Symphony No. 5 Beethoven: Encyclopedia II - Symphony No. 5 Beethoven - Form

Symphony No. 5 Beethoven - Form

The work is in four movements:

The first three movements are scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and the usual string section of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. In the fourth movement, a piccolo, a contrabassoon and three trombones (alto, tenor and bass) are added.^[18] A performance of the work lasts about 35 minutes.

Symphony No. 5 Beethoven - Key

The key of the Fifth, C minor, is commonly regarded as a special key for Beethoven. For him, this key represents a "stormy, heroic tonality"^[19] that he uses for "works of unusual intensity"^[20] or that it is "reserved for his most dramatic music".^[21]

Several other Beethoven works in C minor illustrate this point, including the Piano sonata, Opus 10 no. 1 (1795–98), the Piano sonata, Opus 13, "Pathetique" (1798), the Eroica Symphony's second "Funeral March" movement (1803), and the Piano sonata, Op. 111 (1822).

Symphony No. 5 Beethoven - First movement

The first movement opens with the four-note motif discussed above, one of the most famous in western music. The motif is repeated in various forms throughout the symphony and unites it thematically. There is considerable debate among conductors as to the manner of playing the four opening. Some conductors take it in strict allegro tempo; others take the liberty of a weighty treatment, playing the motif in a much slower and more stately tempo; yet others take the three Gs and the Fs 'molto ritardano' (slowing through each four-note phrase), arguing that the pause marks authorize this.^[16]

The first movement is in the traditional sonata form that Beethoven inherited from his Classical Austrian predecessors, Haydn and Mozart (in which the main ideas that are introduced in the first few pages undergo elaborate development through many keys, with a dramatic return to the opening section—the recapitulation—about three-quarters of the way through). Following the first four bars, the ideas are subjected to free contrapuntal imitations on the motif; these pithy imitations tumble over each other with such rhythmic regularity that they appear to form a single, flowing melody. Shortly after, a second theme is introduced by the horns, a melodic extension of the first theme. Following a brief contrapuntal elaboration, the theme dies out in a "characteristical Beethoven moment of exhaustion", at which point the first theme reasserts itself.^[16] The movement includes a recitative for solo oboe just after the start of the recapitulation, and a massive coda to finish the movement.

Symphony No. 5 Beethoven - Second movement

The second movement, in A-flat major, is a lyrical work in double variation form, which means that two themes are presented and varied in alternation. Following the variations there is a long coda. The choice of A-flat major to follow a movement in C minor was a common technique of Beethoven's. He used it in both his "Pathetique" Sonata and 6th Violin Sonata (Opus 30, No. 1).^[22]

It opens with an announcement of its theme, a melody in unison by violas, cellos, and double basses. A second theme soon follows, with a harmony provided by clarinets, bassoons, violins, with a triplet arpeggio in the violas and bass. A variation first theme reasserts itself. This is followed up by a third theme, thirty-second notes in the violas and cellos with a counterphrase running in the flute, oboe and bassoon. Following an interlude, the whole orchestra participates in a fortissimo, leading to a series of crescendos, and a coda to close the movement.^[23]

Symphony No. 5 Beethoven - Third movement

The third movement is in ternary form, consisting of a scherzo and trio. It follows the traditional mold of Classical-era symphonic third movements, containing in sequence the main scherzo, a contrasting trio section, a return of the scherzo, and a coda. (For further discussion of this form, see "Textual questions", below.)

The movement returns to the opening key of C minor and begins with the following theme, played by the cellos and double basses:

The composer and writer on music Antony Hopkins has pointed out that this theme has the same sequence of pitches (though in a different key and range) as the opening theme of the final movement of Mozart's famous Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550. ^[24] Here is Mozart's theme:

While such resemblances sometimes occur by accident, this is unlikely to be so in the present case. In the earliest sketchbook used by Beethoven for composing the Fifth Symphony appear 29 measures of Mozart's finale, copied out by Beethoven.

The opening theme is answered by a contrasting theme played by the winds, and this sequence is repeated. Then the horns loudly announce the main theme of the movement, and the music proceeds from there.

The trio section is in C major and is written in a contrapuntal texture. When the scherzo returns for the final time, it is performed by the strings pizzicato and very quietly.

In the final coda, the music drops to a whisper before slowly building in a huge crescendo and transitioning without interruption to the fourth movement. This final passage takes the music from C minor to the C major of the finale. (Beethoven had tried a similar key change from B flat minor to B flat major at the opening of his Symphony No. 4.)

"The scherzo offers contrasts that are somewhat similar to those of the slow movement in that they derive from extreme difference in character between scherzo and trio ... The Scherzo then contrasts this figure with the famous 'motto' (3 + 1) from the first movement, which gradually takes command of the whole movement." ^[25]

Symphony No. 5 Beethoven - Fourth movement

The triumphant and exhilarating finale begins without interruption after the scherzo. It is written in an unusual variant of sonata form: at the end of the development section, the music halts on a dominant cadence, played fortissimo, and the music continues after a pause with a quiet reprise of the "horn theme" of the scherzo movement. The recapitulation is then introduced by a crescendo coming out of the last bars of the interpolated scherzo section, just as the same music was introduced at the opening of the movement.

In this movement, Beethoven used both the trombone (formerly mainly used in opera) and the piccolo for the first time in a symphony. Both instruments were to become part of the standard symphony orchestra later in the 19th century.

There is a very long coda, in which the main themes of the movement are played in temporally compressed form. At the end the tempo is increased to presto. The symphony ends with 29 bars of C major chords, played fortissimo.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Form", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki