In the last movement of his last symphony, Ludvig van Beethoven gave us a new symphonic genre – the choral symphony.  By including a chorus of singers proclaiming a text that celebrated brotherhood and the unity of mankind, Beethoven wrote a piece of music that still resonates with the world today.  In a review of the first performance of the work, a critic wrote:

But it is in the finale that the genius of this great master shines forth most conspicuously. We are here in an ingenious manner presented with a return of all the subjects in short and brilliant passages, and which, as in a mirror, reflect the features of the whole.  After this, a singer kind of recitative by the contre-basses introduces a crescendo passage of overwhelming effect, which is answered by [a solo singer and] a chorus of voices that bursts unexpectedly in, and produces an entirely new and extraordinary result.  The passages from Schiller’s “Song of Joy” are made admirably expressive of the sentiments which the poet intended to convey and are in perfect keeping with the tone and character of the whole of this wonderful composition. (The Harmonicon, II (1824))

In their recent book, Journeys with Beethoven: Following the Ninth, and Beyond, authors Kerry Candaele and Greg Mitchell document the impact of the “Ode to Joy” from Chile to China, and from Japan to the United States.

The Tunisian foreign minister invoked the “Ode to Joy” when he expressed his hope that Arab countries would join the world’s democracies saying, “I hope that this unfinished symphony that we are now playing can become Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy.’ (Neil MacFarquhar, “The Arab Spring Finds Itself Upstaged by a New Season,” Herald-Tribune, 22 Sept 2011)”

Here are a few “joy”ful performances that include Beethoven’s last work.  I have included whimsical performances as well as profound ones.

1. What would Beethoven think?
2. Do you know of other uses? Movies? Video games? TV shows? Commercials?

1) 10,000 amateurs sing “Ode to Joy” in dedication to the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Japan has a tradition of performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9  dating back to World War I when German prisoners of war formed an orchestra and performed the symphony.

2) The Opening Ceremony of the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

3) Beaker sings “Ode to Joy,” 2009.

4) Jimmy Fallon parodies Beethoven, December 2011.