Beethoven’s Symphony in C minor, Op. 67 holds the honor of being, arguably, the most recognized symphony in the canon and, possibly, the most recognized single piece of classical music ever composed. Often simply called “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony,” it is sometimes enough just to say “The Fifth Symphony” to conjure the distinctive four-note motif that opens the score. Composers before Beethoven and composers after him wrote fifth symphonies. But Beethoven wrote THE Fifth Symphony.
Beethoven composed his fifth and sixth symphonies side-by-side from 1804 to 1808. They were both premiered as part of the same massive program on Dec. 22, 1808, in Vienna, a concert that also included the composer’s Fourth Piano Concerto, the “Gloria” from his Mass in C, the “Choral Fantasy” (which anticipated the finale of the Ninth Symphony) and Beethoven’s improvisations at the piano. Surely if a classical music-lover could choose one concert to attend via time travel, Dec. 22, 1808, would be high on the list.
Three Gs and an E-Flat
Ta-ta-ta- TAA.Everyone recognizes the opening salvo, which is followed immediately by another….
Ta-ta-ta- TAA … on different pitches.
This clenched-fist rhythmic figure is compelling, and we will hear it throughout the seven or so minutes of the first movement. But the pitches themselves betray an element of the first movement not often mentioned: ambiguity of key.
Beethoven’s fifth symphony was his first in a minor key. Minor-key symphonies were not unheard of at the turn of the 19th century, but they were rare. Only two of Mozart’s 41 symphonies, for example, are in a minor key. So when the first notes of Beethoven’s fifth symphony are three Gs and an E-flat, it’s not only possible to hear E-flat major implied, it would have been expected by audiences in 1808, when most symphonies were in major keys.
The reason for the ambiguity is this: G and E-flat are the fifth and third steps, respectively, of the C-minor scale. But they are also the third and first steps, respectively, of the E-flat major scale. The answering notes—F and D—also belong to both keys. It’s not until after the first eight notes that we can be sure the movement is in C minor, and, even then, the progress of C-minor harmonies will be interrupted about two minutes in by a bold horn call in E-flat major. (See the video and timestamps below.)
Except for a brief, contrasting second subject (in E-flat major) and the sudden intrusion, near the end, of a plangent oboe solo, the entire first movement is obsessed with working out the opening motif in various keys. There is a closing subject, but the movement returns to “ta-ta-ta-TAA” and ends with it, rather than with the closing subject, which would normally be the case. Small wonder that the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 set the standard for motific development for symphonies to come
The second movement, “Andante con moto,” is the perfect foil to what came before. If the first movement is a clenched fist, this relaxed, sprawling set of theme and variations in A-flat major runs its fingers through the grass of a luxuriantly green hillside. It breathes where the first movement held its breath. There are grand moments and reflective ones, and the whole concludes peacefully in unruffled harmony.
Victorious Music and Three Trombones
The first-movement ambiguities of major-minor lay between C minor and E-flat major, but in the last movement, marked “Allegro,” the major-key winner is C major, rising like a summer dawn from the dying-out of the scherzo. This is victory without blemish, with bravura themes mounting to the heavens. To reinforce the sheer power of the movement, Beethoven introduces five instruments not heard until now: piccolo, contrabassoon, and three trombones. This is Beethoven’s first use of trombones in a symphony and one of the first appearance by trombones in any symphonic work.About halfway through the finale, which generally runs around 10 minutes, the scherzo theme returns like a distant memory, as if to remind us of the struggle it took to get to a place of triumph. At length, the finale—and the symphony—draw to a momentous conclusion.
According to his amanuensis Anton Schindler, Beethoven described the famous opening motif as “fate knocking at the door.” Schindler was known to embroider facts to make things more interesting, yet it is nonetheless true that fate was an obsession for the composer. Whether Beethoven’s Fifth is about fate or anything else, it is a milestone of symphonic form’s growth from an entertainment to musical metaphor, from pleasant diversion to the creation of self-contained worlds of thought and feeling. It deserves its status of being the form’s perfect model.
Timestamps
Below are timestamps for some of the Fifth Symphony’s pivotal moments described above. They correspond to a performance by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, here:0:10 The symphony begins, “Allegro con brio.”
1:36 The exposition—the first part of the first movement—repeats.
2:59 A horn call announces the key of E-flat major.
4:37 A plangent oboe solo briefly interrupts the motific development.
6:52 The opening motif reappears at the end, closing the first movement.
7:45 The second movement, “Andante con moto,” begins.
17:50 The third movement, marked “Allegro” and in the form of a scherzo, begins with murmuring low strings.
18:15 Suddenly the mood changes with a powerful theme in the horns.
19:43 The cellos and basses begin the middle section of the movement.
24:51 After the two sections of the scherzo repeat, the first section repeats again, but in a ghostly echo, leading to an equally ghostly bridge that goes nonstop to the finale.
26:21 The finale bursts out in C-major glory.
31:44 The scherzo theme makes a surprise appearance in the middle of the finale.
