Chapter 05 of 5
Ode to Joy
The Ninth Symphony's premiere, a famous moment of applause, and a tune the world adopted.
- The Idea
A poem for decades
For over 30 years Beethoven had wanted to set Friedrich Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy" to music.
- The Leap
Singers in a symphony
In his Ninth Symphony he finally did, adding soloists and a full choir to the final movement. Nothing like it had been done on this scale.
- The Message
All people as brothers
The poem celebrates joy and the hope that all people become brothers, a radical message of unity.
17 more cards in this chapter
Could you answer this?
What happened at the end of the Ninth Symphony's premiere?
🎹 The Composer Who Couldn't Hear
- 01The Boy from BonnA harsh father, a hard childhood, and a teenager who had to hold his family together.
- 02A Secret SilenceVienna's star pianist begins to go deaf, and tells almost no one.
- 03The Heiligenstadt TestamentA secret letter of despair, then the most defiant music he ever wrote.
- 04Conversation BooksA deaf genius, notebooks full of chatter, and a secretary who rewrote history.
- 05Ode to JoyThe Ninth Symphony's premiere, a famous moment of applause, and a tune the world adopted.