Choral Fantasy (Beethoven)
Encyclopedia
The Fantasy in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op
. 80, was composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven
.
and Sixth Symphonies
as well as a performance of portion of the C major Mass
. To conclude this memorable concert program, Beethoven wanted a "brilliant Finale" that would unite in a single piece the different musical elements highlighted in the concert night: piano solo, chorus and orchestra. The Fantasia op. 80, written shortly prior, was thus written expressly to fulfil this role.
Beethoven himself played the piano part and the opening solo offers an example of his improvisational style (at the première he did, in fact, improvise this section).
Beethoven wrote the piece during the second half of December, an unusually short time by his standards. He commissioned a poet—whose identity is disputed—to write the words shortly before the performance to fit the already written parts. According to Beethoven's pupil Karl Czerny, the poet was Cristoph Kuffner; the later Beethoven scholar Gustav Nottebohm
doubted this attribution and suggested the poet may have been Georg Friedrich Treitschke
, who in 1814 prepared the final text of Beethoven's opera Fidelio
.
The premiere performance seems to have been a rather troubled one; according to the composer's secretary, Anton Felix Schindler
, it "simply fell apart," a result most likely attributable to insufficient rehearsal time. Because of a mistake in the execution of the piece, it was stopped half way through and restarted. In Ignaz von Seyfried
's words:
's Ode to Joy
in his Ninth Symphony
. The two themes are compared below.
Michael Broyles has suggested another musical similarity: the two works share essentially the same harmonic sequence at their climactic moments, the chords (in C major) C F D (G) E, where the E stands out from its harmonic context and is performed fortissimo. The words sung at this point are (for the Choral Fantasy) "Lieb und Kraft" ("love and strength") and (for the Ninth Symphony) "Über'm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muss er wohnen." ("Above the tent of the stars, above the stars he must dwell").
There are also affinities in the texts. The theme of the Choral Fantasy text – universal fraternity with the meeting of arts – evokes similar feelings as the "Ode to Joy" text.
Beethoven himself acknowledged the kinship of the two works. In a letter of 1824, when he was writing the Ninth Symphony, he described his project as "a setting of the words of Schiller's immortal "Lied an die Freude" in the same way as my pianoforte fantasia with chorus, but on a far grander scale."
The Choral Fantasy theme is itself taken from earlier work by Beethoven: it is a slightly modified version of the composer's "Gegenliebe", a lied
for high voice and piano written ca. 1794–1795.
The Fantasy opens with a slow but virtuosic 26-bar piano introduction, modulating from C minor to C major and back again. The main part of the piece, marked "Finale", begins with an Allegro theme played by the cellos and basses
. Next, the solo piano introduces the choral theme in an ornamented version. Variations on the theme are then played by the flutes, oboes, clarinets, and string soloists, respectively. A full orchestral version of the theme, played at a forte
dynamic leads into a more lyrical piano line.
The orchestra accompanies an eighth-note heavy piano part as the piece modulates from C minor to C major. A calm, flowing A-major section, ending with a call-and-response section between double reeds, horn, and piano, leads into the Marcia, an F-major variation on the main theme in march style. A reprise of the instrumental theme from the first Allegro transitions into the choral entrance.
The chorus enters with the sopranos and altos singing the main theme, harmonized in triads. The tenors and basses then sing the theme, after which the entire chorus is joined by the orchestra in a tutti
rendition. A presto coda with orchestra, chorus, and piano brings the piece to a close.
As noted above, the words were written in haste, and Beethoven was perhaps not entirely pleased with them. He later wrote to his publisher Breitkopf und Härtel:
As Kalischer et al. observe, the word Kraft "is treated with grand style in the music."
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
. 80, was composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
.
Background, composition, and premiere
The Fantasia was first performed at the Akademie (benefit concert) of 22 December 1808, which also saw the premières of the FifthSymphony No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1804–08. This symphony is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music, and one of the most often played symphonies. It comprises four movements: an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast...
and Sixth Symphonies
Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony , is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, and was completed in 1808...
as well as a performance of portion of the C major Mass
Mass in C major (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his Mass in C major, Op. 86, to a commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II in 1807. In fulfilling this commission, Beethoven was extending a tradition established by Joseph Haydn, who following his return from England in 1795 had composed one mass per year for the...
. To conclude this memorable concert program, Beethoven wanted a "brilliant Finale" that would unite in a single piece the different musical elements highlighted in the concert night: piano solo, chorus and orchestra. The Fantasia op. 80, written shortly prior, was thus written expressly to fulfil this role.
Beethoven himself played the piano part and the opening solo offers an example of his improvisational style (at the première he did, in fact, improvise this section).
Beethoven wrote the piece during the second half of December, an unusually short time by his standards. He commissioned a poet—whose identity is disputed—to write the words shortly before the performance to fit the already written parts. According to Beethoven's pupil Karl Czerny, the poet was Cristoph Kuffner; the later Beethoven scholar Gustav Nottebohm
Gustav Nottebohm
Martin Gustav Nottebohm was a pianist, teacher, musical editor and composer who spent most of his career in Vienna. He is particularly celebrated for his studies of Beethoven....
doubted this attribution and suggested the poet may have been Georg Friedrich Treitschke
Georg Friedrich Treitschke
Georg Friedrich Treitschke was a German librettist, translator and lepidopterist....
, who in 1814 prepared the final text of Beethoven's opera Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
.
The premiere performance seems to have been a rather troubled one; according to the composer's secretary, Anton Felix Schindler
Anton Felix Schindler
Anton Felix Schindler was an associate, secretary, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven.His Life of Beethoven was first published in 1840 and, in its subsequently expanded form , had a great deal of influence on later Beethoven biography...
, it "simply fell apart," a result most likely attributable to insufficient rehearsal time. Because of a mistake in the execution of the piece, it was stopped half way through and restarted. In Ignaz von Seyfried
Ignaz von Seyfried
Ignaz Xaver Ritter von Seyfried was an Austrian musician, conductor and composer.Seyfried was born in Vienna. According to a statement in his handwritten memoirs he was a pupil of both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Albrechtsberger. He published Albrechtsberger's complete written works after...
's words:
When the master brought out his orchestral Fantasia with choruses, he arranged with me at the somewhat hurried rehearsal, with wet voice-parts as usual, that the second variation should be played without repeat. In the evening, however, absorbed in his creation, he forgot all about the instructions which he had given, repeated the first part while the orchestra accompanied the second, which sounded not altogether edifying. A trifle too late, the Concertmaster, Unrath, noticed the mistake, looked in surprise at his lost companions, stopped playing and called out dryly: ‘Again!’ A little displeased, the violinist Anton Wranitzky asked ‘With repeats?’ ‘Yes,’ came the answer, and now the thing went straight as a string
The Choral Fantasy and the Ninth Symphony
The work includes a sequence of variations on a theme that is widely felt to be an early version of a far better known variation theme, namely the one to which Beethoven set the words of Friedrich SchillerFriedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
's Ode to Joy
Ode to Joy
"Ode to Joy" is an ode written in 1785 by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller, enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind...
in his Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
. The two themes are compared below.
- Choral Fantasy:
- Ninth Symphony:
Michael Broyles has suggested another musical similarity: the two works share essentially the same harmonic sequence at their climactic moments, the chords (in C major) C F D (G) E, where the E stands out from its harmonic context and is performed fortissimo. The words sung at this point are (for the Choral Fantasy) "Lieb und Kraft" ("love and strength") and (for the Ninth Symphony) "Über'm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muss er wohnen." ("Above the tent of the stars, above the stars he must dwell").
There are also affinities in the texts. The theme of the Choral Fantasy text – universal fraternity with the meeting of arts – evokes similar feelings as the "Ode to Joy" text.
Beethoven himself acknowledged the kinship of the two works. In a letter of 1824, when he was writing the Ninth Symphony, he described his project as "a setting of the words of Schiller's immortal "Lied an die Freude" in the same way as my pianoforte fantasia with chorus, but on a far grander scale."
The Choral Fantasy theme is itself taken from earlier work by Beethoven: it is a slightly modified version of the composer's "Gegenliebe", a lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
for high voice and piano written ca. 1794–1795.
Form
The Choral Fantasy, which in most performances lasts about twenty minutes, is divided into two movements:- 1. AdagioAdagio-Music:* Adagio, a tempo marking indicating that music is to be played slowly* A composition marked to be played adagio, e.g.** Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber** Adagio for Strings , a cover of Barber's Adagio by Tiësto...
- 2. Finale. Allegro – Meno allegro (Allegretto) – Allegro molto – Adagio ma non troppo – MarciaMarch (music)A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
, assai vivace – Allegro – Allegretto ma non troppo quasi andante con moto »Schmeinchelnd hold und liebliech klingen« – Presto
The Fantasy opens with a slow but virtuosic 26-bar piano introduction, modulating from C minor to C major and back again. The main part of the piece, marked "Finale", begins with an Allegro theme played by the cellos and basses
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
. Next, the solo piano introduces the choral theme in an ornamented version. Variations on the theme are then played by the flutes, oboes, clarinets, and string soloists, respectively. A full orchestral version of the theme, played at a forte
Dynamics (music)
In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...
dynamic leads into a more lyrical piano line.
The orchestra accompanies an eighth-note heavy piano part as the piece modulates from C minor to C major. A calm, flowing A-major section, ending with a call-and-response section between double reeds, horn, and piano, leads into the Marcia, an F-major variation on the main theme in march style. A reprise of the instrumental theme from the first Allegro transitions into the choral entrance.
The chorus enters with the sopranos and altos singing the main theme, harmonized in triads. The tenors and basses then sing the theme, after which the entire chorus is joined by the orchestra in a tutti
Tutti
Tutti is an Italian word literally meaning all or together and is used as a musical term, for the whole orchestra as opposed to the soloist...
rendition. A presto coda with orchestra, chorus, and piano brings the piece to a close.
Text
The work's text is as follows:| German text | English translation |
|---|---|
| Schmeichelnd hold und lieblich klingen | Graceful, charming and sweet is the sound |
| unseres Lebens Harmonien, | Of our life’s harmonies, |
| und dem Schönheitssinn entschwingen | and from a sense of beauty arise |
| Blumen sich, die ewig blühn. | Flowers which eternally bloom. |
| Fried und Freude gleiten freundlich | Peace and joy advance in perfect concord, |
| wie der Wellen Wechselspiel. | like the changing play of the waves. |
| Was sich drängte rauh und feindlich, | All that was harsh and hostile, |
| ordnet sich zu Hochgefühl. | has turned into sublime delight. |
| Wenn der Töne Zauber walten | When music's enchantment reigns, |
| und des Wortes Weihe spricht, | speaking of the sacred word, |
| muss sich Herrliches gestalten, | Magnificence takes form, |
| Nacht und Stürme werden Licht. | The night and the tempest turns to light: |
| Äuss're Ruhe, inn're Wonne | In outward peace and inward bliss |
| herrschen für den Glücklichen. | Reign the fortunate ones. |
| Doch der Künste Frühlingssonne | All art in the spring's sun |
| lässt aus beiden Licht entstehn. | Lets light flow from both. |
| Großes, das ins Herz gedrungen, | Greatness, once it has pierced the heart, |
| blüht dann neu und schön empor. | Then blooms anew in all its beauty. |
| Hat ein Geist sich aufgeschwungen, | Once one's being has taken flight, |
| hallt ihm stets ein Geisterchor. | A choir of spirits resounds in response. |
| Nehmt denn hin, ihr schönen Seelen, | Accept then, you beautiful souls, |
| froh die Gaben schöner Kunst | Joyously the gifts of high art. |
| Wenn sich Lieb und Kraft vermählen, | When love and strength are united, |
| lohnt den Menschen Göttergunst. | God’s grace is bestowed upon Man. |
As noted above, the words were written in haste, and Beethoven was perhaps not entirely pleased with them. He later wrote to his publisher Breitkopf und Härtel:
- You may wish to print another text, as the text like the music was written very quickly ... Still with another set of words I want the word kraft ["strength"] to be kept or one similar to it in its place.
As Kalischer et al. observe, the word Kraft "is treated with grand style in the music."