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 (Beethoven) the real key (or home key) of the symphony. In correlation to the tradition, however, the first movement is composed exemplarily in sonata form. Here, as a new element, Beethoven uses the more lyrical second subject to display and intertwine the woodwind with the string instruments. The development is elaborate and mainly based on the first subject of the movement and explores a long harmonic progression (starting from A major, reaching F major, passing F major at the end); it also refines the juxtaposition and combination of the orchestral instruments (woodwinds and strings); the recapitulation is almost coherent with the