By JUDITH CLURMAN

Last year Bruce Kovner, Juilliard’s chairman, donated a priceless collection of rare music manuscripts to the School’s library. As a result, Juilliard now houses a treasure trove of works by Mahler, Purcell, Schumann, Strauss, Stravinsky, and other notable composers. But perhaps the grandest and most famous piece in the Juilliard manuscript collection is a working copy of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, prepared for the printer by as many as four copyists and showing a number of revisions, corrections, and alterations in Beethoven’s own hand. In recognition of this great gift, the Juilliard Orchestra and Choral Union, under Maestro James DePreist, will be performing this masterpiece on May 23 in Avery Fisher Hall at the annual commencement concert. Pages from the manuscript will be on display at that time.

From the Juilliard Manuscript Collection: The engraver’s proof of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony contains hundreds of markings and annotations by the composer, and raises some interesting questions. For example, the accent marks on the words “Menschen” and “Brüder” (at the poco adagio) are two distinctly different sizes. Was the copyist careless? What did Beethoven intend here?

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (“Choral”) is one of the most famous and beloved pieces of classical music ever written. The “Ode to Joy,” the last movement of this monumental symphony, is a setting of a poem by Friedrich Schiller, sung by four soloists and a full chorus. The words are a call for brotherhood and world peace. Its simple “folk” melody is known by children of all generations. It became very popular when used in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange and, more recently, has been used in television commercials. The symphony also symbolizes many things to different countries and people. In 1986 it was named the anthem of the European Union. In December 1989, in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Leonard Bernstein conducted the work and changed the last movement from an “Ode to Joy” to an “Ode to Freedom.” He substituted the word “Freiheit” (freedom) for “Freude” (joy).

Juilliard’s performance of the Ninth takes place 183 years after its premiere on May 7, 1824, in Vienna’s Kärntnertortheater. The program that evening—like ours—was all-Beethoven. It included the Consecration of the House Overture, the premiere of three movements of the Missa Solemnis (the Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei), and the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. At that performance the chorus and soloists (who must have been exhausted singing both these monumental vocal works), probably stood in front of the orchestra! I would like to try that someday.

Thanks to Jane Gottlieb, Juilliard’s vice president for library and information resources, I have had the pleasure of studying a digital copy of the manuscript of the Ninth Symphony’s final movement. I do not profess to be a Beethoven expert or a musicologist, yet I have been able to make some basic observations about the score after studying Beethoven’s working copy. In preparing the Choral Union for the coming performance, I compared the manuscript to various published orchestral and vocal scores. I concerned myself with every dynamic, accent, and staccato marking in the orchestral parts and compared and contrasted them with the vocal solo and choral lines. I checked every note of the manuscript with the printed score and studied the use of punctuation in the vocal solo and choral parts. Here are some of my observations.

The manuscript is basically easy to read. It contains some X’s and sundry markings and scribbles, some of which are difficult to decipher. A few notes are crossed out, and some measures seem stuffed to the brim with notes while others appear much sparser. The size of quarter and half notes differs from one section to the next. It is obvious that certain sections were copied more carefully than others. Beethoven, who was completely deaf when he wrote the Ninth Symphony, was not always perfectly clear with his markings, for example, with his ledger lines, and it must have been difficult at times for his copyists to decipher a pitch.

2007 Commencement Concert Juilliard Orchestra and Choral Union James DePreist, Conductor Judith Clurman, Choral Union Director Avery Fisher Hall Wed., May 23, 8 p.m. See the Calendar of Events for ticket information.

Beethoven seems to have treated Schiller’s text with great care. This manuscript shows legible punctuation that follows the poetry accurately in the vocal lines in both the choral and solo sections. All the periods and commas are there, so that any chorus and soloists would be able to perform the phrases properly and consistently. The distinction between the choral and solo parts is neat.

I found it fascinating that the initial phrasing of the “folk” theme in the cello section is marked differently from the way the melody is phrased in the rest of the movement. Was this intentional or an error, or did Beethoven finally decide what he wanted in later expositions of the theme? For the most part, the dynamic markings are crystal clear; a few times they are cluttered in a busy instrumental or vocal passage and are difficult to find and/or read. Sometimes there is a dynamic marking next to a note rather than under it. A couple of times the word sempre has been added to a forte or piano in printed performing editions of the work even though it is not found in the manuscript. I also wonder if the composer intended for every dynamic marking to be the same in the orchestral and choral parts. The words crescendo (cresc.) and diminuendo (dim.) are written out fully (rather than using the customary hairpin symbols). The use of accents is clear, even though some performing editions do not make the distinction between the staccato and accent marks.

While studying the score, two bars raised particular questions for me. The first, measure 635, is one of the most profound moments in all of music. The text is: “Ahnest du den Schöpfer? (“Do you feel the Creator’s presence?”) Printed vocal and orchestral scores have the chorus starting pianissimo (pp) and making a crescendo on these words. In the manuscript the orchestral score is marked with a pp but this is never added in the choral lines. Was this an error? Should one stick to the printed editions and historic performance traditions? Or should this be taken literally? Would the sense of awe about the creator be present in the music if the chorus did not make the sudden pianissimo and then a crescendo? Would it even be more exciting to crescendo through these notes and words? Choruses also sing detaché on the word “Schöpfer” in bar 637. There is a little dot over the last syllable (“fer”) found only in the soprano part of the manuscript. Is this intentional? Does this mean staccato? Is it a smudge on the page? Did Beethoven want this word separated?

Measure 811 is another fantastic musical moment. The word “Brüder” ends the phrase “Alle Menschen werden Brüder” (“All men become brothers”). In the printed scores there is an accent on the first syllable of the word “Brüder” as there is in the preceding measure on the first syllable of the word “Menschen” (“men”). The manuscript has a small and concise accent mark on the word “Menschen.” Yet one measure later, the accent on the word “Brüder” is different. It is a longer mark. What did Beethoven want in this bar? Was the copyist careless? Was Beethoven perhaps excited when he first wrote this? After all, this line summarizes the essence of the entire work. Was Beethoven writing a one-beat diminuendo on this note? What makes sense?

I look forward to speaking to some Beethoven scholars about my findings and questions. In any case, the opportunity to study this manuscript has been inspiring and I await the coming concert with great anticipation.

Judith Clurman is the School’s director of choral activities and director of the Juilliard Choral Union.