Part 3: Beethoven Shares his Creative Method with the World

DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (April 23, 2020)

The Ninth Symphony

Part 3: Beethoven Shares his Creative Method with the World

A great work of art is almost always presented to the world as a finished product. We admire the artist for his or her creativity, but what their actual creative discoveries were, is something that usually cannot be shared with us.

Beethoven knew that he would have to doing something very unusual in this symphony, for all of the reasons discussed in parts 1 and 2. It did not require discoveries of the every-day sort, but creative breakthroughs. His aide-de camp, Anton Schindler remarked:

“When he reached the development of his fourth movement, there began a struggle such as is seldom seen. The object was to find a proper manner of introducing Schiller's Ode. One day, entering the room, he exclaimed 'I have it! I have it!'”

Why did Beethoven struggle so hard to find the proper manner of introducing the Ode to Joy? We believe that he wished to share his method of creative discovery with the entire world. As a section of the “Ode to Joy” marked 'chorus', says:

Seid umschlungen Millionen,

Diesen kuss der ganzen welt.

(We embrace thee, O ye millions',

This kiss is for all the world.)

One might expect the 4th movement to simply commence with the “Ode to Joy”. Put yourselves in the mindset of the audience at the world premier in 1825. They had been sitting listening for just short of an hour, and the chorus was patiently waiting to sing. They expected a resolution. Beethoven, however, was not going to simply give them the “Ode to Joy”; he would have them share in its discovery-its genesis! That is part of the joy!

The movement opens with a loud, dissonant fanfare by the entire orchestra, followed by the cellos and double basses playing a frantic single line of music, which almost sounds as if they were talking to us.

In fact, they are!

Beethoven instructed this section to be played “Selon le charactere d'un recitative, mais en tempo (According to the character of a recitative, but in tempo)”. A recitative in opera often has an unsettled, urgent quality to it; and it occurs when the singers are either speaking, or part-speaking and part-singing.

Beethoven did not write words for those recitative-like sections in the finished work, but he did in his sketch books. It shows that Beethoven begins in a state of profound crisis. It's a personal crisis for Beethoven as he asks himself how he can accomplish the task of setting Schiller's poem in such a way, that the music itself awakens the kind of joy that the poem does? How does he find something higher than what he has done up to now? He wrote in one sketch: “These raucous sounds will not do!”

Though his sketches can be difficult to decipher, some 19th century sleuths did an excellent job in making their meaning clear. Rather than describing them in one place, and playing the music in another, we put together this short 3-minute video, which matches them clearly.

Those who do not know the entire symphony are at a bit of a disadvantage. His short quotes from each of the first three movements will not unleash the spring of memories in you that they should. We hope that as you come to know the entire symphony, the richness of this introduction will grow for you. Even so, it is powerful.

The composer, Richard Wagner, once said that Beethoven was rejecting each of his previous movements in the opening of the fourth. That is not true! He composed them in order to lead up to the 4th movement. All first three movements are beautiful. But Beethoven is showing us how to surpass what we thought was even the highest beauty. He had to find a new level of humanity!

As you see, he walks us through that discovery in his sketchbook!

We also include this video of the fourth movement where you may follow the score!

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