Four Centuries of Great Music September 10, 2022 The Symphony Through the Centuries Episode 3

Tonight on Four Centuries of Great Music we have the 3rd episode celebrating the Symphony through the Centuries and we begin with Beethoven. 

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was premiered in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as Beethoven's greatest work and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music.  One of the best-known works in common practice music  it stands as one of the most frequently performed symphonies in the world.

The first movement marked Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso is in sonata form without an exposition repeat. It begins with open fifths (A and E) played pianissimo by tremolo strings, steadily building up until the first main theme in D minor.

At the outset of the recapitulation the theme returns, this time played fortissimo and in D major, rather than D minor. The movement ends with a massive coda that takes up nearly a quarter of the movement.

The second movement is a scherzo and trio marked Molto vivace. Like the first movement, the scherzo is in D minor, with the introduction bearing a passing resemblance to the opening theme of the first movement.   At times during the piece, Beethoven specifies one downbeat every three bars—perhaps because of the fast tempo—with the direction ritmo di tre battute (rhythm of three beats) and one beat every four bars with the direction ritmo di quattro battute (rhythm of four beats). Normally, a scherzo is in triple time. Beethoven wrote this piece in triple time but punctuated it in a way that, when coupled with the tempo, makes it sound as if it is in quadruple time.

While adhering to the standard three-part structure of a dance movement (scherzo-trio-scherzo), the scherzo section has an elaborate internal structure; it is a complete sonata form. Within this sonata form, the first group of the exposition starts out with a fugue in D minor.

For the second subject, it modulates to the unusual key of C major. The exposition then repeats before a short development section, where Beethoven explores other ideas. The recapitulation further develops the exposition's themes, also containing timpani solos. A new development section leads to the repeat of the recapitulation, and the scherzo concludes with a brief codetta.

The contrasting trio section is in D major and in duple time. The trio is the first time the trombones play. Following the trio, the second occurrence of the scherzo, unlike the first, plays through without any repetition, after which there is a brief reprise of the trio, and the movement ends with an abrupt coda.

The third movement marked Adagio molto e cantabile is a lyrical, slow movement in B♭ major—a minor sixth away from the symphony's main key of D minor. It is in a double variation form, with each pair of variations progressively elaborating the rhythm and melodic ideas. The first variation in D major, like the theme, is in 4/4 time, the second in G major, is in 12/8. The variations are separated by passages in 3/4, the third variation is in E♭ major, and the fourth variation is in B major. The final variation is twice interrupted by episodes in which loud fanfares from the full orchestra are answered by octaves by the first violins and there is a prominent French horn solo.

The choral finale is Beethoven's musical representation of universal brotherhood based on the "Ode to Joy" theme and is in theme and variations form.  The text was adapted from the "Ode to Joy", a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with additional text written by Beethoven.

The movement starts with an introduction in which musical material from each of the preceding three movements—though none are literal quotations of previous music —are successively presented and then dismissed by instrumental recitatives played by the low strings. Following this, the "Ode to Joy" theme is finally introduced by the cellos and double basses. After three instrumental variations on this theme, the human voice is presented for the first time in the symphony by the baritone soloist, who sings words written by Beethoven himself: ''O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!' Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere.'' ("Oh friends, not these sounds! Let us instead strike up more pleasing and more joyful ones!").

At about 24 minutes in length, the last movement is the longest of the four movements. Indeed, it is longer than some entire symphonies of the Classical era. Its form has been disputed by musicologists.

Beethoven had difficulty describing the finale himself; in letters to publishers, he said that it was like his Choral Fantasy, Op. 80, only on a much grander scale. We might call it a cantata constructed round a series of variations on the "Joy" theme. But this is rather a loose formulation, at least by comparison with the way in which many twentieth-century critics have tried to codify the movement's form.

Thus there have been interminable arguments as to whether it should be seen as a kind of sonata form or a kind of concerto form, or even a conflation of four symphonic movements into one.   The reason these arguments are interminable is that each interpretation contributes something to the understanding of the movement, but does not represent the whole story or the whole structure of the movement.  Suffice it to say that this movement is the crowning glory of symphonic writing to that time and perhaps even through the last two centuries till now.


Tonight on four Centuries of Great Music we have the third of a continuing series devoted to the symphony through the centuries.

Franz Schubert: Symphony # 5 in B-flat major

So for the first three-quarters of tonight’s third program devoted to the symphony through the centuries we have been listening to Beethoven’s monumental Symphony #9 In D Minor, Op. 125, The Choral  symphony.  So for this last 30 minutes of the show I thought I would back off a bit on the power of the symphony to explore some Schubert.  Not the 8th or Unfinished symphony or the 9th which is the “Great” symphony but number 5 in B-flat major.  Here we move back to Mozart if not in exact form, at least in spirit and inspiration.  To quote the 19 year old Schubert from a letter writing shortly before the completion of the 5th symphony in October of 1816 “As from afar the magic notes of Mozart’s music still gently haunt me…Thus does our soul retain these fair impressions, which no time, no circumstances can efface, and they lighten our existence. They show us in the darkness of this life a bright, clear, lovely distance, for which we hope with confidence. O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, oh how endlessly many such comforting perceptions of a brighter and better life hast thou brought to our souls!”


Schubert begins the first movement marked allegro with four introductory bars that Schubert scholar Brian Newbold charmingly called a musical “curtain” which rises reveal orchestra as the symphony begins.

One clear nod to Mozart’s style is the “breath” the orchestra takes before beginning the second main melody of the movement,

We then hear one of Schubert’s loveliest melodies in the violins with a clear vocal quality - as you remember Schubert went on to write hundreds of songs, during his short life. Pieces of the melody are echoed in the lower instruments as accompaniment, a technique can frequently be heard throughout the symphony.

The slow second movement marked andante con Moto begins with a graceful, elegant melody in E-flat major, the music then slips into the distant and highly unusual key of C-flat major and gives the the duet between violins and woodwinds that follows a dreamy quality. The music then shifts to C-flat minor but throughout there are still hints of major. This ever-shifting play of major and minor, of light and shadow, will become one of the hallmarks of Schubert’s mature style.

The third movement minuet is surprisingly in a minor key, with a contrasting middle section in major which clearly recalls the character of the minuet from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, but melodically he stole from himself using a theme used perviously in his opera Des Teufels Lustschloss (The Devil’s Pleasure Palace).

The finale marked Allegro Vivace begins with characteristically cheerful tune that soon gives way to all manner of harmonic surprises and developments. Its understated ending caps off a remarkable youthful work that shows Schubert’s mastery of symphonic writing and hints at the directions he would later take.