An die Freude

An die Freude, Schiller's ‘Ode to Joy’, written in 1785 in the first flush of new happiness with his Leipzig friends. It uses cosmic images to elevate joy into something universal. The original version, published in Die Thalia in 1786, consisted of nine strophes with nine choruses, but Schiller later deleted the last strophe and chorus. Beethoven used the first three strophes and the first, third, and fourth choruses as the text for the last movement of his Ninth Symphony.