Ode To Joy: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

The melody known as "Ode to Joy" comes from the finale of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, where it carries his setting of "An die Freude," a poem Friedrich Schiller wrote in 1785 in praise of joy and human brotherhood.[1] Beethoven had thought about setting the poem as early as 1793, but the symphony itself took shape in the early 1820s, with concentrated work from 1822 to 1824 on top of earlier sketches; he used selected stanzas rather than the whole text.[2] The work was first heard on May 7, 1824, at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna, and the audience greeted it with enormous enthusiasm.[1][2] Before any voice enters the finale, the low strings play a line in the manner of a sung recitative, linking the orchestral and choral parts of the movement.[2]

Color portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven with tousled dark hair and a white cravat

L. Prang & Co., Ludwig van Beethoven, color print, c1870. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

In the twentieth century the melody became a symbol of European unity. Taking up a proposal from Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers adopted it as the European anthem on January 12, 1972, in an instrumental arrangement first made by the conductor Herbert von Karajan.[3][4] The leaders of what is now the European Union adopted the same music in 1985 (one Council of Europe page gives 1986).[5][4][3] The official anthem has no words; it is meant to express shared values rather than replace any national anthem.[5]

English-speaking churches know the tune best through Henry van Dyke's hymn "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee," written in 1907 to be sung to Beethoven's melody.[6][7] Van Dyke drew on the Berkshire hills around Williams College in Massachusetts, where he was a visiting preacher, and the text appeared in the third edition of his Book of Poems in 1911.[7] The hymn tune, usually called HYMN TO JOY, was shaped for congregational singing by the composer Edward Hodges (1796–1867),[7] and Hymnary.org lists the hymn in more than three hundred hymnals.[6]

Find books with Ode To Joy for sale →

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Ode to Joy".
  2. Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester: "Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 “Choral” (1824)".
  3. Council of Europe: "53 years of the European Anthem".
  4. Council of Europe: "1972: An anthem for Europe".
  5. European Union: "European anthem".
  6. Hymnary.org: "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee".
  7. Discipleship Ministries, United Methodist Church: "History of Hymns: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”".