Beethoven

Hello everyone! It's been a while since my last post, as school has kept me extremely busy. I wanted to post on a particular part of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony. Before I begin, let me first say that I have never been a fan of Beethoven up until just last week. I've respected his compositions, but never really thought that they measured up to those of Mozart; excepting the piano sonatas, those have always been on my good list, so to speak. I came across this section through YouTube, and was utterly astounded. This section is simply some of the best music I have ever heard. It is the beginning of the second minor section, after the only major one, in the second movement; the Funeral March.



This video is excellent in that it shows three interpretations, all by different directors and two different orchestras (I would technically say three orchestras, because new players have entered the Berlin Philharmonic, and old players have left or passed on during the over thirty year space between the two recordings. While they still try to achieve that same sound they are famous for, there are different players, and a different director with his own interpretations). Below I have listed the different excerpts as found in the description.

"1. Giulini and the Los Angeles Philharmonic 1979 (00:00 - 2:25)
2. Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic 2000 (2:26 - 4:36)
3. Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic late 1960s (4:37 - 6:52)"

My favorite happens to be the first of the three. I have yet to listen to the whole symphony from this orchestra, but I like the interpretation in the videos below of the Berlin Philharmonic directed by Herbert von Karajan just as much. The recording on the video above of the same ensemble is not quite as good in my mind.

The full symphony is in the two videos below, which I highly recommend you listen to (and certainly with a score if you are a musical person).

After you have listened to the videos you intend to watch at least once, then listen with the score; I recommend listening to the music alone twice or more before reading along, but it is up to the listener, each musician is different. It can be found at the link below this paragraph for free, among many other free classical scores to most, if not all pieces of many famous composers. This section is in the second movement on page nine at the top.

The Score:
http://www.lespartitions.info/gratuites/partitions/pdf/beethoven-symphonie-n3-2.pdf

Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 - Part I


Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 - Part II



This fugal section is so well written and well executed. The reason for my lack of interest in Beethoven is that his works seemed to me to lack something that Mozart's fulfilled in every piece. After listening I realized that difference, and it is not as damning of Beethoven and heralding of Mozart as it may seem. Mozart is obviously divinely inspired, and Beethoven uses the devices of Man to compose his works. To put it more clearly in an example, Mozart is one who would have composed, in his head, every note for every instrument involved, and then would sit down with his wife and talk casually with her about the latest news while writing down his 40th Symphony. Beethoven is one who would have stayed up night after night working on one section of a piece, making mistakes and trying new things until he decided what he wanted.

Mozart is the master of melody, whereas I dare say Beethoven is the master of motiff. They are simply different men who composed differently. Beethoven could be equally inspired by God, but through listening to his works he appears to me to be more human than Mozart appears through his works.

Anyways, back to this section. The melody here tears at one's very soul. As I said, Beethoven seems, at least to me, to be more of a master of motiffs (for those of you who do not know what a motiff is, think of the first four notes of Beethoven's famous 5th Symphony, I guarantee that you've heard at least the opening. Those four notes are a perfect example of motiff. Officially, a motiff is a short melodic idea, consisting of no more than a few notes. It is a small portion that can build a melody, or be used in other parts. Beethoven, in his 5th Symphony, uses that same idea "bum bum bum BUM," in many of the other instruments. Motiffs can be restated, or changed slightly, so that they add contrast, but are not unrecognizable from the original idea). In this section, Beethoven is surprisingly melodic. To add to this, he writes this as a fugal section, meaning that several instruments will enter with the same line after the first statement is done, while the instruments who entered first harmonize with the new statement of the fugal melody. This continues (usually in four voices) until all four voices have entered and are either playing or harmonizing with the main fugal melody. The line is restated in new ways, and the other instruments develop the idea further by their harmony, which continues to change and bring the piece in new directions. Now of course there has to be an end, and so it is the harmony that will develop the section to its final cadence and complete it.

As a bass player, I was particularly pleased with this section. For those of you looking at the score in the link I posted, the section begins on the 9th page at the top. The second violins have the theme first, with the violas and bassoons in counterpoint with them. The theme is then handed to the first violins, and the second violins begin to harmonize with them. The flutes, oboes, and clarinets come in, but the main material is in the strings. The violas then enter with the cellos and bassoons. The theme is then handed to the basses, which, as one can tell from the recording, is incredibly full of power.

Now, when I had first heard this recording up until this point, as I did not have a score, I thought that the violas entered first, followed by the first and second violins, then the violas, and then the cellos and basses combined. I was overjoyed to find out that my favorite entrance of this fugal melody was driven by the bass section, of course with the timpani and horns adding valuable accents to the melody. I have somewhat fancied four individual voices in this section, at least at the beginning, to describe the mood of each entrance. I envision four voices of sorrow, the first entrance being that of a yearning sorrow, the second being that of a pleading sorrow, the third being that of a knowing sorrow, and the fourth being that of a deep sorrow.

I have, in my mind, an idea even of characters that these voices might represent in the funeral march, but I will not share them with you. I do not want to color your interpretation. Simply listen and let God lead you where He wills through it.