Beethoven as a Choral Composer

Abstract

Here are the complaints about Beethoven as a choral composer which are so well known, particularly by those of us who have sung in performances of these two giant works. And yet may we thank God for Beethoven's obstinacy! In this century we have slowly come of age: lay audiences accept and cherish these two works, and responsible musicians consider the adequate preparation of the music, so clearly understood by Berlioz over a hundred years ago, as a sacred duty. Sopranos in particular, on whom Beethoven makes by far the greatest demands, have learned a combination of breath control and neutralized vocal sounds to sustain, for example, successive high B flats, so that passages like ‘sedes ad dexteram’ or ‘et vitam venturi’ in the Missa Solemnis are sung without that lessening of ‘volume and energy’ lamented by Berlioz.