Symphony still mesmerizes
This summer, as every summer, the end of the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood season will be marked by another round of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The world over, the Ninth has become an indispensable adornment for socio/musical hooplas. Chances are, it will be played soon by an orchestra near you. If you know Western classical music, you know this one. Probably half of humanity can hum the little ditty that serves as the theme of the choral finale—a setting of Schiller's revolutionary-era drinking song, "Ode to Joy."
Which is all to say, the Ninth has attained the kind of ubiquity that threatens to gut any artwork. Think Mona Lisa. Still, as with Lisa, when that kind of success persists through the centuries, there are reasons... -source: Slate, "The Beethoven Mystery, Why haven't we figured out his Ninth Symphony?" Jan Swafford
Link Full Text, Slate, "The Beethoven Mystery, Why haven't we figured out his Ninth Symphony?" Jan Swafford
