Forever bringing joy
When Oxford University Press first asked Alex Rehding, Fanny Peabody Professor of Music, to write about one of the most iconic compositions in the history of music, the Harvard scholar wondered what he could possibly say that hadn’t been said before. “Part of the challenge with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is that it’s the most written-about piece in the Western musical canon,” said Rehding on a recent morning in his Paine Hall office. “My first question was: ‘Do we really need another book on the Ninth?’” His final answer: Yes, we do. In time, the Fanny Peabody Professor of Music realized there was plenty new to say about Beethoven’s last complete symphony in four movements, which includes the stirring chorale finale “Ode to Joy.” And so he signed on to write a book about the Ninth as part of an Oxford series on canonical scores. “In the last 20 years, there have been so many...