Joyce Maier wrote:

>...  The rough opening passage is a recapitulation of the theme of sad and
>angry first movement.  Beethoven wants to chase them away with addition of
>those words and then, after this feeling has hastily left, then it's time
>to sing and shout for joy.  Gone is the depression and mania is here to
>stay (maybe)!  There's a resemblance to some bars of finale of the 5th,
>roughly half-way.  Also those bars are a reminder less pleasant feelings,
>in this case expressed in the third movement.

I appreciate Pablo's explanation and yours.  While I have lived w/
the Ninth Symphony for over 50 years, i.e., I have been listening to it
frequently during that time, it never occurred to me that "nicht diese
Toene" (note the plural) referred to the very brief passage preceding this
exhortation rather than to the recapitulation of parts from each of the
earlier three movements.

What makes the matter even more confusing for me is that the "O Freunde..."
passage comes *after* the "Ode to Joy" theme is played and played with.
Your explanation, which I don't necessarily reject, would mean that LvB
treats us to reminders of the separate movements that had gone before,
each fascinating in its individual way, followed by the new "Ode to Joy"
theme, which is itself developed at some length, after which the soloist
rejects the rough-hewn opening notes to the movement (which but for their
repetition here would have been superseded in our consciousness by the
summaries from the symphony's earlier and impending movements) in favor
of the "Ode to Joy".  Musically, it may work fine.  From a narrative
standpoint, the recapitulated earlier movements and anticipation of
the final movement make no sense along side the presentation of that
final movement as more comfortable and joyful ("angenehmere...und
freudenvollere") tones than the brief, unrefined introduction to the
final movement.  In short, if you want to show that the Mona Lisa is a
finer picture than a hastily drawn political cartoon, you don't also show
us a Rafael Madonna, Rembrandt's Night Watch, and Velazquez's Maids of
Honor first.

All of which, I guess proves, that music and narrative arts don't always
follow the same track.

Walter Meyer