Beethoven's Ninth
The most misunderstood symphony in history was Beethoven's Ninth. Even if you're not into music, the story of Beethoven's 9th symphony is fascinating. For over 150 years, critics mistakenly assumed that Beethoven must have been lying when he said it was his most unique and complex piece. Though powerful, the work seemed to have no unity, so the critics assumed the 9th was merely a compilation of earlier works. The critics blew it off as garbage.
Then, a few musicians in the 20th century began to note all the sub themes running throughout the music. And as those themes were noted, the whole symphony opened up in all its beauty and power. Ultimately, the composition became recognized in all its greatness. Beethoven's Symphony #9 was understood as a unified whole. And once the unity was understood, the impact became remarkable.
When the European Union wanted to select an anthem to represent all of European civilization, Beethoven's 9th was the obvious choice, particularly the final movement - the Ode of Joy. Further, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony appears to have influenced the development of the compact disc. Philips and Sony were the companies that had started work on the new cd audio format in 1979. As they experimented with different sizes, Sony chairman Norio Ohga insisted that the CD be able to contain a complete performance of the Ninth Symphony. Since the longest known performance of Beethoven's 9th lasted 74 minutes, that became the longest playing time of a CD. A diameter of 12 centimeters was required for this playing time. Therefore, a cd is 12 cm around because that's what it took to fit all of the 9th on one.
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