Beethoven's Ninth : a political history
In this remarkable history of one of the most popular symphonic works of the modern period, Esteban Buch traces the complex and contradictory uses - and abuses - of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony since its premiere in 1824.
327 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780226078243, 0226078248
1015475046
Introduction : The states of joy
The birth of modern political music. God save the King and the Handel cult ; La Marseillaise and the "Supreme Being" ; The Ode to joy and the Emperor's anthem ; Beethoven and the Concert of Europe ; The Ninth symphony
Political reception of the Ode to joy. The romantic cult ; The 1845 ceremony at Bonn ; The Ninth in the era of nationalist movements ; The 1927 centenary ; Beethoven as Führer ; From year zero to the European anthem ; From apartheid's anthem to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall
Conclusion : Criticism and future of a dream
Translated from the French