“To give his tone-shapes that same compactness, that directly cognizable and physically sure stability, which he had witnessed with such blessed solace in Nature’s own phenomena, — this was the soul of the joyous impulse which created for us that glorious work the ‘Symphony in A major.’ All tumult, all yearning and storming of the heart become here the blissful insolence of joy, which snatches us away with bacchanalian might and bears us through the roomy space of Nature, through all the streams and seas of Life, shouting in glad self-consciousness as we thread throughout the Universe the daring measures of this human sphere-dance.
“This symphony is the Apotheosis of Dance herself: it is the Dance in her highest aspect, as it were the loftiest Deed of bodily motion incorporated in an ideal mould of tone. Melody and Harmony unite around the sturdy bones of Rhythm to firm and fleshy human shapes, which now with giant limbs’ agility, and now with soft, elastic pliance, almost before our very eyes, close up the supple, teeming ranks; the while now gently, now with daring, now serious, now wanton, now pensive, and again exulting, the deathless strain sounds forth and forth; until, in the last whirl of delight, a kiss of triumph seals the last embrace.” — Richard Wagner
Unlike his 3rd Symphony or the 5th, Beethoven’s 7th Symphony does not tell a story. There is no teleological narrative. Yet it has a strong forward drive like no other — a propulsion built entirely from the exuberance of its rhythmic energy
Maynard Solomon sees the 7th Symphony as akin to primitive rituals: “a joyous lifting of all restraints, a licensed eruption of the profane and the scatological, and an outpouring of mockery, ridicule, and satire expressing a comic vision of life untinged by tragic modalities.”
George Grove: “It is both difficult & presumptuous for anyone to compare masterpieces so full of beauty & strength, & differing so completely in their character, as the nine Symphonies of Beethoven; but if any one quality may be said to distinguish that now before us, besides its rhythmical construction, it is perhaps … that it is the most romantic of the nine … that it is full of swift unexpected changes and contrasts, exciting the imagination in the highest degrees, and whirling it suddenly into new and strange regions.”
#Beethoven250 Day 253
Symphony No. 7 in A Major (Opus 92), 1812
Andrés Orozco-Estrada leads the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in another of his great Beethoven performances.
The 7th Symphony begins with loud chords that in other contexts (or in a minor key) might seem threatening or foreboding. These are not. Linked together with welcoming woodwinds, they signal a joyful inner awakening rather than an external threat.
The slowish introduction to the 7th Symphony goes on for so long that it’s a surprise when it transitions to a galloping dotted rhythm in 6/8 time, the first of the rollicking dances in the symphony.
In Beethoven’s day, and for decades thereafter, the Vivace theme of the 7th Symphony’s first movement was associated with rustic folk dances, and there seems to be a connection with this movement and one of Beethoven’s folksong settings for George Thomson.
The second movement of the Symphony No. 7, the Allegretto, has always been an audience favorite. It had to be played twice during the symphony’s premiere, and a contemporary review called it “the crown of modern instrumental music.” (quoted in Swafford, p. 626)
Much of the 2nd movement of the 7th symphony is built from a simple five-note rhythmic cell heard almost in every bar of the movement. Aside from the strange opening chord (which also appears at the very end), the movement seems to have the feel of a passacaglia, with four repetitions of a 24-bar passage consisting of three 8-bar phrases, gradually building with additional instrumentation and countermelodies.
Yet, the movement then becomes something closer to a rondo or a more conventional set of variations, with even a fugal variation and contrasting sections in A major.
The Allegretto is sometimes referred to as a march, or even a funeral march, and the opening passacaglia-like section might even sound like that. But in its totality, it is no such thing.
The 3rd movement of the 7th Symphony is a five-part scherzo marked Presto in which the dominant rhythmic cell is a two-note descent. The Trio section is highly contrasted, apparently based on an Austrian peasant hymn, but which builds to loud crescendos.
For its early audience, the finale of the 7th Symphony resembled a drunken fury, and it still has that power. After the riveting opening, every period of relaxation and pulling back is merely another opportunity to unleash a more powerful whirlwind.
“The intention of the Allegro con brio finale is to ratchet the energy higher than it has yet been. Few pieces attain the brio of this one. If earlier we had exuberance, stateliness, brilliance, those moods of dance, now we have something on the edge of delirium: a stamping, whirling two-beet reel, with the horns in high spirits again. Does any other symphonic movement sweep listeners off their feet and take their breath away so literally as this one? … The symphony ends with the horns shouting for joy.” — Jan Swafford