kground" ( Simpson 56). There is no doubt that there was plans to make the last movement not a choral, but an instrumental one. Beethoven had once written an instrumental finale, but his dream of setting Schiller's Ode to Joy overcame him. The Ninth is a confluence of many currants and forces in Beethoven's life: of an involvement since boyhood with the work of Friedrich von Schiller and a plan cherished over thirty years to set his ode An die Fruede; of a fugue subject jotted down in a notebook about 1815 and again in somewhat altered form two or three years later (This became the main theme of the scherzo); of an invitation from the Philharmonic Society of London to visit England in the winter of 1817-18 and to bring two new symphonies with him; of plans actually made around 1818 for two symphonies , one in D minor, the other to include a choral "Adagio Cantique... in ancient modes"; of Beethoven's acceptance in 1822 of the London Philharmonic Society's commission of a symphony, this being the final outcome of the negotiations begun in 1817. ( Steinberg 49) . His personal life had a major influence outside of these personal things. Since 1812 Beethoven's life had been in a continuous state of crisis. This came from the guardianship battle he was having with his sister-in-law over his nephew Karl. It was also the great year of frustrated passion with his famous " Immortal Beloved", Antonie Bretano. Since 1812 and the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, Beethoven had written little. In the final winning legal battle in April 1820, Beethoven felt the need to reconstruct his life and completing his life's work.The Ninth Symphony is a whole new musical sound and thought. " When the Ninth Symphony begins we are clearly in a new world of sound: eleven years separate it from the Eighth" ( Pike 60). This Symphony is the first for many things. The whole idea of a choral as being the last movement was an astonishing one. Besides this huge ...
