The Amadeus Quartet: Beethoven op 131, Finale.The Alban Berg Quartet: Beethoven, op 131 Finale.The Emerson String Quartet: Beethoven op 131, Finale.Footnote on Beethoven's Metronome Markings.The third movement, a scherzo, is in F major and very quick, a presto. Here is part of the opening with a particularly lovely tune in the violas: But since this is a symphonic movement, not a pop song, there are some elaborations, in particular a fugato on the theme. It has the kind of simple, haunting beauty that few composers seem capable of. It is in the tonic minor, which relates to the harmonies of the first movement. The second movement is one of Beethoven's most popular and had to be repeated at the premiere. Rhythmically it is a very focused movement and most of the variety comes from the harmonies which tend to veer towards C major and F major, rather remote for the tonic key of A major. Beethoven does not explore all the possible hemiolas that the Spanish do, instead he focuses just on two rhythmic variants: the dotted version we hear at the beginning in the example above, and the simple undotted version. It is also a popular time signature in Spanish dances like the Canarios and Zapateado. This movement is in 6/8, which is a dance time signature found most typically in gigues, originally an English dance, the jig. Every Beethoven symphonic first movement up to now has been in either some version of duple time (2/4, 4/4 or alla breve) or in 3/4 (the 3rd Symphony). What is so strange about this? It's the time signature. Here is the first page in the original copyist's manuscript:įor some reason this introduction always reminds me of "Hello, Goodbye" by Paul McCartney from Magical Mystery Tour, probably because of the ascending scales:īut it is what comes after this introduction that is unusual. It begins with a splendid and expansive introduction that is both lyrical and dynamic. Yes, this symphony dances and dances more than any other before or since. Wagner was one of many to notice this aspect of the work when he called it the "apotheosis of the dance". 7 was written in this decade of introspection and it goes in a new direction, though one that fits very well within one of Beethoven's fundamental interests: rhythm. There were fewer pieces and they, with the exception of an isolated work like the Quartet in F minor Serioso, were on a smaller scale.īut there were important advances bubbling below the surface for Beethoven, after a promising youth and a spectacular "middle period", was going to have a "late period" that continues to amaze us to this day. But what next? One thing was to pause: after the enormous outpouring and effort that produced the 5th and 6th Symphonies, the Razumovsky Quartets and so many other remarkable works, during this decade (1800 - 1809) of immense productivity, the next decade (1809 - 1819) produced much less. This is certainly what Beethoven did in the "Pastoral" Symphony which was actually a piece in a very established style, the sinfonia characteristica. How do composers think about what they do? I think some of the basics are that once you have completed an earth-shaking work like the 5th Symphony, there is the need to regroup, to step back and look in a different direction.
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