Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6
There
was a lot for the audience at the Theater an der Wien to contemplate on December
22,
1808. Not only was Ludwig van Beethoven premiering two new
symphonies, his fifth and sixth (numbered that evening in the opposite order
from that now used), he also took the opportunity to introduce his fourth piano
concerto, the Choral
Fantasy,
two movements of his new Mass in C, the concert aria Ah!
perfido, and one of his well-known solo improvisations at
the piano. The audience, however, may have paid most attention to the fact that
it was winter in Austria, and the heating in the building was broken. Certainly
by the time the Fantasy
was unleashed as a finale, the under-rehearsed
musicians were exhausted, the audience was ready to leave, and the performance,
by all reports, fell completely apart.
These
factors probably best explain why Beethoven’s sixth symphony was not a “big
hit” at first. The symphony also suffered slightly by comparison to its
sibling, the fifth. It would be difficult to imagine two more different works on
their surface: the restless, searching, aggressive nature of the fifth in
contrast with the serenely joyous sixth. Yet Beethoven worked on both of them in
tandem, and both
works are dedicated to the same two men, Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz and
Count Andreas Rasumov sky. Beethoven
made sketches for music he marked “murmur of the brook” as early as 1803, and he toyed with the idea for a nature-inspired symphony for several
years before knuckling down to it in the spring and fall of 1808,
after finishing his fifth symphony earlier that same year.
Beethoven
loved to go on long walks in the countryside surround ing Vienna, and he
spent his summers in country towns such as Heiligentstadt, where he completed
the sixth symphony. (When Napoleon’s forces occupied Vienna the next year,
Beethoven complained that he could no longer go on the long walks that he found
“indispensable.”) His musical aim in the Pastoral
Symphony—which
he himself named—was to provide “an expression of feeling” of nature.
Beethoven was also likely inspired by a work by Rheinish composer Justin
Heinrich Knecht, Le
Portrait musical de la nature,
intended to depict the peaceful countryside, a sudden storm, and general
thanksgiving after the storm passes. But although Beethoven gave his movements
precise descriptive titles, and even noted the types of birds his woodwinds
represented, he also admonished:
“The
listener should be allowed to discover the situation. All painting in
instrumental music, if pushed too far, is a failure.”
Let
us walk in Beethoven’s woods, then, knowing that he invites us to bring our
own feelings about nature along with us.
The
first movement opens so softly as to be almost imperceptible. As critic Michael
Steinberg points out, the effect is as if Beethoven’s world of nature has been
waiting all along to welcome us. Here we discover the “Awakening
of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country” (allegro ma non troppo).
But what a leisurely allegro it is! Beethoven spends ninety measures considering
a single musical gesture, a pattern of five falling notes, which he scrutinizes
in B-flat, D, G, and finally E. The simple, short, repeated motifs of this
movement have been likened to the repetitions in nature, from the many leaves on
a tree to the blades of grass underfoot. The harmonic structure is resolutely
stable, so Beethoven inserts some rhythmic variance with a series of triplets
over duplet figures, to keep the movement flowing.
And
“flowing” is precisely the word for the next movement, “Scene
by the brook” (andante molto mosso). The
second violins, violas, and a pair of muted cellos play a water-like motif in
thirds, while the remaining cellos and the double-basses sound a pizzicato
accompaniment, joined in their pedal-point by the horns. The first violins take
up the melody, which is once again built from short, fragmentary lines. The
movement ends with a famous cadenza for a trio of woodwind birds: nightingale
(flute), quail (oboe), and cuckoo (a pair of unison clarinets).
The
“Happy
gathering of country folk” (allegro),
is attended by a peasant band that is perhaps not quite as polished as those in
the halls of Vienna where Beethoven performed, but undoubtedly enthusiastic. The
several rhythmic changes, from theme to trio to a 2/4
section, are meant to represent the varying skills of these amateurs and
also provide a new, angular drive in contrast to the more placid movements that
preceded this one. But the rustic peasant dance seems barely begun when a sudden
orchestral storm approaches.
“Thunderstrom.
Storm” (allegro),
gives Beethoven a chance to portray everything from the rumbling thunder to the
racing downpour. Here he finally unleashes both the top and bottom of his
musical arsenal, from the piccolo to the trombones and the timpani, all of which
have been held in reserve for this moment. He also employs a series of
diminished chords as well as the chord of F-minor, which has been surprisingly
absent from the rest of this F-major symphony. Yet this movement is really just
an introduction to what follows, for it does not end but, like a storm that
sweeps across the landscape, segues seamlessly into the final section, “Shepherds’
song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm” (allegretto).
Occasional peals of thunder are heard as, one by one, the oboe, flute,
clarinets, and horns venture out into the sunshine. The chorale-like phrases
lend this closing section its air of ’thanksgiving,’ and the work ends on a
stately and very pianistic gesture: two fortissimo chords.
July 19, 2008
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