DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN (September 25, 2020) Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony—Part 5: “The Shepherd's Hymn, gratitude and Thanksgiving after the storm."Today we will continue to post both videos of the Pastoral Symphony. We will label “H” for Haitink ( the one with the score), and “F” for Furtwangler, when giving the times.
Yesterday we discussed the remarkable transition from "The Storm" (4th movement) to the 5th movement, which Beethoven labelled: "The Shepherd's Hymn, gratitude and Thanksgiving after the storm." The main theme we identified yesterday returns often, but it is different each time. The movement is a process of constant growth! The yodels and theme segments also re-appear as guideposts, and lead to many changes and discoveries.
The second theme, which emerges at (32:50 H 36:34 F), is so exuberant that we printed the entire theme as A (in the score attached below, labeled as “Pastoral Finale”). The main theme returns at (33:57 H 37:32 F), but is accompanied by pizzicato bass and modulates to a new key. Then we hear the third theme, played by the woodwinds (34:30 H 38:06 F). It is simple, and reminds us of the country dances from the third movement (See B in the attachment)
How Beethoven gets You to Join in the Compositional Process
After a lot of play, we come back to the main theme (35:44 H 39:23 F). Or do we? You hear it don't you? It is actually not stated. The running 16th notes touch on it sometimes, on the 1st and 4th beat of every measure, but no instrument sings it. Beethoven implies it through the accompaniment. You hear it in your mind, and you are drawn into the creative process, even if in a small way. Beethoven wants us to be active listeners, not passive ones. Which instrument has the melody? You do! You are part of the orchestra. The brass then enter and state the theme loudly. Then the exuberant theme 2 returns, and celebrates this triumph.
The music builds to a very moving point, where all you have is a bass arpeggio that always begins on F, and a descending scale (39:30 H 42:44 F). Why it is so moving we do not know, but we believe the function might be similar to the notion of a stretto in a Bach fugue, or a Chopin waltz. One might argue that the two notions of stretto are completely different, but they both serve, in a short but intense passage, to bring the entire composition, as a process, into the listener's mind as a whole. From there to the end, Beethoven reflects in a slow prayer-like, lymn-like manner, on the idea.
Something different is happening in this movement than the others. Many composers had great first movements, but faltered on the Finale. Others did great sometimes, and not as well at others. No-one ever composed Finales that transformed and transcended the entire work as well as Beethoven.
H
https://youtu.be/2HbBURnt9f4
F
https://youtu.be/RdSDzJWdNYA
As a bonus, we provide Beethoven’s WoO17–the "Eleven Mödlinger Dances"—that have long been believed to be composed for the band at the "Three Ravens Inn" in 1819.
Some modern scholars doubt its authenticity. However, Beethoven certainly did compose country dances. These German Dances—WoO8, are not disputed.
Whether the “Mödlinger Dances” are bona fide or not, the fact that Beethoven, while composing his great “Missa Solemnis”, took time out to write for a village band, tells us something about his great soul, and about classical music overall.