The 9th Symphony

Beethoven is one of the greatest musicians in the history. He had created countless incredible pieces of works. The 9^th Symphony is the last symphony that he created. After he had written 8^th Symphony, he did not present any new pieces for about ten years. By that time his hearing was gone, and people believed that he had reached his limits so he cannot create any other music. However, in 1824, he had finished 9^th Symphony. In the fourth movement of this symphony, it was combined with a chorus, An Die Freude, by Friedrich von Schiller. This chorus was written to praise love and harmony among all human beings. Nowadays, it is also used to symbolize world peace. When Beethoven was born in middle class family and in his twenties, he started loosing his hearing. As it became worse, he had fears about not being able to play music anymore. He even decided to commit suicide, but he could not commit it because of his passions for music. The music that was made after that incident was the 9^th Symphony. In 2002, this symphony was designated as the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. It is the very first music to be listed on the UNESCO.

            The main two themes of the 9^th Symphony are enlightment and fears. Nicholas Cook, an author, said, “Of all the works in the mainstream repertory of Western music, the Ninth Symphony seems the most like a construction of mirrors, reflecting and refracting the values, hopes, and fears of those who seek to understand and explain it.” Because Beethoven had lost his hearing when he was making this symphony, he had fears of creating music and hopes to finish making music successfully. Similarly, the chorus that was used in fourth movement in this symphony also symbolizes peace and harmony of human beings. At first, he was very afraid of creating the piece after he had realized that his hearing is gone. However, he had hopes that he could finish his piece well, and he finished it successfully. He was able to perform this music and it ended up being one of the most popular piece of work.

            I thought the 9^th Symphony was beautiful because it is unrealistic that he wrote this music piece without knowing how it sounds like. Because he lost his hearing in his twenties, he was not able to hear what it sounds like. The movements are very energetic and turbulent. The 9^th Symphony is one of the major pieces that combined human voice in a symphony setting. In addition, commonly the second movements are more soft and relaxing to make it contrast to the first movement. However, in this piece, it gets louder. In the fourth movement, the orchestra combines with the chorus, which amplifies the beauty of this music. It is one of the most popular classical music pieces in history. It is hard to appreciate it because of this fact, but it is still a beautiful piece. Also, I really liked how it combined with chorus in fourth movement. Since I play music in orchestra, I want to try to play this piece one day. I think the lyrics are very moving and I think that it maximizes the emotion. Because of these reasons, I believe that everyone should listen to and appreciate the piece.