instrumentation
piccolo
2 flutes
2 oboes
1 Eb clarinet
2 Bb clarinets (2. doubling bass clarinet)
2 bassoons contrabassoon
4 horns in F
3 trumpets in C (1.2. doubling slide whistle)
2 tenor trombones bass trombone tuba
timpani
percussion 1 crotales, log drum, marimba (preferably with lower extension ) , bass drum, sand-paper block & large square sandpaper board ( approx. 2 ’ x 2 ’) , xylophone, vibra-phone, high triangle, congas, vibraslap percussion 2 triangle (such as that used in Beeth-oven 9), bamboo chimes, military drum, police whistle, anvil, pump shotgun (no loads)*, low tam-tam, low gong, 3 small tam-tams, 8 suspended cymbals, splash cymbal (all incrementally “pitched,” as indicated at right), wind machine percussion 3 glockenspiel, tubular bells, castanets piccolo snare drum, whip, crash cym-bals, siren
harp
piano
strings
* The shotgun is used for the sound of its pumping action. Care should be taken to ensure the chamber has no loads.
notes
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is one of the rare works of the repertoire that has attained, in addition to its vaulted musical status, a cultural and even political significance. The exalted setting of Schiller’ s “Ode to Joy” forever associated the work with a hope for peace and brotherhood, and generations of musicians have turned to the work at historic moments as the most universal expression of peace.
But the hope for peace so magnificently expressed in Beethoven’s final symphony written during a relative calm in the 19th Century was ultimately frustrated by the events of the 20th Century. Two world wars and many tragedies later, Beethoven’s great hope is needed as much as ever. But one wonders, with an eye to events past and present, whether such a hope can ever be fulfilled.
This work’s title, in addition to referencing the symphony on which it is based, alludes to another meaning of the word “ode” as “a way or path” (as in, for example, electrode). A retrospective look at the path of the “Ode to Joy” through the ages lies at the heart of this work, which is in itself an ode of sorts.
The piece begins as if in a dream, with fragments of the “Ode to Joy” floating over illusory harmonies in the orchestra, and soon focuses on the most characteristic fragment the Ode’s first three notes. This motif drives the transformation that follows from a hopeful world of lyricism into a menacing, destructive fanfare of war. Along the way, we get a glimpse of the martial music of the 9th’s last movement, which begins harmlessly but soon spins out of control. In the aftermath of the ensuing explosion which, like weapons of mass destruction, leaves very little standing a pulsating harmonic world floats downwards. It is the harmonies of the work’s beginning, but in reverse, finally ending with the opening chord an open fifth. Having begun with the theme that ends Beethoven’s symphony, the work ends with his beginning: an uncertain world of harmonic ambiguity, articulated by a trembling in the strings as we wait for something to happen.
cymb.)
Glissando
Glissando
Glissando