Which Beethoven composition is known as the “Choral” Symphony?

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is known as the “Choral” Symphony.

Completed in 1824, it is officially titled Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. The nickname refers to its final movement, which features solo vocalists and a chorus—an unusual addition to a major symphony at the time. That movement sets Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” in a text adapted by Beethoven.

The first performance took place in Vienna on 7 May 1824. Beethoven was by then profoundly deaf, and accounts state that he stood onstage during the performance. The work’s combination of orchestra, voices, and an expansive musical structure made it one of the most influential symphonies in the Western classical tradition.

The “Ode to Joy” melody is not the title of the entire composition. It is the best-known theme from the fourth movement. The European Union adopted an instrumental arrangement of that theme as its official anthem in 1985.