Choral Symphony

A choral symphony is a symphony that includes a choir, and often vocal soloists, among its performing forces, setting text as part of the symphonic argument rather than as an appended cantata. The form was created by *Ludwig van Beethoven*, whose Ninth Symphony of 1824 set Schiller's "Ode to Joy" in its finale and established the choir as a legitimate symphonic resource. *Gustav Mahler* expanded the model across his Second, Third and Eighth symphonies, and later examples by composers including *Dmitri Shostakovich*, *Ralph Vaughan Williams* and *Igor Stravinsky* place voices at the centre of liturgical, literary and political statements on a monumental scale.