Beefy Tones with at Beethoven's Symphony No 9
IV. Presto - Allegro Assai
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ("Choral")
I'm Ludwig van Beethoven, and I'm about to explain the IV. Presto - Allegro Assai movement of my Symphony No 9. You'll hear the finale begin in chaos, then watch the low strings recall the earlier movements and dismiss them, before the cellos and basses quietly offer the Joy theme, and that moment is worth your time. Learning to recognize our pieces the moment they start is something my fellow composers and I offer on this site, so when the music ends, why not test yourself in the Trainer ?
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Fasten Your Seatbelt, Then Loosen It Again
Before you press play, think of this movement as a conversation that starts with an argument and ends with a celebration. Listen first to the low strings, the cellos and basses, because they carry some of the most important moments, including the first appearance of the big tune. Then follow the voices, since this is where the soloists and the chorus join the orchestra, and nobody had put a human voice into a symphony before. Your only job is to notice who is speaking at each moment, and to hum along when the tune comes around, because it will.Two Tempos Walk Into a Finale
I gave this movement the title Presto - Allegro Assai because I wanted you to know before the first note that it does not sit still. Presto is the marking you will find in the sources, and it means as fast as it can be played, which suits a finale that begins in chaos. Allegro assai is the second marking, and it means very lively, a brisk pace that is easier to live with. Two names for one movement tell you that the speed changes along the way, and so does the mood.A Finale Made of Variations
This finale is built in many sections. What I ended up with is an immense set of variations on the Joy theme, with many sections that move between D minor and D major. In short, the route goes from a stormy opening to a look back at the earlier movements, then the Joy theme, the voices, a march, a slow hymn and a double fugue. I'll take each of these in turn in the next paragraphs, so you will always know where you are.Section 1: The Door Gets Kicked Open
The movement begins with chaos, a crash of sound in D minor that feels like the orchestra arguing with itself. It is very fast and nothing in it sounds settled or polite. I wanted this noise because the listener has to feel that something must change. Hold on to that feeling, because the next section answers it directly.Section 2: The Old Tunes Get Politely Refused
After the chaos, the cellos and basses speak in recitatives, which are phrases that sound more like someone talking than someone singing. In them I bring back ideas from the earlier movements one after another, a bit like someone flicking through TV channels and finding nothing worth watching. Each time, the low strings seem to say no, not that one, and the old music is pushed aside. That dismissal is the whole point, because I am clearing the room for something simpler.Section 3: A Tune Anyone Can Hum
Then the cellos and basses give out the Joy theme, and I made it simple enough that you could learn it in a single hearing. After that come three instrumental variations, where the same tune returns each time with more instruments and more color around it. Listen to how the melody hardly changes while everything around it grows. It is the sound of a small idea being given a bigger and bigger room.Section 4: The Singer Interrupts the Party Planning
Now the baritone steps in with the words "O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!", and those words are my own, not Schiller's. The line tells you that the noise and gloom we heard earlier are not what I want, and it turns the symphony toward the human voice. The rest of the text comes from Friedrich Schiller's poem "An die Freude", written in 1785, which I had tried several times to set to music before the Ninth. Once the baritone has led the way, the soloists and the chorus take up the Joy theme and make it theirs.Section 5: Here Comes the Parade
Next comes a variation in the style of a march, in B flat major, and the sound of the orchestra changes at once. The piccolo and the contrabassoon join in, one at the very top and one at the very bottom, along with the triangle, the bass drum and the cymbals. The cymbal and bass drum recall Turkish music, which gives the march a loud, festive swagger. It is the moment the symphony puts on a hat and walks out into the street.Section 6: Everybody Looks Up
After the parade, the music slows down for the episode on the words "Seid umschlungen", and it settles into G major. The mood turns from noise to reverence, as if a crowd had suddenly stopped talking to look at the sky. I chose this stillness on purpose, because joy that is only loud would be a very thin kind of joy. Let the slow pace work on you here, since it makes what follows feel even bigger.Section 7: Two Themes Wrestle and Make Up
Then comes a double fugue, which is a fugue with two themes running at the same time. I opened the second movement with a fugue, and now I bring one back, this time with two melodies tangled together. Listen for how they interrupt and chase each other until they begin to fit. It is the busiest stretch of the finale, and it gathers the energy that the music needs for the ending.Your Turn at the Play Button
Now it's your turn, so hit the play button and let the music carry you along. As you listen, keep in mind the route we took: the chaos, the clearing of the room, the Joy theme, the baritone, the march, the hymn and the fugue. At the first performance in May 1824 I stood on stage and could not hear the orchestra, so I'm counting on you to hear it for me. I hope you find this finale as thrilling to listen to as it was for me to write.---
Did you enjoy working your way through the listen guide for Symphony No 9's IV. Presto - Allegro Assai? I hope it gave you a few new things to listen for the next time the finale begins, from the restless opening to the moment the big tune finally arrives. When I think about this movement, I think about how it starts in turmoil and slowly finds its way to something warm and shared. Music like that tends to change a little each time you hear it, because you bring a different day and a different mood to it. There is still a lot more to discover in Symphony No 9. The three movements before the finale have their own stories to tell, and so does the way the whole piece came together over so many years. If you'd like to keep exploring, please click on the links provided and carry on from there. Take your time with them, and come back to the finale whenever you feel like hearing that tune again.