What’s so Joyful about it?

Ugh … don’t you hate it when you get a song stuck in your head for some unknown reason? With no logical explanation it just pops into action and you unwillingly find yourself humming a tune. Today that tune is Ode to Joy part of Beethoven’s 9th symphony.  Even now it’s running rampant through my mind. So I figure if I give it a voice and tell you all about it the lambs will stop crying or in this case the song will stop playing. It’s worth a try.

Beethoven’s 9th – Symphony No. 9 in D minor, OP. 125 was Beethoven’s final complete symphony, completed in 1824. The symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony. The words are sung during the final movement by four vocal soloists and a chorus. They were taken from the “Ode to Joy“, a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803. The Philharmonic Society of London originally commissioned the symphony in 1817. Beethoven started the work in 1818 and finished early in 1824. However, both the words and notes of the symphony have sources dating from earlier in Beethoven’s career.

Well there you have it, albeit just a taste of the information on his 9th and fortunately for me enough to make the lambs stop crying. Ode to joy is no longer running through my mind and I have no choice but to believe it is because I dared to actually speaks it’s name and tell the world a little bit about it. Although now I’ve moved on to The Flower Duet from Leo Delibes Opera Lakme. OH well I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

Cory