Beethoven after Napoleon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works

7. Androgynous Utopias

Any political study of Beethoven’s late works must eventually confront the Ninth Symphony finale. The task is daunting. A mountain of analysis, interpretation , and plain speculation has accumulated around this fearsomely contemplated movement. The ascent begins (to take only a modern sampling ) with Schenker, Baensch, and Tovey; continues with Sanders, Treitler, Solomon, Levy, Winter, Cook, and Tusa; and reaches a dizzying peak in the metacritical survey of James Webster, whose byzantine tables call to mind Kant’s mathematical sublime.1 Of the making of books about the Ninth Symphony there is no end; but is there anything new under the sun? In terms of musical analysis, probably not much. Yet the “Ode to Joy” is adamantly about words as well as music, and a great deal remains to be said about the way in which Beethoven treated his text. For the composer fundamentally reshaped Schiller’s poem, cutting most of the text and rearranging the rest. The ode comprises eight stanzas, each of which divides into eight lines of solo declamation and four lines of choral refrain. Beethoven cut the second half of the poem entirely, as well as the refrain to stanza 2 and the solo lines from stanza 4: 156 7 Androgynous Utopias Allegro Assai (D major) Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Stanza 1 (solo lines) Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum. Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. Androgynous Utopias / 157 Wem der große Wurf gelungen, Stanza 2 (solo lines) Eines Freundes Freund zu sein, Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein! Ja—wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle Weinend sich aus diesem Bund. Freude trinken alle Wesen Stanza 3 (solo lines) An den Brüsten der Natur; Alle Guten, alle Bösen Folgen ihrer Rosenspur. Küsse gab sie uns und Reben, Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod; Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott! Allegro Assai Vivace. Alla Marcia (B♭ major) Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Stanza 4 (choral refrain) Durch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan, Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn, Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen. [Reprise of “Freude” theme (D major) Stanza 1 (solo lines)] Andante maestoso. Adagio ma non troppo (G major) Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Stanza 1 (choral refrain) Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! Brüder—überm Sternenzelt Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen. Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? Stanza 3 (choral refrain) Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such’ ihn überm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muß er wohnen. Allegro energico (D major) Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Stanza 1 (solo lines) Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum. Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Stanza 1 (choral refrain) Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! [The remaining sections introduce no further new words.] 冧 158 / Androgynous Utopias Beethoven tampered most liberally with the choral refrains.They disappear entirely from the D-major exposition of the “Freude” theme (Allegro assai), which retains only the solo portions of stanzas 1–3.The following B♭ march sets the refrain from stanza 4.After a return to D major and the solo lines from stanza 1, the refrains from stanzas 1 and 3 finally appear together in the G major hymn. Only in the D-major double fugue (Allegro energico) does Beethoven present solo and choral verses together. Solomon was hardly exaggerating when he claimed that Beethoven “wrote his own text to the Ninth Symphony’s ‘Ode to Joy.’ ”2 The composer obviously had an a priori conception that overrode the order and structure of Schiller’s verses. Beethoven’s design centers on the reshuffled choral refrains that make up the texts of the B♭ march and G major hymn.These two refrains, of only four and eight lines, respectively, account for a disproportionate share of the movement.They also mark the primary departures from the tonic key. If we want to understand Beethoven’s intentions in approaching Schiller’s text, we cannot be too interested in these displaced refrains. A familiar set of binary oppositions emerges when we lay the texts side by side: Allegro Assai Vivace. Alla Marcia Andante maestoso. Adagio ma non troppo Gladly, as his suns fly Be embraced, millions! Through the splendid plain of heaven, This kiss for the whole world! Run, brothers, your course joyfully Brothers, over...