The arts and politics in music at the University of Edinburgh, in her book "Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in the Music of Shostakovich", in "the traditional Russian perception of the arts", an "interrelationship between artistic technique and ideological content is the main aesthetic criterion" (ix; cf. Blois). Ludwig van Beethoven did not use the original title "Ode to Freedom" of Friedrich Schiller's lyric, known in English as "Ode to Joy" (1785), in setting it to music in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony (1824), which "Napoleonic censors had forced the poet to change to 'Ode to Joy'." After the fall of
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) material from each of the preceding three movements – though none are literal quotations of previous music – are successively presented and then dismissed by instrumental recitatives played by the low strings. Following this, the 'Ode to Joy' theme is finally introduced by the cellos and double basses. After three instrumental variations on this theme, the human voice is presented for the first time in the symphony by the baritone soloist, who sings words written by Beethoven himself: <nowiki>"</nowiki>"O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!' Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere".<nowiki>"</nowiki> ("Oh friends, not these sounds! Let us instead strike up