Beethoven Symphony No. 5, Opus. 67 in C-Minor

The Motivfuhrung and the Fifth Symphony-A detective story in 3-PARTS.

Part 1: What's the motive?

The Fifth Symphony of Beethoven is one of the most enduring and popular of his works . It is also one of the most over-analyzed. Such analyses can put one in a situation where you find new details in a work you have heard 50 times, but no new surprises. You already know how it ends. Let us put ourselves into the mindset of an audience hearing it for the first time, where everything was a surprise.

The work establishes a new level of what is known as the "Motivfuhrung", or motivic-leading. We open with a simple definition of motif. In music, this is often a pattern, formed by a handful of notes. Consider them like clues, or facts, in a detective story. So, like every detective, we begins by examining the most obvious facts, then parting company with the other investigators, as we discover what is behind the motives.

Here is the great performance of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler.

Movement 1: 0:00

Movement 2 8:14

Movement 3 18:49

Movement 4 24:36

It begins with the most famous motiv in the world, da da da DAH: Four notes, but only two tones, in a unique rhythmic pattern. It drops, by a third: GGG Eb. It is then followed by the same pattern, but down a scale-step: FFF D. Listen to the recording starting at 0:00.

It is fairly easy to hear that the next section forms an overlapping of that motive. GGG Eb, AbAbAb G, CCC B. So far so good.

At 0:59, after a sudden change, a second theme, or subject begins, that is contrasted. It is lyrical, singing, and tender. That is normal at this point, and it would also be normal for the main motiv to be absent. Something is sneaking around in the background though. The contrabasses play, very quietly, BbBbBb Eb. This time, the last note goes up, not down.

Why does Beethoven do that? The music would have worked without it! Is he dropping a clue that this work will not be "Normal?" How should we pursue it?

It is great fun to sharpen one's wits, and one's ears, by identifying all of the permutations of that motiv in this movement, and we urge you to do so, before advancing.

However, are we merely playing a game here? Is this the musical equivalent of of a comic book cartoon, " How many hidden airplanes can you find in this picture? "

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!

Beethoven Sonata f-moll WoO 42, 2

DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN

Beethoven as Child Prodigy.

Beethoven's first published works, with one exception, were his three piano trios, Op 1. He composed them when he was 25, which was an advanced age for an Op 1 back then.That has led to the belief, that unlike Mozart, he was not a prodigy. It is not true. He and his advisers may have believed that in a world where both Mozart and Haydn were actively composing, it were wise to wait until he could appear on the scene as a fully developed virtuoso.

The city of Bonn, Germany, where Beethoven was born, governed by the brother of Emporer Joseph II, who sponsored Mozart, was a cauldron of culture. A public national theater played Shakespeare and Schiller. Beethoven's teacher Neefe composed opera, and the young Beethoven played in an orchestra.

Here is his sonata WoO (without Opus Number) 47, number 2 in F minor. It is the second of three sonatas he composed at the age of 11-12.

Piano Sonata 14 in C# minor, Opus. 27, No. 2 “Moonlight”

DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN!

We initiated this series by discussing the composer's most beloved pieces, starting with Für Elise.

Next, we introduce the C-Minor Series as a scientific investigation, passed down from composer to composer over generations. Today we return to his most beloved works, with the first movement of what is sometimes misnamed the "Moonlight Sonata."

This is one of the works that Kobe Bryant truly loved. Why? For one, the overall spirit of Beethoven. On January 27, 2020, Tuba Minimum reported that Kobe talked about the struggle he went through in his career after a number of bad injuries, where he was fighting against his body's limitations to put it together for one last run at a title...He said he thought about Beethoven, who probably was not supposed to write a Ninth Symphony while legally deaf, but he did it anyway. ..." If he can overcome his body to do that, I can overcome my body to do this." Kobe even said that he planned out basketball games according to the rhythm of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

The opening movement of Beethoven's Sonata #14 is unique. Almost all sonatas begin with a fast movement, not a slow one, marked quasi una fantasia (like an improvisation). Beethoven gives what seem to be impossible indications, sempre pianissimo (always as quiet as possible), and senza sordini (always keep the sustain pedal down.) Are these indications to be taken literally though, or as metaphor? Interpretations are greatly varied, and even some great musicians, whom we admire, such as Andras Schiff, might take these indications on the too literal side. How do they explain dynamic gradations clearly marked by the composer, if it is always as quiet as possible? The movement is fairly easy technically, but it introduces a new difficulty for performers in its transition from conceptualization to performance. One also needs to have a concept of the entire three-movement sonata, to comprehend it properly.

The movement is a sort of funeral march. As Mr. Schiff indicated in his lecture, a librarian in Vienna once showed pianist Edwin Fischer how Beethoven had taken a passage from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, where the Commendatore, is slain by a lecherous count while defending his daughter from him; and transcribed it into the key of this movement, thus indicating that scene's importance in the generation of the sonata.

We include that short scene with the score. Go to 3:50 in the video, where it is marked Andante, and that begins the scene, as the Commendatore sings "I feel my soul leaving" (in Italian). You can see the triplet patterns that open the sonata.

That is a useful insight, but Beethoven would never just make a literal translation of situation. It is a sort of funeral march, but at the same time a new beginning. As Pierre Beaudry framed it:

“...the piano...must express the dynamic tension between the fear of individual death and the yearning for participation in the immortality of mankind’s future. This is the paradoxical tension that must be maintained throughout the piece, and the musician must make the keyboard sing accordingly.”

The sonata was published in 1802, the same year as the 32-year old Beethoven wrote a private letter, known as The Heiligenstadt Testament, to his brother, in which he confessed the contemplation of suicide, because of his growing, incurable deafness, and wrote that only his dedication to his art kept him going. He said:

"I shall seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me."

From the Heiligenstadt Testament:

“O ye men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do ye wrong me, you do not know the secret causes... from childhood my heart and mind were disposed to the gentle feelings of good will... but reflect now that for six years I have been... compelled to face the prospect of a lasting malady...I was compelled early to isolate myself, to live in loneliness... it was impossible for me to say to men speak louder, shout, for I am deaf. Ah how could I possibly admit such an infirmity, in the one sense which should have been more perfect in me than in others, a sense which I once possessed in highest perfection, a perfection such as few surely in my profession enjoy or have enjoyed - O, I cannot do it, therefore forgive me when you see me draw back when I would gladly mingle with you... I must live like an exile...”

With this sonata, Beethoven dedicated himself to his art at an even higher level. He was learning how to compose entirely in his mind, without being able to hear the results. The movement may be a "farewell to the senses", but Beethoven was also thinking about others, who could hear. And, the appeal of sound was now different. It was, ironically, more precise, subtle, and nuanced than ever, but spoke more directly to the mind.

That is difficult to capture, and we at the Foundation have no preferred rendition, so we offer a decent one, not the fastest version, and certainly not the slowest. We invite you to submit your own preferred versions, with reasons why.

Beethoven, Opus 1, Number 3, in C minor, The American Virtuosi

Beethoven in C Minor-Discovering Musical Science:

One might expect Beethoven's Op 1 to be less of a masterwork than this, but we must remember that he wrote the three trios in Vienna, at age 25, when he had already been composing for over a decade. Haydn was still alive, and Mozart had died only four years earlier. Vienna was the world's musical capital, and standards were high, so Beethoven waited. Not only had his skills as a composer developed, but his prowess as a pianist. This is a virtuoso work.

The romantic notion of music that prevails today, would locate a powerful piece like this as flowing from some deep inner emotional experience. Look up "Beethoven and C Minor", and you will see quotes like: "stormy, dramatic, and heroic." While there is undoubtedly great passion in this work, and Beethoven had a profound sense of the heroic, such characterizations fall short of the music's actual importance. Just as scientists will work on a problem, and pass it down to the next generation, to take the discoveries further for the benefit of mankind, classical musicians do the same. Bach composed his Musical Offering in c minor, and both Mozart and Beethoven continued his investigations, in that same key.

The opening 5 notes of the Musical Offering, stated alone in a single voice, feature a minor third C-Eb, a fifth C to G, and the downward leap of a diminished 7th Ab to B. Several other polyphonic questions are posed by that, including the role of the inverted half-tone motions, G-Ab and C-B, as well as the implied tritone (or Lydian) interval that divides the octave in half, C to F#.

Mozart explores the interplay of those intervals in his piano sonata K. 457, and Fantasy K. 475, as does Beethoven in this work, and his piano sonatas Op 13, and Op 111. Mozart focuses on just the intervals involved, by opening his Fantasy with just one line of music, played in octaves. Compare Bach's C Eb G Ab B, with Mozart's C Eb F# G Ab C B.

Beethoven follows suit. Op 1 # 3, also opens with one line of music played in octaves by all three instruments, starting with C-Eb, and featuring the upward leaps of B-G, and C-Ab, after which the violin settles on a long resolution of F# to G. Throughout the first movement, that theme reappears in different tonalities.

The second movement is a Theme and Variations. The theme is long, and in 2 parts that are repeated. For those who have never delighted in following a Theme and Variations before, we give the timings in this video:

The Theme begins at 10:57 ,

Variation 1 at 12:18

Variation 2 at 13:33

Variation 3 (where you hear Beethoven's humor) at 14:52

Variation 4 (in a minor key) at 15:56

Variation 5 at 17:24

See if you can tell where the short Coda, the ending, starts.

The 4th movement shows Beethoven already mastering the motivfuhrung-the unity of the piece. It also starts with a unison statement in octaves, the last two notes of which are B-G, that same upward leap. With its prestissimo tempo, Beethoven, the newcomer pianist and composer, must have dazzled his audience.

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59, Bia 515); Fur Elise, Elizabeth Borowsky

2020: The Year of Beethoven

Although the Coronavirus might seem to have rudely seized the limelight from Beethoven's 250th birthday, it really identifies all the more, the need to "Think Like Beethoven." The kind of scientific creativity, and joyful discovery made by this great composer, are what the world requires, in order to solve such serious problems.

We at the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, want to familiarize the millions of people who are not classical musicians with his great works. "Seid umschlungen Millionen"(Be embraced, O you millions), said Schiller and Beethoven in the "Ode to Joy," and we invite all readers from all walks of life, to join us here, in forum.

Für Elise

Let us start with one of his easier, but most beloved pieces, Für Elise. Every composer has certain pieces, which just "catch on", that strike the right chord in the public mind. Sometimes the composer can't even say why. Such a work, is this short piano piece. Its origins are somewhat shrouded in mystery. Beethoven wrote it when he was 40, but it was not discovered until long after his death. The title simply means: "For Elisa." She might have been a woman who Beethoven was in love with, which would help explain why it attracts us so much. No-one is sure. The music suggests though, that she was an amateur. It is not difficult, especially the main idea in a minor, which repeats three times. One does not have to be a professional to manage it.

Many people report that they fell in love with it as a child. Their mother played it. A teacher played it. They opened a music box, and there it was. Many young people became determined to learn it, often to the horror of their music teachers, who wanted them to stick with the lesson plan and not jump ahead. Those teachers often found though, that the level of motivation is higher when kids love what they are playing. They will work harder if they are not bored.

Not everybody learns the entire piece. Though it is only 5 pages long, the two middle sections, though not really difficult, do pose more of a challenge. It is worth the effort though.

Here, Dr. Elizabeth Borowsky performs of this beloved piece on February 1, 2020 in NYC. We welcome all comments and questions.