Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) a symphony (thus making it a choral symphony). The words are sung during the final movement by four vocal soloists and a chorus. They were taken from the "Ode to Joy", a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with text additions made by the composer. In 2001, Beethoven's original, hand-written manuscript of the score, held by the Berlin State Library, was added to the United Nations Memory of the World Programme Heritage list, becoming the first musical score so designated. The Philharmonic Society of London originally commissioned the symphony in 1817. The main composition work
Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven) movement, in sonata rondo form that proceeds at a very fast tempo. (The metronome marking supplied by Beethoven himself is semibreve = 84.) This is the first symphonic movement in which the timpani are tuned in octaves, foreshadowing the similar octave-F tuning in the scherzo of the Ninth Symphony. Antony Hopkins quotes the entire opening theme of the finale “in order to emphasise the outrageous impropriety of the last roaring C sharp”: “All that precedes it is so delicate in texture, so nimble and light-footed.” Donald Tovey cites the abrupt intrusion of the C sharp as an example of Beethoven’s