The Friday Classical Musical Interlude – Beethoven, Symphony No.9, Fourth Movement.

The final movement of the Beethoven’s 9th has recently been released by Stephan Malinowski.  Catch the third movement here.

Presto; Allegro molto assai (Alla marcia); Andante maestoso; Allegro energico, sempre ben marcato. Duration approx. 24 mins.

The famous choral finale is Beethoven’s musical representation of Universal Brotherhood. American pianist and music author Charles Rosen has characterized it as a symphony within a symphony, the view which will be followed below. It is important to note that many other writers have interpreted its form in different terms, including two of the greatest analysts of the twentieth century, Heinrich Schenker and Donald Tovey. In Rosen’s view, it contains four movements played without interruption.^[11] This “inner symphony” follows the same overall pattern as the Ninth Symphony as a whole. The scheme is as follows:

• First “movement”: theme and variations with slow introduction. Main theme which first appears in the cellos and basses is later “recapitulated” with voices.
• Second “movement”: 6/8 scherzo in military style (begins at “Alla marcia,” words “Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen”), in the “Turkish style“. Concludes with 6/8 variation of the main theme with chorus.
• Third “movement”: slow meditation with a new theme on the text “Seid umschlungen, Millionen!” (begins at “Andante maestoso”)
• Fourth “movement”: fugato finale on the themes of the first and third “movements” (begins at “Allegro energico”)

The movement has a thematic unity, in which every part may be shown to be based on either the main theme, the “Seid umschlungen” theme, or some combination of the two.

The first “movement within a movement” itself is organized into sections:

• An introduction, which starts with a stormy Presto passage. It then briefly quotes all three of the previous movements in order, each dismissed by the cellos and basses which then play in an instrumental foreshadowing of the vocal recitative. At the introduction of the main theme, the cellos and basses take it up and play it through.
• The main theme forms the basis of a series of variations for orchestra alone.
• The introduction is then repeated from the Presto passage, this time with the bass soloist singing the recitatives previously suggested by cellos and basses.
• The main theme again undergoes variations, this time for vocal soloists and chorus.

Vocal parts

Those words written specifically by Beethoven (rather than Schiller) are shown in italics.

The full libretto including repetitions can be found on German Wikisource.^[13]

In the near ending, it is, “Freude, Tochter aus Elysium“, and also in the near ending, “Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!“, is omitted, then the choir sings the last four lines of the main theme, where they stop at, “Alle Menschen“, before the slow part when the soloists sing for one last time the song of joy.

In the ending climax, the chorus softens quietly on the word “Götterfunken“. Then, the orchestra descends chords in arpeggio form, and in slow maestoso tempo, the full chorus sings, “Tochter aus Elysium, Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Götterfunken!”.^[13] The symphony ends with the orchestra playing the final section in prestissimo tempo.

The vocal part of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony thus ends with the final word^[13] “Götterfunken” (literally, “spark of the gods”)