Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ was written in 1823 - and took Beethoven 30 years to write. This year is its 200 anniversary. The last choral section was based on a Fredrich Schillers poem 1785. By then aged 55, Beethoven was deaf. 'We wanted to erase inequality.'
Beethoven Ninth symphony premiered in Vienna – not only for the elites, but for all people. He cut ticket prices. The chorus rises, evoking revolution – that all people will be brothers.
Amid calls for Reform in turbulent times of Revolutions. Burns A Mans a Man, or Tom Paine’s
The music has been a rallying cry for social reformers - from Karl Marx, to Hitler to Stalin.
"Ode to Joy"
(literally "To the Joy") is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright, and historian
Fredrich Schiller and published the following year in Thalia. A slightly revised version appeared in 1808, changing two lines of the first and omitting the last stanza.
"Ode to Joy" is best known for its use by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final (fourth) movement of his Ninth symphony, completed in 1824 and premiered in Vienna. Beethoven’s text is not based entirely on Schiller's poem, and it introduces a few new sections. His tune (but not Schiller's words) was adopted as the Anthem by the council fo Europe. of Europe in 1972 and subsequently by the EU.
