"Ode to Joy" (German: "An die Freude" [an diː ˈfʁɔʏdə], literally "To [the] Joy") is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, ...
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playwright, and historian Friedrich Schiller and published the following year in Thalia. A slightly revised version appeared in 1808, changing two lines of the first and omitting the last stanza.
"Ode to Joy" is best known for its use by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final (fourth) movement of his Ninth Symphony, completed in 1824. Beethoven´s text is not based entirely on Schiller´s poem, and it introduces a few new sections. His tune (but not Schiller´s words) was adopted as the "Anthem of Europe" by the Council of Europe in 1972 and subsequently by the European Union. Rhodesia´s national anthem from 1974 until 1979, "Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia", used the tune of "Ode to Joy".
