DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (December 2, 2020)
In our upcoming 24-hour Beethoven 250th Birthday Celebration (https://youtu.be/iyjWFntIiiY) we will present a segment titled: “Beethoven, Poetry, and Drama”. We wish to give our audience a preview of the segment with today’s post!
Beethoven's Inspirations from Literature
Beethoven decried the idea of program music, but not of poetic inspiration. He wrote in the sketches for his "Sixth Symphony" (the Pastoral): "More of a feeling than painting".
It's a fine line.
The story of “Orpheus” appealed to all musicians. He was the best musician of all. Wild beasts became docile upon hearing him play.
Shakespeare must have had some sense of this, when he wrote, in his "Merchant of Venice”:
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast..."
When Orpheus' young bride Eurydice died, he braved the terrors of the underworld (also called Hades, after its ruling god), in the hope that music and love might bring her back.
Orpheus had to conquer the hearts of the Erinyes, the Furies-ancient Goddesses who knew neither mercy nor love, only the fixed code of revenge.
The Roman poet Virgil captured the enormous rage of the Furies:
“Not for nothing does divine anger harass you:
you atone for a heavy crime: it is you,
Orpheus, wretched man,
who brings this punishment upon himself.”
It is said that sung poetry is music. As such, poets can be said to hold the equivalence of music and love. According to another ancient poet, Ovid, Orpheus sang to the Underworld:
“Love conquers. This god is well known in the upper world;...
But nevertheless, I sense that he also is here,
I beg by these places full of despair
by this huge Chaos and the silence of this desolate kingdom,
unweave the premature death of Eurydice!”
Erebus, the god of Darkness, also had a region named after him. It was very deep in Hades, and admitted no light. Yet, even these shades rose to hear Orpheus' song.
Shakespeare said the following of the importance of music:
"The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music."
In Greek legend, Hades, the God who ruled over the underworld, was so overwhelmed by Orpheus' music and love that he granted Eurydice the right to return to the land of the living. But, only on the condition that Orpheus not look at her until they were back on earth. Orpheus looked at her too soon, when they were almost home-free, and Eurydice was drawn back below, forever.
The idea that Music have the power to overcome death, was a fascinating idea to many composers. Gluck wrote a wonderful representation of Orpheus' encounter with the Furies in his opera "Orfeo and Euridice":
https://youtu.be/r9VibeNN4Rk
According to Beethoven's first biographer A.B. Marx (whom both Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn saw as the man who helped them comprehend the late Beethoven), the second movement of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was also based on the story of Orpheus’s journey to Hades. There are scholars who deny any connection of this movement to the Orpheus story, but there are also many who acknowledge it. The movement is so different from anything else and is so dramatic, that it does not fit any musical form.
One respected musicologist, the late Owen Jander, wrote:
“Any reader who has made a close study of the second movement of this concerto is aware that to try to relate this work to any of the recurring forms of slow movements of Classical concertos is futile. My own conviction is that any attempt to analyze the form of this movement without constant reference to its Orphic program is equally futile…In my opinion, to analyze this work without program misses the point of the form.”
Jander pointed out the resonances between Beethoven and Gluck, and also that Beethoven's friend, Friedrich August Kanne, had written an opera on the subject. Jander identified several points at which the text of Kanne's opera matched Beethoven's phrases.
The strings, representing the Furies, enter with "Ha! Who dares approach this place?" They sing in octaves, and in harsh declamatory terms. The piano represents Orpheus with his lyre, and sings beautifully in 4-voiced harmony, but “una corda” (using only one string per note, which gives it a very gentle and warm singing tone):
"I tread this path of terrors gladly."
The Furies respond.' " Ha! Trespasser, leave here!"
Orpheus: "I seek the joy of my life."
As the movement progresses, we hear the voices of the furies softening, relenting, and the couple leaving. Suddenly a terrifying trill erupts. Beethoven shifts from “una corda” to “due corda” and “tre corde”. Should we still seek literary comparisons? If not, how do we account for it? Jander suggests it represents:
1. Orpheus violating the conditionality that he not look at Eurydice until they are safely back on earth
2. Eurydice falling back
3. Her last Farewell.
We provide this short video to match the text, and the images to the music:
https://drive.google.com/…/1gSaVI8jwuR47du8z3V9VE8EacS…/view
Furtwangler's rendition suggests that he shared this understanding of the movement. Here’s is a performance of Piano concerto No. 4 with Conrad Hensen on the piano:
Join us starting at 12AM, December 16, 2020, for a 24 hour celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, free and live streamed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iyjWFntIiiY