9th Symphony facts

While investigating facts about 9th Symphony, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Gustav Mahler was superstitious and strongly believed in the Curse of the Ninth, where composers can only compose nine symphonies before they die. He tried to beat superstition by calling his 9th symphonic work a "song cycle," then began work on his 10th symphony and died.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony is traditionally performed in Japan at the end of the year, which was introduced in WWI by German prisoners. In December 2009, for example, there were 55 performances of the symphony throughout Japan

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 17 of the best facts about 9th Symphony I managed to collect.

1. The developers of the compact disc (CD) chose its playing time to ensure that Beethoven's 9th symphony (70 minutes) could be played on a single disc.

2. When co-inventing the CD, Sony and Phillips agreed the length should be 74 minutes as to fit Beethoven's 9th Symphony

3. The standard diameter of a CD is 12cm because it must hold all of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

4. CDs are 74 minutes long because Sony's Norio Ohga wanted the new medium to hold Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

5. In response to criticism for not following "standard form" in his compositions, Beethoven composed the second scherzo movement of his 9th symphony in "standard" triple time, but punctuated it so it sounded like it was in quadruple time.

6. By the time Beethoven wrote his 9th and final symphony (age 53) he was so deaf he couldn't tell if people were applauding

7. Audio CDs are 74 minutes long because that is the length of the longest recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony

8. By the time Beethoven wrote his 9th symphony, his most iconic, he was already completely deaf

9. The capacity of the CDs was initially set to contain the whole London Philarmonic Orchestra's performance of the 9th symphony of Beethoven.

10. In December 1989, to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, Leonard Bernstein and an international orchestra & chorus performed in Berlin a version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, in which Freude (Joy) was changed to Freiheit (Freedom).

What is true about 9th symphony?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

The 74-minute standard on a CD was chosen because it was long enough for a full performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony

Composer John Williams sampled music from Antonìn Dvorâk's 9th Symphony in Jaws and Star Wars - source

When Philips and Sony developed the compact disc format in the late 1970s, they specifically set its maximum length at 74 minutes to ensure that a single disc could hold all of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. - source

CD capacity was specifically determined to hold the length of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

The length of the CD was set to allow it to hold the entire Beethoven's 9th symphony, the favorite piece of music of Sony president Norio Ohga (& more from David Byrne's awesome book) - source