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Applied Humanities

Themes in Music Beethoven By Alisha Nypaver 2 Module Two: Introduction to the Humanities, continued / Page 2.3.2 Beethoven On this page: 0 of 8 attempted (0%) Objective: Learn how motifs can be used to tie a piece of music together and invest it with meaning.

Example Two

On this page, you will analyze a musical work using the strategies outlined on the How to Listen to Music page. Be sure to download the detailed description of the music—it might help you with your analysis.

Now we will turn to the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, written between 1804 and 1808. This iconic work features one of the most recognizable openings of all time: short-short-short-long. This rhythmic motif becomes the main building block of the entire first movement and appears in all three subsequent movements of the work, albeit in a subtler form.

Beethoven: Symphony no. 5, Movement I (Allegro con brio)

Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67: Movement I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van Beethoven. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of

the music, follow the transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

Having trouble? Try our alternate player.

Impressions

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Like Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” it is likely that you have heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and its iconic opening, which has been featured in cartoons and movies, and even appears in the theme music for the television show Judge Judy.

As you listen to this work, consider the following questions:

What one major emotion or idea do you think the music is trying to convey? What are some of the musical elements you find contributing to this emotion? What similarities to “Ride of the Valkyries” do you hear?

Response Board What major emotion or idea do you think the music is trying to convey?

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Contextualization

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) is one of the most famous composers of Western classical music. Unlike many composers who came before him who were under pressure to write as much music as possible to please their listeners, Beethoven carefully crafted and revised his masterpieces over and over again, often taking years to finish a single piece as he experimented with different ways to express his musical ideas. For comparative purposes, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a near-contemporary of Beethoven who lived only to the age of 35, wrote 41 symphonies. Beethoven, who lived to be 56, completed only nine. The Fifth Symphony alone took him four years to complete and went through many transformations before it reached its final form.

Beethoven’s musical style is considered revolutionary. His work had a profound influence on a large number of subsequent composers, including Richard Wagner. Beethoven’s notable style built upon and expanded the forms and conventions of the Classical era. His musical innovations are generally considered to be the impetus behind the start of the Romantic era in music.

As you read on the previous page, Wagner used distinctive melodies throughout his operas to represent and connect important characters and objects. The idea of linking thematic material across the four movements in his 16-hour-long Ring cycle may have come from Beethoven, who used the same rhythmic idea (known as a motif) to link all four movements of his Fifth Symphony. This rhythmic idea, a pattern that can be described as short-short-short-long (S-S-S-L), is the building block upon which the entire first movement of the symphony is based. Using a common element to link

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symphonic movements may seem like an obvious thing to do, but it was actually quite radical for the time.

While the enduring popularity of Beethoven’s music is a testament to its quality, his music is doubly remarkable when you consider that the composer was deaf for much of his adult life. In 1801, three years before he began work on the Fifth Symphony, he was so distressed by his loss of hearing that he seriously contemplated ending his own life. In a letter to his brothers, he claimed that he was on the “verge of despair” but that he felt compelled to endure his “wretched existence” until he had produced all the music he was destined to share with the world. After Beethoven pulled through this dark patch in his life, his music began to take on a more powerful quality. See if you can hear that power in this piece.

Analysis

Listen to the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, paying special attention to the short-short-short-long (S-S-S-L) motif.

Beethoven: Symphony no. 5, Movement I (Allegro con brio)

Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67: Movement I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van Beethoven. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of

the music, follow the transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

Having trouble? Try our alternate player.

Timbre

There are four major families of instruments: strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion. Which group of instruments is featured at the very beginning?

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Does this group always get to play the S-S-S-L motif, or is it passed around to other instruments?

Texture

The beginning of this work is played in unison, meaning that the instruments play the same pitches at the same time. Writing a unison passage for a symphonic work was a very unusual choice. It wasn’t Beethoven’s first choice, either; he left a number of musical sketches for alternate openings, but ultimately he preferred the dramatic effect of many instruments playing the same thing at the same time.

Short-Answer Question

Listen to the segment lasting from 0:46 to 1:41. Where in this segment does another unison passage occur? Use time markers to make your answer specific.

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Pitch

In the beginning of the movement, the S-S-S-L motif consists of three of the same short pitches followed by one longer, lower pitch. However, Beethoven does not always use the same pitch pattern for this motif. For example, about one minute into the work, the basses (the lowest members of the string family) play the motif in an inverted form, low-low-low-high rather than high-high-high-low.

Short-Answer Question

Note the time of one other place where you hear the S-S-S-L motif, and describe the pitch patterns.

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Rhythm

The short-short-short-long rhythm dominates the first movement of this symphony, but there are other rhythmic layers happening as well. At one point, Beethoven shapes the

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rhythmic motif into a “battle” between the strings and woodwinds. For example, from 3:35 to 3:44, the motif is reduced to a two-note call-and-response. The woodwinds and brass start the call and are answered by the strings. Beethoven keeps breaking down this motif until it is reduced to just one note tossed back and forth between the two instrument families.

Short-Answer Question

At what time stamp do you hear the battle reach this point of tossing one note back and forth?

No response saved yet. Short-Answer Question

Allegro con brio means “fast” and “with fire.” What about this symphony is “fiery”?

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Dynamics

Short-Answer Question

This piece opens with a dramatic forte (loud) dynamic, and Beethoven plays off the idea of loud versus soft throughout the symphony. What dynamic level does he employ at the end of this movement, and how does it contribute to the overall theme or meaning of the work?

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Form

This movement follows a basic structural template called sonata form. Sonata form is a three-part structure developed during the Classical era, and it consists of an exposition, development, and a recapitulation. This movement also contains a coda, or closing part, which gives the piece four distinct musical sections.

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The first section is called the exposition, and it introduces the main musical themes of the movement. If you listen carefully, you will hear the entire exposition repeated verbatim and ending around 2:49. Many composers wrote music in this form so that their audience would remember the main musical themes and be able to recognize them in whole or in part when they reappeared later in the piece.

Short-Answer Question

Where does the repeat of the exposition start in this recording?

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In the second section, called the development (2:50 to 4:08), the main musical ideas from the exposition are, as the name implies, developed. Listen to how the S-S-S-L motif is expanded, broken down, inverted, and rearranged.

The recapitulation (4:09 to 5:44) follows the development. It provides a “recap” of the exposition by playing it one more time before moving to a closing section known as a coda (5:45 to end).

One interpretation of this S-S-S-L motif is that it represents fate knocking at the door. As you listen again, think about this idea.

Beethoven: Symphony no. 5, Movement I (Allegro con brio)

Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67: Movement I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van Beethoven. Performed by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra. For a detailed description of

the music, follow the transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

Having trouble? Try our alternate player.

Short-Answer Question

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If this symphony is about the inevitability of fate (which, in Beethoven’s case, was the tragic onset of his deafness), what statement do you think Beethoven could have been trying to make in this first movement?

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