Day 198: Beethoven Symphonies 5 & 6

BeethovenCD3So famous is Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony that people around the world can identify it by its initial four notes.

In fact, an entire book has been written about that quartet of notes: The First Four Notes: Beethoven’s Fifth and the Human Imagination by Matthew Guerrieri.

From Guerrieri’s exceptional book:

The pitches of the opening phrase produce their own ambiguity, albeit one that, given the symphony’s familiarity is, again, well-nigh impossible to recapture. The Fifth is in C minor, a key forever associated with Beethoven in his most heaven-storming moods. But, strictly speaking, C minor is not actually established until the seventh measure of the first movement. Beethoven exploits a quirk of music theory concerning the triad, one of the basic building blocks of Western music: a stack of three notes, the first, third, and fifth notes of the major or minor scale. If you take away one of the notes of a triad, it starts to, in effect, gesture in two directions at once. So the first two pitches of the Fifth Symphony, G and E-flat, might be two-thirds of a C-minor triad, or they may be two-thirds of an E-flat major triad. The second pair of pitches, F and D, could be part of a dominant-seventh chord built on G (the most basic harmonic antecedent of a C minor), or part of one built on B-flat (the most basic harmonic antecedent of E-flat major). From a music theory standpoint, the opening passage is playing fast and loose with the symphony’s key: until the cellos and bassoons anchor the motive with a sustained middle C in the seventh bar, there’s no way to tell whether the piece is in a major or a minor key. (From pages 12, 13.)

That’s fascinating. I had no idea. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I suggest you buy this book.

Back to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Arguably, this symphony is so famous that it’s become infamous. By that I mean it’s almost a caricature of itself, a parody. People rarely know it past those iconic first four notes.

And that’s a shame because Symphony No. 5 in C. Minor Op. 67 is remarkable, not only in its construction (which is exquisite) but also in its broad sweep from dynamic to pastoral, from seemingly angry (those opening notes!) to the gentle grace of its Movement II (“Andante con moto”) to the achingly beautiful depth and complexity of its Movement III (“Allegro”) to the unbridled exuberance of its Movement IV (“Allegro – Presto”).

There’s a lot more to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony than those first four notes. In toto, Symphony No. 5 is a piece of music unlike any you’re likely to experience in your lifetime. I was choking up listening to several passages (notably in Movement III

According to its entry on Wikipedia:

The Symphony No. 5 in C minor of Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 67, was written in 1804–1808. It is one of the best-known compositions in classical music, and one of the most frequently played symphonies. First performed in Vienna’s Theater an der Wien in 1808, the work achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterwards. E. T. A. Hoffmann described the symphony as “one of the most important works of the time”.

And this:

The Fifth Symphony had a long gestation. The first sketches date from 1804 following the completion of the Third Symphony. However, Beethoven repeatedly interrupted his work on the Fifth to prepare other compositions, including the first version of Fidelio, the Appassionata piano sonata, the three Razumovsky string quartets, the Violin Concerto, the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Fourth Symphony, and the Mass in C. The final preparation of the Fifth Symphony, which took place in 1807–1808, was carried out in parallel with the Sixth Symphony, which premiered at the same concert.

Beethoven was in his mid-thirties during this time; his personal life was troubled by increasing deafness. In the world at large, the period was marked by the Napoleonic Wars, political turmoil in Austria, and the occupation of Vienna by Napoleon’s troops in 1805.

The Fifth Symphony was premiered on 22 December 1808 at a mammoth concert at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna consisting entirely of Beethoven premieres, and directed by Beethoven himself. The concert lasted for more than four hours.

Wow. That’s a lot of Classical music to sit through, even with Beethoven himself directing it.

But can you imagine? I’ve often pointed out – when I studied Mozart and, most recently, Haydn – that it would have been an experience beyond description to have been in one of these premieres with the composers conducting…or, at least, in attendance. To think there were people who actually saw Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with Beethoven directing it! I can’t even wrap my head around that.

Beethoven was 38 when he completed and premiered his Symphony No. 5.

Here’s a sample of Movement III that I love so much:

At 5:13 I’m pretty sure some of it is missing since the version I have is 8:53. But, still, it’ll give you an idea of the beauty of this movement.

Symphony No. 6 in F Op. 68 “Pastoral” is precisely as it’s nickname suggests — gently sweeping music that I picture in my mind’s eye as the equivalent of stalks of wheat swaying to and and fro in the wind.

Suchet,+Beethoven+9780802122063By the way, I just started the book Beethoven: The Man Revealed by John Suchet. It appears to be the definitive work on Beethoven’s life, and a lively read to boot.

I could have chosen from a score (no pun intended) books on the life of Ludwig van Beethoven. But this one appeared to be the most in-depth and accessible.

So if you’re looking to know more about L.V.B., I recommend this bio by John Suchet.

Okay. Back to Symphony No. 6.

There’s some nice – and unexpected – flute work toward the end of Movement II (“Andante molto mosso”).

Overall, I’m less enamored with Symphony No. 6 than I have been with the previous symphonies. But only slightly less so. It’s still a majestic composition, especially some passages of Movement III (“Allegro – Sempre piu stretto – In tempo d’allegro”). It’s hard for me – not being a musicologist, remember – to describe what I’m hearing and what moves me in Movement III. A couple of times during this movement, the music gets kind of deep (low register) and sort of speedy, like a Celtic reel.

Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony:

The Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony (German Pastoral-Sinfonie), is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, and completed in 1808. One of Beethoven’s few works containing explicitly programmatic content, the symphony was first performed in the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808 in a four hour concert.

The work has become one of the central works of the symphonic repertoire. It is frequently performed, and has been often recorded.

Beethoven was a lover of nature who spent a great deal of his time on walks in the country. He frequently left Vienna to work in rural locations.

The first sketches of the Pastoral Symphony appeared in 1802. It was composed simultaneously with Beethoven’s more famous—and more fiery—Fifth Symphony. Both symphonies were premiered in a long and under-rehearsed concert in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 22 December 1808.

The composer said that the Sixth Symphony is “more the expression of feeling than painting”, a point underlined by the title of the first movement (“Awakening of cheerful feelings…”).

Of Movement III (the one I said reminded me of a Celtic reel), Wiki says this:

III. Allegro

This is a scherzo, which depicts country folk dancing and reveling. It is in F major, returning to the main key of the symphony.

The form of the movement is an altered version of the usual form for scherzi, in that the trio appears twice rather than just once, and the third appearance of the scherzo theme is truncated. Perhaps to accommodate this rather spacious arrangement, Beethoven did not mark the usual internal repeats of the scherzo and the trio. Theodor Adorno identifies this scherzo as the model for the scherzos by Anton Bruckner.

The final return of the theme conveys a riotous atmosphere with a faster tempo. The movement ends abruptly, leading without a pause into the fourth movement.

Ha! I told you so! “Country folk dancing”!

Yeah! I know my musical styles better than I thought I did.

Beethoven was 38 when Symphony No. 6 premiered. And, from what I’ve been reading, growing increasingly deaf.

That’s another mind blower for me. How did Beethoven compose such awe-inspiring music without being able to hear well, or at all?

These recordings of Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, are superb.

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