9 so fitting is he wrote this during the time when he was most losing his hearing, and in a time that was so dark for him, his response was to write a piece all about joy.

- Yes, there is that message of mankind and brotherhood, but I feel that it's more of a personal, getting out of depression, moving towards that light.

- Kind of the search for happiness and the search for joy, and the journey you go through to reach it.

- He talks about wanting to have one moment of pure joy, wanting to have one moment of freude.

- So in our modern world, when we're experiencing our own darkness in the world, he's reminding us always, look for the joy.

- This is a lone symphony and it has a path, and it has a musical journey and a story to tell.

- The 9th Symphony was put on by Beethoven himself.

And of course, Beethoven wanted a large orchestra, wanted great soloists, wanted a large chorus.

In fact, the Beethoven 9th Symphony orchestra size is just about identical to what we are hearing today here with the Frost Symphony Orchestra.

The chorus size for the premiere was 80 to a hundred, about the same size we are using.

The remarkable thing was they only had two rehearsals.

- One of the things you need to prepare a choir to do is to be visually expressive, to understand and commit fully to the text, to sing the text in a way that it cuts through the forces of the orchestra.

- Can you imagine?

This monumental piece, new in so many ways, and so difficult to play with only two rehearsals.

But it had a long gestation period.

He was really enamored of this ode of Schiller's, "Ode to Joy," and he started thinking about setting it as a vocal work at the end of the 18th century.

He loved the sentiment, the sentiment of freedom, the sentiment of joy, the sentiment of happiness, the sentiment against war, and in favor of people getting along, humanity working together for the future of us all.

Beethoven was the first of having a choral symphony.

It was a symphony with a chorus, soloists, and the last movement.

- The text is from this poem by Schiller.

They call it almost like an essay in secular religion, meaning that it isn't necessarily specifically religious, but it is very much about looking into the heavens, to the stars.

- The text is all about brotherhood, about mankind, and those are all enlightenment ideals that Beethoven cherished.

- It's high and loud a lot of the time.

- I think often the first impression for singers on the Beethoven music is that it's very angular, it's got crazy leaps and it can be hard on the voice.

But for me, when I embraced using my entire voice and singing with power, it started to really soar, and it became a lot more comfortable, and then joyful to sing.

- So we don't really know why he wrote the vocal lines the way he did, other than to just express the absolute utmost joy.

I mean, they are singing at the highest loudest parts of their range much of the time.

And we think this is just Beethoven just exploding with everything that he wanted his music to be.

- Even at its premier, he really couldn't hear what was going on on the stage, even though he was on the stage.

When it was over, and it was this tumultuous applause, people went crazy.

He didn't know he was facing the orchestra, and the applause was behind him.

The symphony is cast in four movements.

The first movement begins in a very mysterious way.

It's very soft.

You have two horns playing an open fifth.

When we have an open fifth, what's missing?

The third.

The third is the designation of whether it's a major chord, or a minor chord.

Basically what Beethoven is saying is you have no idea what's coming next, and it builds , and it builds, and it gets louder, and it gets thicker, to the first big climax, which is the fact, the first theme of this great symphony.

(orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) It is like this little line that begins, and it opens up to be this huge mountain of sad, then went back to the line again.

And he varies this kind of texture throughout the whole movement.

Then he has what we call the development section.

Whereby he uses his imagination to do all kinds of things.

He has a fugue, which is different voices coming in with the same material, with secondary voices, are playing, other...

I mean, it's a very complicated form.

(orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) He does it with great excitement, eventually bringing back the original material.

Then comes the end, I think of it as being a funeral march, many other people do as well, where it's becomes almost static.

And you close your eyes and wonder what is going on in his mind?

(orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) And then it builds, and builds, like everything else in this movement does, until the restatement of the original theme comes, and that's how the movement ends.

(orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) The second movement is a scherzo.

What's amazing to all of us is, one of the voices that plays this introduction, the theme of this introduction is the timpani.

How many times have you heard the timpani playing the melody?

(orchestra music playing) First, the second violins come in.

Then the violas come in.

Then the cellos come in.

Then the first violins come in, and then the basses come in.

And so now you have this five-part fugue.

(orchestra music playing) (music) (music) And it erupts into what becomes the second theme.

(orchestra music playing) When we get to the trio, it's complete change of mood.

It's a beautiful little simple melody played in the oboe.

The bassoons are plucking along with short note, then this oboe is playing this beautiful melody, then the strings come in with a beautiful melody.

(oboes playing) (strings playing) Then the horn comes in.

(french horn playing) It's just a complete contrast to the demonic opening.

And then of course, what happens next?

We go back to the beginning.

So we have this three part form, and we go back, and do the opening scherzo again.

Next comes third movement, the Adagio.

(music) Beethoven writes a gorgeous melody in his third movement.

(orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) About quarter of the way through, it goes to, uh, another melody, started by the seconds and the violas.

And we go back and forth between these two melodies.

There's also a dramatic moment in this movement.

Through the first entrance of the trumpets and the timpani, they just change the whole mood, and make it powerful.

(trumpets and timpani playing) And then at the end of the movement it's just a very calm, beautiful moment.

(music fades) Now we begin the last movement.

This is the most famous of the four.

- It's everything that Beethoven wanted to say, I think in this final movement of the symphony.

- It begins in the most startling way.

(orchestra music playing) There are two chords being played simultaneously, which create a moment of ugliness to begin this.

Boy is that startling!

I don't care if you've heard the piece a hundred times, it is so powerful a moment.

And what happens next?

Well, next comes in, a recitativo for cellos and basses.

It's a very wonderful, powerful moment.

And what happens now is, Beethoven introduces each movement.

So then the first movement comes in.

(music) A few bars, a few moments, and then there's another little recitativo of the cello bass.

Then oh, the scherzo comes in, played by the woodwinds.

(orchestra woodwinds playing) And then another recitativo.

And then the slow movement comes in, again, played mostly by the woodwinds and horns.

(orchestra music playing) And then another recitativo.

Then he brings in the theme, the "Ode to Joy" theme, played by the woodwinds.

- And then suddenly the cellos and basses interrupt them and cut them off.

And then in true fashion, of course, we take over the melody ourselves.

(orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) - And you have the last recitativo, triumphant recitativo, played by the cellos and the basses, and then are two chords, and then the last movement begins in a sense with the great theme, the "Ode to Joy" theme.

- It's very kind of haunting, right?

It's coming from the distance.

And then when that melody's introduced, Beethoven interweaves this great melody from the bassoons, that syncopated.

(orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) - When the joy melody is first played by the orchestra, the bassoon duet comes on later and creates this beautiful floating texture above the music.

- Then the violins come in, and they make a big crescendo, until the full orchestra plays this theme.

Then Beethoven abruptly stops.

What's going on now?

And then, the horrific chord comes in again, and the recitativo begins again.

But this time, the recitativo is sung by the bass voice.

(soloist singing recitativo) (soloist singing recitativo) - It's actually Beethoven that says this.

"Oh, friends, not these tones.

Let us hear a more joyful noise."

And it's this beautiful proclamation that really is a beautiful presence in the entire movement.

- He begins, joy, and the chorus responds joy, joy.

And then the bass sings the first time the whole melody.

(choir singing) - And so he says joyful and the tenors and basses, just seeing it their loudest way in unison, "freude," which means joy, joyful.

And it's this idea that even in this darkness and everything and going on in the world, we need to remember to have joy.

- It's beautiful to hear the orchestra throughout the first three movements of the piece, and then to be a member of the chorus, jumping in in the fourth movement, singing about joy, love, peace, and brotherhood, that brings humanity together.

- It's a very connecting moment, and I feel very, very blessed to be having this moment with everyone - And we're all listening to each other and trying to create something that's really just beautiful.

- The spark, the divine spark that we, that we are looking for, and that we find in humanity.

- And there's a line about, you know, anyone who has found their friend, or found their bride, that person is welcome to celebrate, and be together in unity.

- Talking about the kisses of the divine that all the creatures will eventually experience.

And Beethoven has a way of saying yes, both the joy and the just should experience joy, but also the evil and the unjust.

But then he even goes to say the wurm, the worm, the lowliest creature on earth can even experience the divine nectar of the grapes.

To talk about really in this utopia world of the Beethoven 9, that all deserve joy, and we should all experience that same kind of divine joy.

- In some ways, the most unusual variation is the one which is a tenor solo.

It is the military march.

- After this big orchestral climax, then there's a big silence where the bassoons come in with this little march, and it comes with a very playful little melody, and feel on top that brings the second wave of energy to the orchestra and the audience.

- So we have the Turkish instruments, the triangle, the cymbals, and the bass drum.

And we have a Turkish march, and it's played by piccolo, percussion, one trumpet, and then the horns, and then it starts to build, and then the tenor comes in with his great aria.

(soloist singing) (soloist singing) - I call all of my spiritual brothers to come and march forward Victoriously.

- Next comes this extraordinary section for the orchestra alone, which is again, like a big conversation among all the instruments, it's a fugue, but the second violin, the cello start with the conversation, then the second vi... then the fir... Everybody has their turn until it comes to a quiet, peaceful conclusion, and then (psew!

)the whole chorus and orchestra play the theme yet again, full voice.

It is breathtakingly beautiful.

(choir singing) (choir singing) - When the choir comes in with the main theme, it's just, it's almost a religious experience - Despite any differences that humans have, the overriding thing is that they're humans, they have a common source.

And in Beethoven's view, that source is God.

We talk about God in the heaven above the stars, and how that love from God unites all humans.

- Everybody, humanity, bruder, we are all singing this.

And so the altos come in first for this really strong, "Come, listen, millions what we're doing," while the Sopranos sing that joy melody.

And then each of the various parts have that, those text at different times.

And so you just get kind of a firework effect of these two ideas of, yes, have joy, but this joy belongs to everybody.

- It can be just so thrilling.

And it's interesting to think Beethoven couldn't even probably hear it except in his own musical ears.

- And again, at the very end, just when you think it's gonna be over, the chorus holds back again, and there's a short buildup to have this incredibly phenomenal ending.

(orchestra playing, music builds) (orchestra playing, choir joins) - And I feel like it's, in a way, a unity of this higher power and the common people, and coming together and feeling this joy and celebration.

- Nothing ends as magnificently as this Ninth Symphony, thrilling for everyone and everyone in the audience.

- And so it really is just this completely human response to his own struggle and his own desire to, you know, to be relevant and to find that joy in the things that he cared most about.

- I think one of the things that makes the Ninth Symphony so recognizable is that it's relatable to almost every human.

- And it feels just like a big love fest the whole time you're doing this symphony.

- To do unto others that what you would like to do unto you.

It is our foundation of how we wish the world would be.

- The power and the beauty is letting it all come together, letting this freedom happen with the power, and not dimming your light, but letting it shine through that music.

- You know, the "Ode to Joy" that concludes the symphony is a world anthem of unity.

Something fairly important.

And that's what music does best.

I call music the mortar of humanity.

- It is the most beautiful, the most glorious, the most extraordinary music.

And it changed the world of music forever.

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(thunderous applause) (standing ovation) (standing ovation) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) (orchestra music playing) - [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided in part by Alan G. Benaroya, and Martin Messinger Symphony Orchestra Fund.

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