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Beethoven’s Symphony Number 9 in D Minor, Opus 125

Beethoven’s Symphony Number 9 in D Minor, Opus 125 No other symphonic composition has met with such a broad and complex reception as Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony Number 9 in D minor, opus 125, popularly known as the Choral Symphony. The work marked an important development in 19th century music. In the finale, Beethoven set to music the German poet Friedrich von Schiller’s An die Freude (Ode to joy), the first time the human voice was included in a symphonic work. The symphony was first performed in Vienna on May 7, 1824. Its influence ever since has extended far beyond the field of music. The work has inspired poets, writers, and visual artists, and it has provoked aesthetic and philosophical argument and discussion. Above all, the symphony has at all times proclaimed to people of good will its message of joy and the global brotherhood of humanity. Composers influenced by the work have included Schubert, Berlioz, Brahms, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, and many others. The autograph score of Beethoven's Ninth is held, almost in its entirety, in the music department of Berlin State Library–Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Some sheets from the score that were removed in the 19th century are held at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn and in the National Library of France in Paris. The original score of the symphony was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2001, where it joins other outstanding monuments to the spiritual heritage of mankind.