Music
When did Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony premiere?
1824 AD
The Ninth Symphony premiered in Vienna on 7 May 1824 AD.
1 BC · 1 AD
Context
What happened?
Beethoven was almost completely deaf by then. He stood on stage beating time, but Michael Umlauf conducted, and the players had been told quietly to watch Umlauf rather than the composer.
Significance
Why it matters
The choral finale sets Friedrich Schiller’s Ode to Joy and made the Ninth the first symphony by a major composer to give voices a part in the form. Composers from Mahler to Shostakovich wrote in its shadow, and the melody now serves as the anthem of the European Union.
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