It is Beethoven's long-cherished wish to turn Schiller's poem Ode to Joy into a vocal symphony to express his ideal of peace, freedom, equality and universal love for mankind. In order to realize this grand idea, after a long period of brewing, he finally creatively wrote Ode to Joy into the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony in the form of chorus. This is the most brilliant part of this symphony and the peak of the development of Beethoven's symphony.
The first movement is solemn allegro in D minor, in 2/4 beat, sonata form. The first theme is stern and powerful, showing the image of hard struggle, full of great shock and tragic color. At first, the theme was played by the string part in a low and depressing atmosphere, and then gradually strengthened until the whole band played all the themes with dignity and strength. As soon as the composer came up, he expressed the ideological source of the whole work with serious and grand momentum. In fact, this is the theme repeatedly expressed by Beethoven in many works-struggle, which also reflects the inevitable process of struggle-hardship. Melody ups and downs, sometimes depressed, sometimes tragic, we seem to see the warriors constantly hitting the barrier, going forward, looking forward to victory.
The next second movement is usually an adagio version according to tradition, but Beethoven broke this convention and used an extremely lively allegro in D minor, with 3/4 beats, and it was a huge scherzo style. The theme of the whole second movement is distinct, exciting and full of motivation, which seems to give positive encouragement to the warriors who are fighting, and it seems that people can see the warm sunshine and blue sky on the cloudy battlefield at once. At the same time, the main theme has the characteristics of the Austrian folk dance "Liandele", which is harmonious and dancing. But after careful taste, it is not difficult to find that at the end of the movement, the melody began to rush again, vaguely revealing a very uneasy atmosphere.
The third movement is adagio, such as adagio, B flat major, 4/4 time, irregular variations and so on. It can be seen that Beethoven is deliberately innovative in arrangement. Compared with the first two movements, this movement is much quieter and more serene. Although the melody is gentle, it is feminine. Berlioz, a famous French composer and music critic, rated this movement as "a great movement". There are two themes in the third movement. The first theme is full of meditation and has strong lyricism and philosophy. After the first two movements show fierce fighting scenes, the third movement seems to be a brief calm in the war.
The fourth movement is the essence of the whole work, Allegro, D major, 4/4 beat. It is usually divided into two parts-prologue and voice. In some records, the fourth movement occupies one track, and in some records, the overture and vocal solo, duet and chorus are divided into two tracks, but in fact, both of them belong to the whole of the fourth movement. Among them, the vocal part sang the poem "Ode to Joy" by German poet Schiller!
However, before the vocal part came on stage, music experienced a long painful experience in instrumental part, which included memories of the first three movements. This overture is powerful, resolute and thrilling. Then the woodwind slowly leads to the theme of Ode to Joy, as if a ray of sunshine broke through the dense clouds and sprinkled on the earth, and the whole happy theme gradually kicked off, and Beethoven's real ideal kingdom was just around the corner! This movement is the summary of the whole symphony, that is, the first three movements are "seeking freedom and joy through struggle and thinking", and this movement is the conclusion that "struggle has won, joy has overcome suffering", which is also the summary of the author's life. "Hundreds of millions of people unite" is the central idea of this movement.
At the beginning of the movement, there was a storm of trumpets. This is an introduction. The sound is loud and magnificent, impacting like a raging tide. Wagner called it "the terrible trumpet sound". But it was immediately denied by the recitation of cello and double bass: "no, it will remind us of the past suffering." Today is a day of victory, and we should celebrate it with songs and dances. " It turned out that Beethoven's idea was to add human voices to this recitative, but later he felt that the timing was wrong and pushed back the lyrics. However, the lyrics left in these manuscripts help us understand Beethoven's thoughts.
Then, the themes of the first three movements are reproduced one by one, and played one by one by a recitative. After the introduction theme of the first movement appeared, the bass instrument replied, "Oh, no, I don't want this, I want something more enjoyable"; Then the wind music blew out the theme of the scherzo in the second movement, which was immediately rejected: "Don't do this either, it's just a joke, it's better and nobler"; So the wind music played the adagio theme of the third movement again, and the answer was still not satisfied: "This is still the same, too exquisite. We must find something powerful. I think, let me sing it for you. But please answer me. "
Finally, the woodwind instrument flashed a fragment of the theme of Ode to Joy, and finally affirmed: "Yes, I finally found it", which is the realm that Beethoven pursued all his life. At this time, from the depths of the band, as if from a distance, a simple melody sung by cello and double bass came slowly, and the main part of the movement began.
This is the whole picture of the theme of Ode to Joy. It was first displayed without any accompaniment, and then the viola and violin were gradually added. This happy theme was repeated over and over again, and the voice gradually increased and the momentum became bigger and bigger until it developed into the climax of the band's full performance. Suddenly, the "terrible horn" sounded again, and the voice responded to it. First of all, the solo baritone kicked off the vocal music and sang the lyrics of Beethoven's recitative: "Oh, my friend, don't repeat the same old tune, let's sing something more beautiful and joyful!" Then, the baritone solo sang Ode to Joy.
In the later development, Schiller's Ode to Joy was sung in the form of solo, duet and chorus. Every time the theme of music appears, there are different image changes, such as majestic March style, heroic tenor solo, solemn chant melody ... and then, it becomes a fast March, from a happy theme to a lively and enthusiastic March. More and more enthusiastic marches push music to another climax. After that, a huge duet fugue with the theme of "Millions of people unite" appeared in the form of an interlude.
This theme is played with trombone first, then sung in chorus, and then constitutes a double fugue with joy as the theme. Finally, with a strong and jubilant ending, the movement will be pushed to a climax, ending the whole song.