It would appear that I'm neglecting this blog, but really I've been neglecting everything in my life apart from uni (including sleep). But the semester is finally over. And so I'm back with an essay I wrote on the Beethoven Ninth. I have to say, I'm extremely annoyed at blogger.com's ability to display the score extracts. In order to kept them within the text block I have to shrink some of them to the point where you can't even read them properly. Anyway to business!
Introduction
Beethoven was one of history’s
greatest composers, so it should come as no surprise that his creative output
contains many turning points. In this essay, I have limited the scope of my
discussion to one work, the Ninth Symphony in D minor. Within this single work,
I have limited my discussion to the final movement. However, this movement
contains two major turning points which have influenced every generation of
composers to be born since its creation, namely the addition of a choral
element to the hitherto purely instrumental symphony form, and the organisation
of the finale into a “symphony within a symphony”.
The choral finale
Beethoven’s Ninth was the first
major symphony to include a choral setting of a written text (in this case Shiller’s
An die Freude). This was a major
turning point as it essentially precipitated what become known as the “War of
the Romantics” or the controversy between proponents of programme and absolute
music.
First, we should examine how
Beethoven went about setting the poem. Interestingly, Beethoven did not use the
entire text, instead he selected parts that suited his purposes and
supplemented them with his own written recitatives.
Joy,
beautiful spark of the gods, daughter of Elysium,
Intoxicated
with your fire, heavenly one, we enter your shrine.
Your
magic power reunites what strict custom has divided;
All men
become brothers where your gentle wing rests.
Be embraced, you millions! Here’s a
kiss for all the world!
Brothers!
Above the canopy of the stars there must dwell a loving Father!
The “programme” thus outlines the
power of joy to reunite humankind before God.
Musically, Beethoven prepares the
vocal entry through the use of an instrumental recitative played by the cellos
and basses:
Moreover, it is these instruments
that subsequently introduce the Freude
theme in full:
When the first vocal soloist
appears at bar 217, he sings a recitative that closely follows the instrumental
version:
The chorus enters with shouts of
“Freude!” before the soloist sings us the first verse set to the theme
previously introduced by the bass section:
The Chorus (apart from the sopranos)
then enters with a repeat of the last couplet:
The significance of the Freude music is that Beethoven has
introduced a vocal element to what had previously been a purely instrumental
genre. Moreover, the way in which he prepared the entry, through instrumental
recitatives, suggested to commentators like Marx that the instruments had subordinated
themselves to the voice. The idea of vocal supremacy is further underscored by the reappearance of
principal themes from the first three movements, which are quickly subdued by
the bass section’s vocally-inflected recitatives. Moreover, the baritone soloist’s opening
words of “Oh friends, not these tones!” would become ammunition for the likes
of Richard Wagner.
Wagner had a lot to say about Beethoven’s
Ninth. He wrote numerous commentaries that touched on the work over a period of
several decades. In fact, his thoughts on the Ninth probably helped develop his
ideas on music in general, particularly with respect to music drama.
In a written programme he conceived in support of an 1846 performance he
conducted in Dresden, Wagner likened the choral entry to “Light break[ing] on Chaos”
with the vocal soloist then supported by the “conquered elements of
instrumental music”.
Thus, like Marx, Wagner saw the finale as the triumph of vocal music over
purely instrumental (absolute) music.
In subsequent writings, Wagner
would develop this idea further by suggesting that Beethoven had developed the
Symphony as far as it could be taken. For Wagner, Beethoven had “matured the
Symphonic artwork to so engrossing a breadth of form”
that it was not even remotely approached by the art of any other age.
In the Ninth Symphony, Wagner saw Beethoven as a mariner sailing out of the
realm of pure music into that of universal Art. Only the “perfect Art-work of
the Future” could follow this path, and that art-form was music drama.
Thus, we can see how Wagner cast
himself as the true musical descendent of Beethoven.
However, not all commentators saw
the Ninth as the end of absolute music. Heinrich Schenker, in particular, sought
to refute Wagner’s interpretation by attempting to show how the finale of the
Ninth could be explained in purely musical terms.
Moreover, according to Schenker, any attempt to invoke literary interpretations
merely reflected an inability to grasp the work’s musical meaning. Beethoven, said Schenker, was keenly aware that the addition of a vocal element
resulted in a contradiction but rather than yield to the demands of programme
music, he attempted to overcome the problem by fulfilling the demands of
absolute music as far as possible. This desire to smooth over the addition of a
foreign element was the reason behind the instrumental recitatives. However, rather
than accepting the Wagnerian view that this demonstrates the supremacy of the
voice, Schenker pointed to the purely musical relationship between the sections
(antecedent/consequent) as vindication of his absolute music argument.
Schenker had a harder time refuting
the baritone’s cry of “Oh friends, not these tones!” which was penned by
Beethoven himself. Under the Wagnerian interpretation, this demonstrates
Beethoven casting off instrumental music as a whole. However, Schenker insists
that the recitative refers not to instrumental music, but only to specific
themes.
It is difficult to see how he could draw such a conclusion without inferring
that he did so out of intellectual stubbornness.
This is not to suggest, however, that Wagner’s argument is unimpeachable. Indeed,
it is obvious that Wagner shamelessly exploited Beethoven for his own creative
agenda, seeking to capitalise on Beethoven’s prestige to lend some authority to
his ideas of nationalism and the “music of the future”. Later in the 19th
century, Brahms would add his two cents by deliberately choosing a theme
reminiscent of the Freude theme for
the finale of his First Symphony in C minor, which Bonds refers to as “an
implicitly vocal finale”.
The obvious inference being that this represented his attempt to reclaim the
Ninth for absolute music.
Although Beethoven included
programmatic elements in some of his works (such as the Eroica and Pastoral
Symphonies in addition to the Ninth) it did not necessarily follow that he was
abandoning “absolute” music. This is aptly demonstrated by the purely
instrumental music that he later composed, e.g. the Bagatelles Op. 126. On the
other hand, the addition of programmatic elements to Beethoven’s works cannot
always be explained in purely musical terms.
In the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven outlined
a possible formal technique for balancing
the seemingly contradictory demands of absolute and programme music. He was not
advocating the choice of one over the other. As such, the Ninth need not have
become a symbolic fork in the road, setting the two Romantic schools on
divergent paths.
There were, at any rate, attempts
by later composers on both sides of the debate to balance the requirements of
symphonic and vocal music, and each of these was greatly indebted to the Ninth.
One example is Berlioz’s Romeo et
Juliette which uses an instrumental recitative (played by the trombones) to
prepare the initial vocal entry. Another is Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang Symphony, which follows Beethoven’s scheme of prefacing a
choral finale with three instrumental movements. Yet another is Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, which follows the
same outline. Even where the formal design of the choral movement differs, as
is the case with the Mahler, the basic premise in which instrumental music serves as an introduction to vocal music
remains intact.
The form of the finale
The finale of Beethoven’s Ninth was
also an important turning point for more formal reasons. Indeed, there is much
inventiveness in the way the composer constructed the movement. In this finale,
Beethoven brought some previous structural experiments, such as in the finales
of the Eroica and Fifth symphonies
and the Choral Fantasy op 80, to ultimate fruition.
Perhaps the most significant
innovation was to structure the finale as a “symphony within a symphony”. This
interpretation, championed by the likes of Charles Rosen,
holds that the movement functions as both the “finale” of the work and as its
own self-contained four-movement symphony, with the movement divided into
sections that follow the character of symphonic movements.
The first ‘movement’, which runs
from bars 1-330, is expository and dramatic in character. It includes the
instrumental recitatives and vocal entry that were previously discussed. Another
interesting feature of this ‘movement’ is that Beethoven employs a narrative
device to illustrate the search for a new theme (i.e. the Freude theme).
To this end the themes from all
three previous movements are briefly recalled before being summarily dismissed
by the bass and cello recitatives:
First movement:
Second movement:
Third movement:
Although Beethoven had previously
used thematic reminiscences in other works, such as in the finale of the Fifth Symphony,
he had never used it in such a narrative fashion. Commentators have argued that
the use of thematic recollection “serves as a vehicle for linking the vocal
finale with the earlier instrumental movements of the work”.
Moreover, this technique would be borrowed by later composers such as Berlioz
in his Harold en Italie.
The second ‘movement’ from bars
331-594 is a scherzo. As such the “inner symphony” follows the formal design of
the symphony as a whole, with the scherzo being placed prior to the slow
movement.
Musically, the scherzo starts off
with a Turkish March in B flat, with the triviality of this music standing in
contrast with Schiller’s more religiously-based verse:
Brothers, go on your way as glad as
the stars as they hurtle
Through
the heavens, as joyful as a hero on his way to triumph.
Later, Beethoven develops a purely
instrumental fugue before closing the section with a tutti treatment of the Freude
music in which the chorus is used to full effect:
The third ‘movement’ from bars
595-654 is a slow movement in G major. Even more than the other ‘movements’,
the third is decidedly choral in nature and sounds very much like church music,
particularly where the chorus asks:
Do you fall to your knees, you
millions? World, do you sense your Maker?
Seek him beyond the stars! Beyond the
stars he must dwell!
This has to be amongst the most sublime
moments in all of music:
The final ‘movement’ from bars
655-940 opens with a quodlibet in which the Freude
and Seid umschlungen, Millionen
themes are contrapuntally combined. This section has the loose, joyous and
exuberant feel of a finale and we get the sense that the work will shortly come
to an end.
It is important to note some of the
tools which Beethoven used to achieve this structural double function. The most
obvious one is the use of variation form, based on the Freude theme, almost throughout the entire movement. By using this
technique, Beethoven creates the expectation of contrast in the minds of the listener
and prepares them for textual and tempo changes. Moreover, the use of thematic
transformation to provide continuity between movements would influence the next
generation of composers, such as Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasy and in the
works of Liszt more generally.
Some commentators have argued that
the last movement of the Ninth serves not only a double function but also a
triple function. They argue that the finale also follows a sonata-allegro
design, more specifically that of a classical concerto. Thus, the instrumental and vocal recitative sections form a double exposition, the
B flat Turkish March is the second key area, the instrumental fugue forms the
development section and the move to D major at the Freude chorus marks the start of the recapitulation.
While this interpretation is quite
plausible up the development section, it runs into serious problems at the
so-called recapitulation. The most obvious issue is that the section simply
does not fulfil the requirements of a recapitulation. Indeed the treatment of
the Freude theme as its opening is
the last time we hear the ultimate manifestation of the theme, despite the work
being only two thirds of the way through. Another issue is that the sonata
interpretation does not account for the presence of a new theme – seid umschlungen, Millionen – and key
area (G major) in the recapitulation. Indeed, the addition of new material to a section typically devoted to summing
up is fatal to the sonata interpretation of the movement.
Although there is no triple function
to the form, the presence of a double function has been hugely influential.
Indeed many composers have taken up this design, with notable examples
including Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, Strauss’s Don Juan and Schoenberg’s First
Chamber Symphony.
Conclusion
The finale of the Ninth Symphony
was a major turning point in 19th century music. In this piece,
Beethoven added a vocal element to a previously instrumental genre and in doing
so set the dividing line for a debate on the merits of programme and absolute
music that would consume the Romantic generation. Moreover his experimentation
with a double function structure, in which the finale becomes a “symphony
within a symphony”, would provide a blue-print for future composers to
experiment with symphonic and sonata form.
Beethoven’s Ninth means so many
things to so many different people. However it also marked a turning point for
the composer, who returned to the enlightenment ideals of his youth with the
proclamation (in Schiller’s words) that “all men become brothers"
when reunited by the magic power of Joy.