Final Sounding a Note of Freedom

Sounding a Note of Freedom: Beethoven’s Ninth in Tiananmen Square and at the Berlin Wall Emily Robinson CC-325-D Citizens of the World MUS-319-A Late Romantic & Modern Music Professor Dr. Jennifer Prough Professor Dr. Katharina Uhde May 6, 2016 Honor Code: I have neither given or received, nor have I tolerated others’ use of unauthorized aid. ABSTRACT The fact that Beethoven’s Ninth was performed at Tiananmen Square, China and Berlin, Germany in 1989 demonstrates the symphony’s potential for communicating across differences of time and culture. By closely examining the first seventeen measures of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, first movement “Allegro ma non troppo un poco maestoso” as well as the student protests in Tiananmen Square, China and the Christmas Day celebration concert led by Leonard Bernstein in Berlin, Germany in 1989, this paper argues that the enduring significance of the Ninth Symphony is possible because of the penetrating themes of brotherhood, creation, and freedom. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is still a work that speaks to contemporary political events where the themes of brotherhood, creation, and freedom are present within the political movements. When Beethoven composed this work in the early nineteenth century, he may have been able to recognize the uniqueness of the work since this was the first time a choir was called for in a symphonic score. The uniqueness and grandeur of this work endures today as Symphony No. 9 continues to be regularly performed around the world, proclaiming its themes of brotherhood, creation, and freedom. Emily Robinson If you are familiar with the Peanuts comic strip (FIGURE 1), you know that Schroeder plays only Beethoven on his little piano. This comic strip from December 16, 1964 illustrates the prevalence of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in popular culture. The Ninth might also be a popular piece because it is so frequently performed. In December of 1991 alone there were one hundred and sixty-two performance of the symphony.1 Symphony No. 9 provides a common ground for a shared experience across culture. Levy argues, “When understood and perceived in the spirit of the ennobling forces that motivated its composer, however, the Ninth Symphony has proved itself capable of speaking to the highest aspirations of humanity, of wielding power for the good.”2 The symphony must then, through common experience, be able to influence the people who listen to it. A National Public Radio (NPR) article relates events in China and Germany that occurred in 1989 by saying, “The students in Beijing and Berlin…recognize the urgency of its [the Ninth Symphony’s] message.”3 The fact that Beethoven’s Ninth was performed at Tiananmen Square, China and Berlin, Germany in 1989 demonstrates its enduring significance with its themes of brotherhood, creation, and freedom. To demonstrate that these themes can be found within the music of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 the first seventeen measures of the symphony will be closely analyzed. Then the two events will be discussed tracing the political history as well as the themes of brotherhood, creation, and freedom within the student movements at Tiananmen Square and the celebration concert on December 25, 1989 in Berlin, Germany. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is still a work that speaks to political events where the themes of brotherhood, creation, and freedom are present. 1 David Benjamin Levy, Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony (New York: Schirmer Books, 1995). 2 Ibid, 17. 3 “Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125,” last modified June 16, 2006, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5487727. 3 Emily Robinson BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONY NO. 9 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is one of the pillars in Western classical music. He bridged the Classical period (c. 1750-c. 1830) and the early Romantic period (c. 1830-1860) in the styles of his compositions. Scholars generally view Beethoven’s works in three periods— beginning, middle, and late. During the middle period in 1802, Beethoven wrote what has now become known as the Heiligenstädter Testament.4 He was growing deaf and was almost convinced that he no longer had reason to live. But, in a poignant letter, Beethoven realizes and admits that he has more music to share with the world. He says, “Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that and I would have ended my life - it was only my art that held me back…. Thanks…to my art, I did not end my life by suicide.”5 This is a defining moment in Beethoven’s life and certainly influenced his music after 1802. The late period of Beethoven’s works, in which he returns to counterpoint, explores expanded ranges, and challenges typical compositional forms, begins, depending on the scholarship, as early as 1813, with the premiere of Wellington’s Victory and Symphony No. 7.6 However, for the purposes of this paper, the late period of Beethoven will be dated as 1815, taking note that Symphony No. 9 was the only symphony composed during this time. Rather than focusing on grandiose works like symphonies, Beethoven focused on what are known as the Late String Quartets. Characteristics of the music composed from 1815-1827 are a wide range of dynamic contrast from pianissimo to fortissimo, expanded instrumental registers, radical 4 “Ludwig van Beethoven,” Oxford Music Online, accessed April 4, 2016, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40026#S40026. 5 “Ludwig Van Beethoven-Heiligenstädter Testament,” New York University, accessed April 4, 2016, http://www.nyu.edu/classes/gilbert/classic/heiligenstadt.html. 6 The exact dates of the periodization of Beethoven’s works are dependent on how musicologists view the events that occurred in his life as well as the actual compositions themselves. The compositions of the late period explore a range from the sublime (Symphony No. 9) to the naïve (the late string quartets). The works composed in the years 1813-1815 are often considered transitional works as some lean more toward the style of the middle period, while others lean more towards the style of the late period. 4 Emily Robinson harmonies, counterpoint techniques similar to the Baroque period, and “strange experiments” that involved making bass voices unusually high in their range and the violins play in a low register.7 Twenty-two years after the Heiligenstädter Testament, in 1824, two of Beethoven’s greatest works were premiered, the “Missa solemnis” in April and one month later, the Ninth Symphony was premiered at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, Austria. Even though the symphony was premiered in 1824, there are traces in Beethoven’s sketchbooks to the compositional ideas found in the symphony as early as 1792.8 In January of 1793, a professor of jurisprudence in Bonn, Germany, wrote to the German poet Friedrich Schiller’s wife saying, “He [Beethoven] proposes to compose Schiller’s Freude strophe by strophe. I expect something perfect, since he is wholly devoted to the great and the sublime.”9 Freude appears in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, sung by soloists and a choir. However Beethoven did not begin composing this work until late 1822, with most of the work done in 1823, and a complete symphony by March 1824. The opening movements of the symphony can be seen as a musical representation of real-world experience with an “unmistakable ethical aura.”10 Symphony No. 9, according to the Oxford Music Online dictionary, is “the coalescence of several diverse elements that had been stirring in his [Beethoven’s] imagination.” It fulfilled the “symphonic ideal” with the work’s forcefulness, expanded ranges, the radical intent, and “contriving to create the impression of a psychological journey or growth process.”11 These elements are frequently understood to be seen in the fourth movement when the chorus joins in singing Schiller’s Freude, but they are already alluded to and present in the opening movement. 7 “Ludwig van Beethoven.” 8 Levy, Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony, 18. 9 “Ludwig van Beethoven.” 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 5 Emily Robinson On the day of the Ninth’s premiere, Beethoven’s Op. 125 was the concert’s overture. The concert continued with the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei from the Missa solemnis. Then the new symphony was played. The theater in Vienna was crowded and the audience enthusiastically received Beethoven’s compositions. There is a story that Beethoven, who was deaf by this time, did not hear the ardent applause of the audience so that someone had to motion to him to turn around and bow in order to receive the audience’s applause since they were so grateful and astounded by the symphony. Interestingly, sixteen days later the symphony was performed again to a much less enthusiastic audience.12 Audiences today can relate to these first two audiences. Some critics and audiences regard the Ninth Symphony “as a monstrous folly. Others can only see in it the parting gleams of an expiring genius.”13 In his book Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony, a well-known Beethoven scholar David Levy states, “The enthusiastic response it continues to elicit argues eloquently for its continued power and relevance.”14 Perhaps famed musicologist Richard Taruskin sums up this love-hate relationship with the symphony best by saying that it “is among connoisseurs preeminently the Piece You Love to Hate, no less now than a century and a half ago. Why? Because it is at once incomprehensible and irresistible, and because it is at once awesome and naïve.”15 There is no doubt that Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 has become one of the most easily recognized pieces of classical music that can be understood in a variety of ways, depending on the occasion and the audience.

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