# Understanding Beethoven's Ninth, Fourth Movement Finale



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Understanding Beethoven's Ninth

_*IV. Finale: Presto*_*

Form*

0:00~3:24 Introduction, Reminiscences (D minor->A minor->B-flat major)

3:24~6:24 Theme and variations (D major)
6:24~7:20 Transition (D major->D minor)
7:20~8:09 Bass recitative (D minor->D major)
8:09~10:28 Choir and soloists enter, theme and variations (D major)
10:28~11:00 Codetta (D major->B-flat major)

11:00~12:37 March, _Allegro assai vivace_ (B-flat major)
12:37~14:14 Fugato (B-flat major->B minor)
14:14~15:03 Theme with moto perpetuo accompaniment (D major)

15:03~18:45 "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!", _Andante maestoso_ (G major->F major->G minor)
18:45~20:10 Double fugue, _Allegro energetico_ (D major)
20:10~20:59 "Ihr sturtzt nieder, Millionen?" (unstable->D major->G major)

20:59~22:39 "Freude, tochter aus Elysium", _Allegro ma non tanto_ (D major)
22:39~23:51 Quartet cadenza (B major)
23:51~25:29 Coda, _Prestissimo_ (D major)

Many musicologists have attempted to explain this movement's overall structure. One of the most common of these explanations is that of the "symphony within a symphony". The "movements" of this would correspond to the four major section groupings given above, being a first movement theme and variations, scherzo, andante with inner fugue, and finale. In any event, the movement is almost entirely based around a single theme, the famous "Ode to Joy".

*Themes*

The "Ode to Joy" theme itself.









The secondary theme, "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!"









*Analysis*

The finale opens with a fortissimo clash on a chord that combines the most important keys of the symphony thus far, B-flat major and D minor. The winds play a jagged, leaping figure ending in a question. The lower strings respond "in the manner of a recitative", but this too ends hesitantly. Another clashing dissonance follows, this time combining D major and A diminished chords. The lower strings respond and the winds echo, leading to a reminiscence of the hushed anticipatory atmosphere of the first movement. Another recitative for the low strings is followed by a quotation from the scherzo. This too is rejected by the lower strings, and the opening chords of the adagio are next in line. Here the strings seem to agree, and respond in the same manner, but with an abrupt shift in key and mood they return to the jutting dotted figures from before. Now the winds play a new theme in D major, and although the lower strings interrupt, they continue the theme, leading to a full cadence.

This new theme is taken up by the lower strings and played in full, unaccompanied and _piano_. After they finish, the violas enter, playing the same theme accompanied by bassoons and basses. With each successive entry (next the violins, then the winds), the theme is enriched and decorated. With the entry of the winds and brass, the strings take up a leaping octave figure that recalls the texture of the first two movements. After the theme is played by the full orchestra, the strings respond with a continuation over upwards-rushing figures in the second violins and violas. A hesitant interjection from the woodwinds seems to drive the music towards E-flat minor, but the strings drive the tonality back towards D.

Against a timpani pedal, the entire orchestra now enters with a new clashing dissonance, once again ending in a question. The bass soloist now enters, singing the same recitative with which the lower strings had entered earlier. "O friends, not these sounds!" The woodwinds begin the theme, as before, and the soloist calls out "Joy", echoed by the basses of the choir. He now sings the theme, the "ode to joy", against a light texture of pizzicato strings, the dotted bass line now played above in the oboe and clarinet. The choir responds by repeating the second half of the theme in unison. A brief closing phrase from the full orchestra, and the whole quartet of soloists enters in a contrapuntal variation on the theme, the latter half of which is again echoed by the choir. The next stanza is set similarly, but in pairs of eighth notes against similarly phrased winds and string trills. The choir's response proceeds as before, but the line "und der cherub steht vor Gott", is immediately repeated in accented staccato half notes, leading to a fortissimo F major chord.

A march variation on the theme in B-flat major ensues, starting hesitantly at first in the bassoons, but at last playfully in the full wind section, given the characteristic "Turkish" coloring of bass drum and cymbal. Strings only enter to punctuate cadences. The tenor soloist enters with a new verse and a new melodic variation on the main theme. After one stanza, the men of the choir sing the second half together with a melismatic line from the tenor, now backed by the full orchestra. The dotted march rhythm of this melody is then taken up as a fugue subject, and the mood shifts as the running eighth notes come to dominate the increasingly strident texture. The tonality does not settle, and after excursions through flat keys, the orchestra moves into B minor, and a leaping tutti on the note F# brings the fugue to its close. Horns echo this F# in the dotted rhythm, and the winds play the opening of the theme, first in B major, then in B minor, then in D major, over a crescendo leading to a tutti statement of the theme against the running staccato eighths of the preceding section, with martial interjections from the winds and brass. A short tag brings the key into G major.

The men of the choir now intone a solemn new recitative-like theme, completely unharmonized at first, doubled only by trombones and low strings. The full orchestra and choir respond in a richly decorated variation. The orchestra falls away and the men sing again, this time leading into a response in F major. A quiet chorale for winds and lower strings indicates G minor, but the unstable harmony culminates in a long-held dissonance seemingly suspended in mid-air, with all instruments and singers in their highest registers, _pianissimo_.

A double fugue in D major on both of the themes ensues, the altos taking up the "Seid umschlungen" and the sopranos a 6/4 variation on the main "ode". The running eighth notes in the strings provide a third continuous element, if not quite a subject in itself. The section concludes in a blaze of _forte_ glory, but the key is destabilized once more as the basses of the choir take up a jumping, questioning motif, chromatic and without any harmonization. This passes to the tenors and the altos in turn, and then the full choir singing in unison. A full A major chord in the winds eases the tension, followed by a cadence on G major.

The upper strings quickly turn this back into D major, and the soloists sing a new variant motif on the words "Freude, tochter aus Elisium", the orchestra responds in kind, and this is repeated in A major. The whole quartet sing in polyphonic imitation, and the chorus enters, leading to a crescendo on the words "alle Menschen". The tempo suddenly slows to _adagio_ and the choir's song shifts from exuberance to grace, but this remains unfulfilled, and the winds burst in once more with a crescendo. Now the soloists interrupt the progress, and together with a shift in key to E major and then B major, each in turn takes up a melismatic line together with the others. They finish in B major, but this turns into B minor, and then into a questioning second inversion chord of D major as the bass moves from B down to A.

After a pause, this motion is echoed quietly in the first violins, and then the rest of the strings, as the tempo quickens bit by bit to _prestissimo_. The full orchestra, including percussion, bursts in, and the choir's exultation grows increasingly ecstatic. Rising and falling waves of eighth notes in strings lead to a final cadence and the symphony concludes in an explosion of D major.

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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Felt such joy reading this while listening to the Finale. I never knew the parts I liked the best were fugues!


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