No other four notes in all of classical music are as famous as the opening statement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony-and well they should be, for they instantly capture the audience's attention, never to release it until the tumultuous end of the Finale 30 minutes later. Coming only a few years after the equally arresting opening of the Eroica, the Fifth left audiences with no doubt whatsoever that Beethoven was a revolutionary who would forever change the musical landscape.
Yet the simplicity, inventiveness, and elegance of the theme are deceptive. The beginning of the symphony seems to follow naturally and inevitably, but a study of Beethoven's famous sketchbooks reveals just how hard he worked to achieve his desired result. He had the ``short-short-short-long'' rhythm right away, but instead of shocking his listeners and then giving them a moment to recover, he dove right into a complicated give-and-take between various instruments. Furthermore, there was no rhythmic variety: every measure held another copy of the same four notes. It was only after many trials and failures that he finally came to the solution that begins in fits and starts, giving us time to absorb the power of one appearance of the theme before the next is thrown at us, gradually building until we find ourselves almost unwittingly fully involved in the complex variations that make the symphony so enthralling.
The Fifth Symphony was originally intended to immediately follow the Eroica, but inspiration intervened to produce the Fourth. The first performance was further delayed to allow completion of the Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral, and both were premiered on the same evening. The marathon event also included the aria Ah! perfido, most of the Mass in C, the Fourth Piano Concerto, a Fantasia for piano, and the premiere of the Choral Fantasy. Since Beethoven was at the height of his fame, the audience must have been very pleased to hear three first performances in the same concert, but it is a wonder that the performers were able to survive such a lengthy ordeal. We are probably fortunate that modern demands have eased, since one must suspect that the original event was riddled with errors made by exhausted instrumentalists-but at the same time, we must also count ourselves blessed that even after almost 200 years, Beethoven's invention sounds just as fresh as it did during that long-ago inaugural performance.
© 2000, Geoff Kuenning
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