About Ode To Joy
"Ode to Joy" is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller and published the following year in Thalia.
It is best known for its use by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, which does not set the entire poem and reorders some sections (Beethoven's text is given in that article). Beethoven's tune (but not Schiller's words) was adopted as the Anthem of Europe by the Council of Europe in 1972, and subsequently the European Union.