Composing the 9th.

[Megan]

How long did it take Beethoven to compose the 9th symphony, did he begin it while his hearing was still intact?

[Chris]

Most of the work was done from 1822 to 1824, and at that point he was more or less totally deaf.

[gprengel]

How long did it take Beethoven to compose the 9th symphony, did he begin it while his hearing was still intact?

There were some few thoughts and sketches starting from 1815 (a conception of a Scherzo theme which is quite close to the final Scherzo theme) and 1822 the joy-theme was conceived, but the actual work for the symphony was in the whole years of 1823. The first 2 movements were sketched till August and the Adagio in September/Octoberl February 1824 the whole score was written. In May then the first performance.

[Peter]

How long did it take Beethoven to compose the 9th symphony, did he begin it while his hearing was still intact?

Beethoven first noticed problems with his hearing before writing the 1st symphony let alone the 9th! From around 1798 his hearing got progressively worse. By 1809 he was unable to perform his 5th piano concerto for this reason. I think the earliest sketches for the 9th date to around 1817.

[Megan]

There were some few thoughts and sketches starting from 1815 (a conception of a Scherzo theme which is quite close to the final Scherzo theme) and 1822 the joy-theme was conceived, but the actual work for the symphony was in the whole years of 1823. The first 2 movements were sketched till August and the Adagio in September/Octoberl February 1824 the whole score was written. In May then the first performance.

Beethoven first noticed problems with his hearing before writing the 1st symphony let alone the 9th! From around 1798 his hearing got progressively worse. By 1809 he was unable to perform his 5th piano concerto for this reason. I think the earliest sketches for the 9th date to around 1817.

Thank you both for help and clarification.

[Albert Gans]

There are claims that there's a link between the Choral Fantasy and the Ninth, too.... what happened in his great brain, no-one will ever know. The Choral Fantasy goes back to 1808.... did he foresee writing something like the Ninth at that point? Unlikely... but possible. What is more likely is that when he started working on the Ninth, the Choral Fantasy worked as a sort of backdrop.... I think I saw similar quotes that mention that first sketches for the Ninth date back from 1817 or 1818.

[Michelle Rasmussen]

Here is an article I wrote for The Schiller Institute, describing some of the history behind the 30 year process which led to the 9th Symphony, with emphasis on Beethoven's quest to set Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy to music:

‘All Men Become Brothers’:
The Decades-Long Struggle for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

http://schillerinstitut.dk/si/2015/06/beethoven/

[Michael]

Thanks for the article, Michelle, and welcome to the forum.

[Fidelio]

Schiller’s popular “Ode to Joy” was published in 1785. Beethoven actually started thinking about setting Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” poem to music as early as 1793 when he was 22 years old. He clearly revisited the poem in 1808 and 1811, as his notebooks include numerous remarks regarding possible settings. His notebooks indicate that he considered and rejected more than 200 different versions of the “Ode to Joy” theme alone. In 1817, the Philharmonic Society of London commissioned Beethoven to write a symphony, but he did not start serious work on the new piece until 1822. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824.

‘What might the Philharmonic Society offer me as an honorarium for a grand symphony?’ wrote Beethoven to Ries on 06 July 1822. B was still considering a visit to London early the following year.