It has been suggested that Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the most significant work of Western music ever composed, and even today, most people on the street could hum you a bar or two of the ‘Ode to Joy’ if you asked. But the 9th is a huge score which represents something far more significant than a single pretty melody – it was one of those pieces that broke through old taboos, advanced composition into a new phase, and inspired (and intimidated) a generation of younger composers. Still, when the only known working manuscript of the 9th hit the block at Sotheby’s this week, bidding went slowly, with the score eventually selling for £2.133 million to an anonymous phone bidder. Sotheby’s had hoped for more, but the sum was one of the highest ever paid for such a work.