The symphony’s last movement, “Ode to Joy,” was a composition more than 30 years in the making. The inspiration for the famous number first struck Beethoven during his college days while studying the poetry of one of his favorite writers, Friedrich Schiller.
The culmination of Beethoven’s work, musical genius, and life’s philosophy all came to a crescendo on the night of May 7, 1824, when his final symphony premiered. Having lost his hearing some time before the number’s debut, it’s likely he never even heard what is considered to be a monumental work of Western classical music.
The Grand Mogul
Born in 1770 in the city of Bonn, Germany, Beethoven showed an early interest in music, particularly the piano. His father, Johann van Beethoven, was his first music teacher. The student soon outpaced his teacher, and the young Beethoven eventually moved to Vienna to pursue music professionally.
At the age of 21, he began studying under Joseph Haydn, one of classical music’s most revered composers. This relationship was exactly what the budding virtuoso needed, and soon he released a series of his own works including “Symphony No. 1,” written to honor his friend and mentor.
While the pianist impressed everyone with his formidable, precocious musical abilities, his passion behind the notes was equally as noteworthy to those he worked with. From piano technicians, he garnered the nickname “string breaker” because the young composer asked them many times to improve the resilience of the already sturdy instrument so he that couldn’t break it. Haydn once nicknamed him “the grand mogul” as a playful way to point out his confidence that bordered on hubris at times while commanding the keys.
At the age of 28, his work and presence among Vienna’s bustling classical music scene was equal to that of fellow historic composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Beethoven the Innovator
Doctors at the time could not diagnose why Beethoven was losing his hearing. Only now, with a DNA analysis of a lock of the late composer’s hair, do some suggest that prolonged exposure to lead could have had something to do with it. During Beethoven’s time, people often ate and drank from dinnerware containing lead because its toxic effects were yet unknown.
There was no doubt this impending deafness had a profound affect on him. He once described the gradual loss of his hearing as “fate’s hammer.” However, Beethoven’s indomitable will was stronger than fate. Instead of retreating from his life’s work due to his compromised hearing, the musician got creative and used his innovative skills to continue making music.
One of his inventions was a rudimentary bone conductor. The ingenious savant figured out that if he attached one end of a wooden rod to his piano and held the other end between his teeth, he could hear the notes he was playing on the keys as they vibrated within his head.
We have Beethoven to thank for the metronome as well. His loss of hearing inspired inventors to construct the physical timekeeping device to help him visualize time signatures and stay on beat.
Through his 30s and 40s, the innovative composer met every challenge with creativity, courage, and the loveable tenacity that so had impressed Haydn when Beethoven was just 21 years old. He produced a vast amount of work within this timeframe, including six symphonies and 72 individual numbers.
A History-Making Performance
While still a teen, Beethoven discovered Schiller’s poetry at the University of Bonn. A poet of the Romantic movement, Schiller’s enlightened ideals of freedom, beauty, and happiness resonated with Beethoven’s own lively spirit. One poem of his in particular, “Ode to Joy,” encompassed all of these values and acted as “a kiss for the whole world,” as Schiller once put it. The poem became an artistic ideal for Beethoven that guided him throughout the course of his career.
At 52, Beethoven began work on his ninth and final symphony. Officially honoring the poem that meant so much to him, he titled the last movement of his ninth symphony “Ode to Joy.” Featuring lines from Schiller’s poem, as well as some of Beethoven’s own lyrics, it would stand as a resounding tribute to the writer who had such an impact on his outlook on life, and his career.
“Symphony No. 9” was his biggest orchestral undertaking. To top it off, the production was the first symphony to include choral vocal parts.
By the time Beethoven began writing his ninth symphony in 1822, his hearing was almost completely gone. He heavily relied on memory of the sound of musical notes along with music theory to write each movement.
When the time came to premiere the work in 1824 at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, Beethoven insisted he conduct the orchestra. His colleagues hesitantly agreed, but they came up with a workaround. They added a co-conductor, Michael Umlauf. The orchestra and vocalists were instructed to follow only Umlauf’s direction during the performance.
The night of the debut, Beethoven conducted his “Symphony No. 9” to a packed house. Violinist Joseph Böhm later remarked the composer led the orchestra, “like a madman. At one moment he stretched to his full height, at the next he crouched down to the floor, he flailed about with his hands and feet as though he wanted to play all the instruments and sing all the chorus parts.”
As the musicians looked to the co-conductor for direction, Beethoven’s wild passion and unfettered enthusiasm deeply affected the audience. They applauded several times throughout the movements, unable to hold their praise until the end.
When the end finally did come, and the last choral notes of “Ode to Joy” echoed throughout the hall, the audience erupted in thunderous applause, with a total of five standing ovations.
Despite their cheers, Beethoven went on conducting, not realizing the performance was over. As handkerchiefs and hats were thrown to get his attention, a vocalist gently turned the composer around to see the result of his once-in-a-lifetime performance. With yet more rounds of applause, Beethoven needed no bone conductor that night to feel the captivated audience’s vibrations and understand what he and his fellow musicians had accomplished.
Beethoven’s music not only epitomized the Classical period, but his works like “Ode to Joy” represented the first sparks of music’s subsequent Romantic era. The freedom, beauty, and happiness people experience from Beethoven’s compositions continues today. “Ode to Joy” was adopted as one of Europe’s anthems in the 20th century, and “Symphony No. 9” remains one of the most performed symphonies around the globe.
