The Eight Symphony , also called “Die Symphonie der Tausend”, reckons with four-part double choir, boys’ choir eight solo voices and full orchestra.
After having finished the composition, he wrote: “… It is the greatest thing that I have ever made. And so peculiar in content and form, that I can’t write about it. Imagine, that the universe begins to sound. No more human voices, but planets and suns are revolving.”
The first part is based on the hymn “Veni creator spiritus” by archbishop Hrabanus Maurus of Mainz (around 780-856). In the second part he set the final scene from Goethe’s Faust II to music.
He considered the Eight as his principal work, his message to mankind.