4HtA1hNOYRU Author: Liu Haoran ent.huanqiu.com article [Shi Hai looks back]: 200 years ago, Beethoven launched his masterpiece Ode to Joy, expressing the beautiful vision of "human solidarity as brothers" /e3pmh1jtb/e3pmth0vk <article><section data type="rtext"><p>[Global Times comprehensive report] In May this year, Vienna, the capital of Austria, held a series of classical concerts in memory of Ludwig van Beethoven, a famous German musician, and mainly promoted the important work of Beethoven's music career, the Ninth Symphony. On May 7, 1824, 200 years ago, this legendary masterpiece was premiered in Vienna for the first time. Beethoven broke a new path when composing music. For the first time, he combined vocal music with symphony. Among them, the chorus of the fourth movement, Ode to Joy, became a masterpiece with a lofty idea and became a song of power to inspire people's spirit</ p> <p><em data scene="strong">Beethoven acted as the "deputy conductor" of the premiere</em></p><p>On May 7, 1824, Beethoven, the classical music master who had been away from the stage for many years, returned to the concert hall. The Karen Turner Tower Theater in Vienna was crowded, and there were many heavyweight musicians in the audience. Beethoven was hard of hearing at that time, and the conductor of the performance was Austrian musician Umlauf. Although Beethoven insisted on being on the same stage, he was more like a "field coach"</ p> <p><i class="pic con"><img data alt="Beethoven, the master of classical music (Global Times)" src="//img. huanqiucdn. cn/dp/api/files/imageDir/f57a20f748b322d48a231ec51fcf113fu5.jpg? ImageView2/2/w/1260 "/></i></p><p>Music sounds, and Beethoven is concentrating on beat beside Umlauf. According to the violinist of the orchestra, Beethoven on the stage was "crazy", using both hands and feet, sometimes standing up high, sometimes crouching, as if to play every instrument and perform every note in person. As "Ode to Joy" in the fourth movement pushed the performance to a climax, the audience waved hats and handkerchiefs and stood up and applauded for many times. However, due to hearing limitation, Beethoven's rhythm was several bars slower than the actual performance, until he finished playing on the stage, he was still immersed in his own "progress" with his back to the audience. It was a singer of the orchestra who stepped forward and asked him to turn to the audience to feel the highest courtesy of the music hero</ p> <adv-loader __attr__inner="7004636" __attr__style="width: auto; position: relative;float: left;border: 1px solid #ebebeb; padding: 20px;overflow: hidden;margin: 10px 30px 40px 0; "></adv-loader> <p>The premiere of the Ninth Symphony in Vienna was undoubtedly a great success. After the premiere, the German "Music Herald" praised Beethoven for "leading us into a new world as a genius without creative bottlenecks". The musician Cherney commented that the symphony was "full of fresh and lively atmosphere", and praised that Beethoven's original work was full of "strength, innovation and beauty". Until recent years, Maddox, a critic in the field of British classical music, still spoke highly of this symphony. She said: "The history of music is full of various turning points... The Ninth Symphony breaks through the inherent mode of symphony."</p> The Ninth Symphony is also called "Choral Symphony". It is understood that Beethoven's inspiration came from the German poet Schiller whom he admired, and the lyrics of Ode to Joy came from the poem of the same name of the latter, on which some changes were made. Alsop, the American conductor, believes that Beethoven conveys a "broader" existential philosophy by combining poetry with cheerful music, which includes his own belief in unity, tolerance, peace and joy, especially the original poem "human beings unite as brothers", which is also Beethoven's beautiful vision</ p> <p><em data scene="strong">Preparations have twists and turns</em></p><p>Although the performance was ultimately a great success, the publication of the Ninth Symphony was very difficult, and its performance preparation has twists and turns. In the nearly ten years before the performance, Beethoven was plagued with diseases and was also involved in legal disputes. In addition, the Vienna music world at that time was subjected to "cultural invasion" ——Italian dramas are far more popular than symphonies, with more theaters than concert halls. In such an environment, Beethoven planned to go to Berlin, Germany for his first performance. It was the local musicians and huge fan groups who "forced" him to stay in Austria by petition after learning about this move</ p> <p>Some media described the rehearsal of the Ninth Symphony as a "disaster" - tight time, heavy tasks, and uneven quality of personnel. Due to the limitation of the theater schedule, Beethoven needs to convene a complete orchestra in a short time. According to the website of the "South Bank Center" in the UK, the Ninth Symphony only had two complete rehearsals. The participants included both professional musicians and many "ticket fans". Some violinists were difficult to master difficult tracks and stopped playing half way through; Some musicians simply quit</ p> <p>The chorus chapter of Ode to Joy is even more challenging - the choir should not only wait patiently for the previous movement to finish playing, but also need them to quickly brew their emotions into the state when the music style of the fourth movement suddenly changes. At that time, the stage sound technology was still very limited. The choir not only had to ensure that the singing volume could "cover" the instruments, but also let the back row audience hear clearly. For this reason, the chorus of the chapter "Ode to Joy" almost died prematurely, and Beethoven insisted on keeping it</ p> <p><em data scene="strong">The last movement in the life of the master. On May 24 of the same year, Beethoven held the second concert, which was said to be the last public performance in Beethoven's life. In 1827, the Tenth Symphony had not yet been completed, and a generation of music giants died with regret. The Ninth Symphony became the last movement of Beethoven's life</ p> <p>Nearly two centuries after Beethoven's death, his music was called "the continuation of the French Revolution in the field of art", and the Ninth Symphony was praised as a hymn of peace and the pursuit of equality. Among them, Ode to Joy has been translated into many languages and is widely sung around the world. Whitman, an American poet, said that this piece of music is "the most incisive expression of nature and human nature". Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher and critic, said that Ode to Joy has a broad sense of "cultural adaptability" and can even break the most extreme ideological opposition. For example, in the Soviet period, Ode to Joy was regarded as a "red song" by the Soviet Union</ p> <p>Over the past 200 years, the melody of Ode to Joy has been played together for countless times on various major occasions, either to encourage morale, or to appeal for peace and promote unity. During Chile's military dictatorship, women sang a Spanish version of Ode to Joy in the streets outside the prison, bringing hope to their fellow prisoners; After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the composer Bernstein organized musicians from Germany and Germany to perform this song and celebrate Christmas. In 1957, the miners in South Wales invited Paul Robertson, a black American singer, to attend the Estford Festival. Although the trip was blocked by the American authorities, the singer still sang for the workers via telephone connection. </p><p>In addition, Ode to Joy is also a formal or informal anthem of many international organizations and is widely used in the political field. At the G20 Summit in 2017, the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel deliberately chose Ode to Joy as the "Welcome Song". In November 2023, Stamer, the leader of the British Labor Party, said that Ode to Joy was the best representative of the political philosophy of the party - this statement angered many "Brexit" people in Britain, because this song is also the "Union Song" of the European Union, the "Assembly Song" of the European Commission, and a symbol of Europe. (Liu Haoran)</p></section></article> one trillion and seven hundred and sixteen billion three hundred and fourteen million two hundred and ninety-four thousand nine hundred and four Copyrighted works of Globegroup are strictly prohibited from being reproduced or mirrored without written authorization. Violators will be investigated for legal responsibility. Editor in charge: Li Yutong Global Times one trillion and seven hundred and sixteen billion three hundred and thirty-two million two hundred and eighty-four thousand three hundred and thirty-one one one [] //img.huanqiucdn.cn/dp/api/files/imageDir/f57a20f748b322d48a231ec51fcf113fu5.jpg