Friedrich Schiller van Beethoven said that a great poem is more difficult to set to music than a merely good one because the composer must rise higher than the poet – "who can do that in the case of Schiller? In this respect Goethe is much easier," wrote Beethoven. There are relatively few famous musical settings of Schiller's poems. Notable exceptions are Beethoven's setting of "An die Freude" ("Ode to Joy") in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, Johannes Brahms' choral setting of "Nänie" and "Des Mädchens Klage" by Franz Schubert, who set 44 of Schiller's poems as Lieder, mostly for
Symphony No. 1 (Mahler) from the other movements, which is in keeping with Beethoven's own practice in his Symphony No. 9 of quoting themes from the first, second, and third movements early in the final movement. Beethoven gave the impression of rejecting the earlier themes, after he quotes them, and then introduces the famous "Ode to Joy" theme. The five-movement version generally runs around an hour, just as Mahler's later symphonies (except for Symphony No. 4) are an hour or longer in length. Mahler followed a precedent, established by Beethoven in his ninth symphony and by Anton Bruckner in many of his symphonies, of