Romantic Musical Examples on YouTube. Ludwig van Beethoven: 4th movement from Symphony No. He is writing this piece about speaking out in a society muted by censorship. After Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor of France in , for the next decade he waged wars attempting to conquer the rest of Europe. The Emperor put Prince Klemens von Metternich in charge of a powerful, massive spy network that severely censored media and the arts and controlled education in an effort to control the dissemination of subversive ideas. Beethoven felt compelled to respond with a wake-up call to humanity, one that took three years to finish and that was beyond the capabilities of the public orchestras of the time to perform. It starts with a flash allegro and then stops in its tracks maestoso—slow timidly sounding as if the orchestra is afraid to move forward and make a real statement [prolonged censorship has made them this way]. The timpani who are never heard in this capacity have several soloistic passages.
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Symphony No. Beethoven steadily lost his hearing while writing the symphony and was profoundly deaf when it was premiered. London even missed out on the premiere which was held in Vienna on 7 May but the British premiere was given on 21 March and a blue plaque, put up by the RPS, marks the spot. Still proud of their coup, the RPS continues to commission established and new composers today. Sadly for Beethoven the extraordinary expense of orchestra, chorus, and soloists ensured that profits were minimal, and he was still unable to pay off his debts. Beethoven was too deaf to conduct Symphony No. At the Viennese premiere, on 7 May , he sat at the side of the stage to give the beat. While it appears to follow a conventional four-movement symphonic model, its massive choral fourth movement was not at all conventional. The bass then sings the main theme of Ode To Joy , with lusty interjections from the chorus. The symphony continues to be used as a powerful message of hope and unity.
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The Symphony No. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May The symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as Beethoven's greatest work and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music. The symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony. They were taken from the " Ode to Joy ", a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in and revised in , with text additions made by Beethoven. In , Beethoven's original, hand-written manuscript of the score, held by the Berlin State Library , was added to the Memory of the World Programme Heritage list established by United Nations , becoming the first musical score so designated. The Philharmonic Society of London originally commissioned the symphony in
The following text supports the album Beethoven: Symphony no. Beethoven, by this time almost entirely deaf, conducted the premiere performance of his Choral Symphony in , the same year that:. Portent is plain to be heard, too, at the very opening of the symphony.
