DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN (September 21, 2020)
To many listeners, Beethoven's “Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68”, is unique--a stand-alone. The Titan rests, taking a day off to commune with nature. It is indeed different, but in what way? The first sketch of the Sixth Symphony appeared in 1802 and was co-written with his Fifth Symphony. It was then premiered in December of 1808 in a long concert with the “Fifth Symphony” and the “Choral Fantasy”—the prelude the great “Ninth Symphony”. All this makes the Sixth much more interesting. Are they part of the same process of a great creative mind, or do they reflect a deep divide in that mind?
Beethoven was wary of "program music." He thought that music that became too descriptive would fail. For that reason, he labeled it "Pastoral Symphony-Recollections of Country Life", and cautioned that it was "More of an expression of feeling than painting". Although the work is by far the most programmatic composition that Beethoven ever wrote, he cautioned in his sketchbooks, "All painting in instrumental music, if pushed too far, is a failure," and "People will not require titles to recognize the general intention to be more a matter of feeling than painting in sound."
Thus, despite the fact that Beethoven gave descriptive titles to each movement in a way he never did before or after, he wanted it to be known that he was not trying to depict nature in its pristine purity, outside of man, but its effect on the mind of man, which Beethoven saw as part of nature.
Beethoven's love of nature is undisputed. What is sometimes missed, is its relationship to his creative impulses. These days, a high premium might be placed on music descriptive of nature freed of man. Beethoven is clear that man's activity is natural. The symphony even includes a depiction of country-folk destabilized by a storm. It's not just the storm, but its disruptive effect on people. Indeed, advocates of nature free of human beings, will have a hard time denying that Beethoven's portrayals are inspiring in a true and rare way.
His indication for the first movement is: "The Cheerful Impressions first Excited upon Arrival in the Country." Could any theme invoke that excitement as well as the one that opens this symphony? The pause at the end of that phrase suggests opening your lungs for a deep breath of fresh air.
There is more. This symphony is hardly thought of as pioneering in counterpoint. Yet it introduces something new. It is often characterized as repetitious, but really, it captures the murmuring quality of nature. Most of the themes in the first movement derive from that opening breath. The motivic development is unique. Listen to the first movement and hear in it repetition that is never repetitious:
The Sixth symphony can be performed in a superficial manner. We provide here a performance by Wilhelm Furtwangler that is anything by superficial! Please enjoy.
Beethoven was not a church-goer and is regarded by some as an atheist, yet he wrote:
"The vibrations of the air are God speaking to man's soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips..."
Can you hear that quality in the first movement?