Choral Fantasy (Beethoven) a rather troubled one; according to the composer's secretary, Anton Schindler, it "simply fell apart," a result most likely attributable to insufficient rehearsal time. Because of a mistake in the execution of the piece, it was stopped half way through and restarted. In Ignaz von Seyfried's words: The work includes a sequence of variations on a theme that is widely felt to be an early version of a far better known variation theme, namely the one to which Beethoven set the words of Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" in his Ninth Symphony. The two themes are compared below. \new Score
Road to Joy Road to Joy "Road to Joy" is the last song on Bright Eyes' 2005 album "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning". It was written by Conor Oberst. The name of the album is taken from a lyric in the song. The song begins with a fingerpicking section combined with an interpolation of a melody strongly based on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". As the song progresses, it builds into a march, with the introduction of trumpets and horns. Near the end, everything fades out as Oberst delivers the final verse, and then all of the instruments come in at once in a