For many, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and in particular the finale “Ode to Joy”, is synonymous with the term “Classical music”.

It represents a huge achievement in the symphonic repertoire of the Classical Era, and part of that achievement is the fact that it was the first symphony to include voices.

This includes 4 vocal soloists, as well as a chorus.

However, with this grand achievement came a soprano part that has consistently intimidated singers for 2 centuries.

Before we dig into it, this blog post is based on the tonebase course on the same excerpt, taught by soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra.

If you want to watch the full lesson, click here to sign up for a free 14–day trial. 

If you want to get the full picture of the material in this post, we highly encourage you to check it out!

Initial considerations

Shoremount-Obra mentions that while it’s super nice to have a music stand so that way you can free your hands of having to hold a folder, most of the time, you’ll need to hold one.

To help engage your core a little more while dealing with the physicality of holding a folder, she recommends that while you sing, create a little tension on the folder, as if you’re smashing a bug.

By maintaining a little bit of pressure, you will engage your core more to help you manage the intense soprano lines.

Allegro assai: soprano entrance

Let’s jump to measure 283, where the soprano soloist enters.

The first thing to consider is how to keep the epiglottis open in moments as intense as this one.

Before moving on, try singing through this excerpt on “ba-dup”. This is intended to help you keep things open in the back of the throat (Shoremount-Obra demonstrates this in her course, which you can watch with a free trial).

You want to try to feel the sensation of not pushing the air, or the consonants when you add the words back in.

You can actually practice all excerpts in this piece with this “ba-dup technique, to help practice balancing things out.

Now, add the words back in. Remember how ba-dup ba-dup felt, and feel your consonants imploding.

Here’s another suggestion: because this tessitura is so high, it might be best to prioritize the beauty of sound over diction (some diction teachers might not like this one).

You’ll have so many other singers singing underneath you, so the consonants will still be heard clearly.

Allegro ma non tanto, measure 769

Let’s jump ahead to measure 769.

First of all, you want to really be sure that you roll the r on “Freu”. This will immediately release your tongue and keep the air moving.

Also, this section has a lot of dipthongs, with the “Deine” standing out. Gather your embouchure here and don’t let the sound get too bright on this syllable.

Let’s talk breathing in this section, since it’s a super long excerpt with virtually no cadence to breath.

It’s best to just sneak breaths in here as you can - the music is moving fast enough and nobody will really notice, and it will make your life much, much easier.

Tempo primo, measure 830

This section starts right on the passagio, on an open vowel.

Imagine you have two mouths: an “obvious” mouth, and a mouth right on your throat.

In Manuel Garcia’s 1841 Treatise on the Art of Singing, he famously says, “the real mouth of the singer ought to be the pharynx”. And this moment is an excellent example of this.

While in your mouth you’ll be thinking “ah”, in your throat, think “euh”.

When you get to the triplet, think of skipping through it like a leaf blowing in the wind. You want to keep it super light here, and maintain as much forward motion as possible, which will make this section much easier.

Conclusion

And there you have it, you should now be better equipped to handle this famous yet tricky soprano excerpt.

If you want to learn more about the best practice approaches for repertoire just like this, be sure to check out tonebase Voice.

You’ll find courses with the biggest names in classical voice, such as Sasha Cooke, John Holiday, Rod Gilfrey, and more.

And as a bonus, you’ll receive invitations to weekly live events, a forum of passionate singers, and custom annotated scores and workbooks like the excerpts shown above.

Click here to sign up!