 In 1824 , Beethoven redefined the symphony genre in his Ninth by introducing text and voice into a previously instrumental genre . His doing so sparked a debate on the future of the symphony itself . Beethoven 's use of words , according to Richard Wagner , had shown " the limits of purely instrumental music " and marked " the end of the symphony as a vital genre " . Others were not sure how to proceed — whether to emulate the Ninth by writing symphonies with choral finales , or to develop the symphony genre in a purely instrumental fashion . Eventually , musicologist Mark Evan Bonds writes , the symphony was seen " as an all @-@ embracing , cosmic drama that transcended the realm of sound alone " . 
