DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (May 8, 2020)
We promised to examine the other three movements of the Ninth Symphony, and we are, starting with the first. As we proceed, it will be necessary to make constant comparisons between movements, because it is one of the most coherent, integrated works ever written. If a composer wishes to unify four movements into a one, then his or her motivic (or motivating idea), has to be an idea of change.
The opening of the first movement is such an idea of change. Analysis of that opening, unfortunately, usually tends to focus on vague imagery, such as the "dawn of history", or "mankind emerging from the primordial soup". There may be a disguised truth in that, but we require a scientific concept.
You might ask: what scientific proof? We are not making the argument that music is merely mathematics. Not at all! The effort to find such a linear correlation has done much damage to musical performance. Music is however, scientific, and some of the beautiful geometric proportions found in nature shine through great classic composition.
Yesterday’s post discussed both inversions and ambiguity. This work opens with a profound yet fundamental inversion, that depends on the ambiguity in the meaning of a single note! The demonstration is simple, and you don't have to remember any high school geometry to follow it. If you feel a bit lost by terms at certain points, please don't worry, and please stick with it. It will become clear. We are providing an accompanying audio, to help make it all clear.
https://soundcloud.com/user-385773006/beethovens-ninth-get-your-ruler-and-compass-out
Take an octave A, to the next higher A. Add the tone E in between them. The ascending interval A to E, is known as a fifth (five notes up: A B C D E). Continuing up from E to A, we have a fourth (E F G A). The Ninth Symphony begins with just those 2 notes: A and E, in octaves (up to 0:42 in this recording.)
Now, try descending from the higher A to the lower, and maintain the same intervals. A descending fifth gives us the note D (A G F E D), and D to A is a descending fourth (D C B A.).
Beethoven begins the symphony with that elementary change. There are only 2 notes to start, A and E. Then we concentrate on just A (at 0:43). After a breath, we hear the note D, and the main theme emerges, D A F D, in D Minor. That is as much a theme, as a process of generation.
Beethoven is giving you the most fundamental irony and resolution in music as an idea to follow, rather than a melody. It does not stop there. Surprisingly, after a few measures, he returns to the opening (at 1:30). This time he uses the newly generated fifth, D and A. If resolved in the same manner, he would proceed to G. He does not. We go to Bb major (at 2:04). That depends on a different irony. D major is the tonic in D minor, but it is the major third in Bb major. Please do not worry if you are not familiar with the technical terms. If you can hear that a change is happening, then you are good. If you can hear that the change is different the second time, then you have it!
For the rest of the symphony, those two changes will predominate.
THE RECAPITULATION
We analyzed the double fugue in the movement (starting at in this recording at 7:40) a few days ago. It leads into what is sometimes called the recapitulation (a recapitulation being the return to the opening: it emerges at 10:17.) This is one of the most powerful and extended recapitulations in history. It frightens some people though. "New musicologist" Susan McClary, said of it:
“The point of recapitulation in the first movement of the Ninth is one of the most horrifying moments in music, as the carefully prepared cadence is frustrated, damming up energy which finally explodes in the throttling murderous rage of a rapist incapable of attaining release.”
Whew! But, how is it, that for almost 200 years people have been enjoying this music without realizing how "patriarchal" and "oppressive" it is? Didn't Beethoven exalt women in the character of Leonore, a great hero?
A further reading of Ms McClary's writings, reveals either gross musicological incompetence, or, willful distortion.
The "recapitulation" introduces the note F#, which differentiates D minor from D major. We now have the keys which rule throughout the symphony, D minor, D major, and Bb major. They have been generated in such a way though, that they tend to function as a single modality, rather than three separate keys.
Tomorrow, we dive into the 2nd movement of the Ninth Symphony!