Distinguished Professor Dr. James Parsons of the Department of Music has been invited to present at a conference commemorating the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

The symphony was first heard in Vienna, Austria, May 7, 1824.

Parsons and six other Beethoven scholars will present their research at the Center for Beethoven Research at Boston University March 27, 2024.

Paper calls for new examination of “Ninth’s” choral finale

Because Beethoven’s “Ninth” was the first to join voices and instruments, it has garnered the attention of music scholars like Parsons.

In his conference paper, “What the Choral Fantasy can tell us about the Choral Finale,” Parsons examines the relationship between Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Opus 80 (1808) and the choral finale of the Ninth Symphony, Opus 125 (1824).

“The principal themes of both Fantasy and finale are remarkably similar,” Parsons said. “What no one previously has discussed is how the texts of both Fantasy and finale are also similar.”

When researching the 1808 sketches for the “Choral Fantasy,” Parsons discovered that Beethoven wrote part of the text, with the Viennese writer and poet Christoph Kuffner completing the piece using Beethoven’s “hints.”

Scholars have dismissed the 1808 pieces as “cloying” and “clumsy” and not worth serious consideration, Parsons said, but ignoring the 1808 piece has presented problems in understanding the history of the “Ninth.”

“Taking the ‘Choral Fantasy’s’ text seriously and then the relationship between words and music, a very different story can be told, one that tells us something new about the Fantasy itself and the finale of the ‘Ninth,’” Parsons explained.

Famous “Ode to Joy” segment highlights Enlightenment-era ideas

Parsons has identified how Beethoven’s texts reflect the Enlightenment philosophy of Friedrich Schiller, who wrote “Ode to Joy” in 1786.

“The text of the ‘Choral Fantasy’ is very much imbued with the spirit of eighteenth-century Enlightenment,” Parsons said. “[It] closely relates to the poem Beethoven set in the ‘Ninth,’ which of course is Schiller’s 1786 ‘Ode to Joy.’”

“All of this invites a reconsideration of the choral finale of the ‘Ninth,’ one in which it is seen that the text of the ‘Ninth’s’ last movement is much more than a paean to the fellowship of mankind,” Parsons continued.

“The choral finale’s text celebrates joy as the reward granted those who attain Enlightenment.”

A passion for thinking about and investigating music history

Parsons joined Missouri State’s music department in 1995 and serves as its only music historian.

“Based on my training, I teach virtually the entire history of what most people call ‘classical’ music,” Parsons said.

He teaches music history survey courses ranging from the Fall of the Roman Empire to contemporary times, as well as upper-level period courses such as Renaissance, Baroque and 19th Century Romanticism.

“I love the music history teaching I get to do at MSU because I get to cover the proverbial waterfront,” Parsons said.

During his undergraduate studies at Florida State University, Parsons switched from performance to music history, even though he was already accomplished in piano, clarinet and cello.

“I soon discovered that my passion was thinking about music, investigating it, and trying to style what I discovered into something others might like to read,” he explained.

“My interest in music history was only furthered by graduate work at the University of North Texas, where I earned the PhD in musicology in 1992.”

In addition to Beethoven studies, Parsons specializes in the German Lied or “art song.” He has edited and contributed two essays to “The Cambridge Companion to the Lied” (2004), published by Cambridge University Press.

An appreciation for “different Beethovens”

Parsons wishes more people understood the complexity and diversity of Beethoven’s range of expression.

“As an individual, Beethoven frequently appears to have been gruff and impatient—not a people person,” Parsons said. Yet he believes Beethoven’s work illustrates he was “the consummate people person.”

Beethoven, who endured great adversity all his life, seemed to “make peace with the various misfortunes he encountered,” Parsons continued. “Listen to the third movement of his String Quartet No. 15 or the slow movement of the ‘Ninth,’ and you’ll discover that even when things seem grim, they never give in to despair; indeed, just the opposite is the case.”

“I appreciate these ‘many Beethovens,’” Parsons said, “the Beethoven who can storm the heavens – as in the last movement of the ‘Ninth’ – and the sustained attention he can devote to introspective self-reflection.”

“I never get bored with Beethoven.”