Editing Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) (section)

==Reception==
The symphony was dedicated to the [[King of Prussia]], [[Frederick William III]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Solomon|first=Maynard|author-link=Maynard Solomon|title=Beethoven: The Nobility Pretense|journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]|date=April 1975|volume=61|issue=2|pages=272–294|doi=10.1093/mq/LXI.2.272|jstor=741620}}</ref>

Music critics almost universally consider the Ninth Symphony one of Beethoven's greatest works, and among the greatest musical works ever written.<ref name=NCookblurb /><ref name=TomServiceSymphGuide /> The finale, however, has had its detractors: "Early critics rejected [the finale] as cryptic and eccentric, the product of a deaf and ageing composer."<ref name=NCookblurb /> [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] admired the first three movements but lamented what he saw as the bad writing for the voices in the last movement:

{{Blockquote
|text=The alpha and omega is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, marvellous in the first three movements, very badly set in the last. No one will ever approach the sublimity of the first movement, but it will be an easy task to write as badly for voices as in the last movement. And supported by the authority of Beethoven, they will all shout: "That's the way to do it..."<ref>Letter of April 1878 in ''Giuseppe Verdi: Autobiografia delle Lettere'', Aldo Oberdorfer ed., Milano, 1941, p. 325.</ref>
|author=Giuseppe Verdi
|source=1878
|title=}}