Prolog

Aribert Reimann builds his Prolog in the opposite direction of the famous Ninth Symphony: whereas Beethoven ends his Symphony with the choral hymn Ode to Joy, Reimann begins his composition with an a cappella choral movement using lines of poetry which Friedrich Schiller omitted in the later version of his poem, and which were never set to music by Beethoven.

In these explicitly political passages, Schiller urges individuals to liberate themselves from the ‘tyrants’ chains’ and to let the ‘lying brood perish’; he pleads with mankind to reconcile friend with foe. Reimann only permits the (string) orchestra to enter at the conciliatory line: ‘The dead, too, should live’. 'Just before the end of the prologue I have reiterated the first line, "Escape the tyrants’ chains", here sung in unison by the entire choir as an urgent appeal in view of all that is taking place in the world today.' (Aribert Reimann)