Symphony No.7 in A major, Op.92

The unflattering comment routinely attributed to Weber - “In the Seventh Symphony the extravagances of Beethoven’s genius have reached the ne plus ultra and he is quite ripe for the madhouse” - is almost certainly spurious. It does, however, reflect a feeling widespread in the nineteenth century that - except in the Allegretto, which was regularly encored in early performances - the work was well over the top. Schumann’s father-in-law Friedrich Wieck declared that it must have been written in a state of advanced intoxication. Schumann himself was tempted to invent an elaborate peasant-wedding scenario to fit the four movements - and that is only the most reasonable of several programmatic descriptions published about the same time. Wagner’s fanciful assertion that "when anyone plays the Seventh, tables and benches, cans and cups, the grandmother, the blind and the lame, even the children in the cradle fall to dancing" is modest in comparison. Indeed, his often-quoted description of the Seventh Symphony as “the apotheosis of the dance,” which suggests that the work represents the highest development of dance rhythms rather than an excess of them, is an inspired and illuminating observation.

The slow introduction, the longest in any of Beethoven’s symphonies and almost a movement in itself, is a preliminary confrontation of song and dance, ending in the supremacy of the latter. While woodwind instruments sustain a legato line between full-orchestral chords, violins ride over it in staccato scales. A melodious cadential figure is encountered by a rhythmic monotone which persists in woodwind and strings until it is graphically converted by flute and oboe into the first subject of the Vivace in 6/8 time. When the full orchestra takes up the main theme an ostinato in dotted rhythms on trumpets, timpani, and lower strings stresses the dance aspect. Dotted rhythms are also a prominent feature of the second subject, which makes no marked contrast with the first, and the development section survives on them.

The haunting rhythmic pattern heard on lower strings at the beginning of the Allegretto - which Beethoven was concerned not to present as a slow movement - persists throughout. It passes to the violins and becomes an equal partner with the unhappy but graceful legato melody introduced by violas and cellos. It is still there, on pizzicato cellos and basses, when the key changes to the tonic major and clarinet and bassoon intervene with a melody that reminded Berlioz of “patience smiling at grief.”

It is scarcely necessary to stress the dance aspect of the Presto third movement, just as it would be impossible to deny the songful content of the trio sections. Whether or not the melody on which those sections are based derives from a pilgrims’ hymn from lower Austria, and at whatever tempo it is played - Beethoven’s metronome mark is controversial - the trio material represents a quite remarkable suspension of movement in the middle of the most exhilarating physical activity in the music so far. The long sustained monotone of the violins and the impatient gestures of the second horn emphasize the static quality of the music at this point.

Those periods of stillness are a necessary pause for breath before the still more exhilarating physical activity of the last movement. Again the rhythmic impetus is preserved throughout. The second subject is not so much a relaxation as a more graceful kind of dance step. When the momentum does seem to be held back it is to project the movement still more violently forward in a coda where, as Wagner put it, “in the last whirl of delight a kiss of triumph seals the final embrace” - which is a meaningless comment, perhaps, but certainly one in the right spirit.

Beethoven’s most exciting dance music - “the apotheosis of the dance,” according to Wagner, “the happiest realisation of the movements of the body in ideal form” - was not his ballet score The Creatures of Prometheus but his Seventh Symphony. The slow introduction, the longest in any of Beethoven’s symphonies and almost a movement in itself, is a confrontation of song and dance, ending in the supremacy of the latter. Woodwind instruments sustain a legato line between full-orchestral chords but the violins ride over it in staccato scales. A melodious cadential figure is encountered by a rhythmic monotone which is then graphically converted by flute and oboe into the first subject of the Vivace in 6/8 time.

When the full orchestra takes up the main theme an ostinato in dotted rhythms on trumpets, timpani, and lower strings stresses the dance aspect. Dotted rhythms are not absent from the second subject, which makes no marked contrast with the first, and the development section survives on them. Very little is heard of vocal melody in this movement, the nearest approach being the quiet echoes of the Poco sostenuto introduction just before the end of the exposition and at the equivalent point in the recapitulation.

The strangely haunting rhythmic pattern heard on lower strings at the beginning of the Allegretto - which Beethoven was concerned not to present as a slow movement - persists throughout. It passes to the violins and becomes an equal partner with the unhappy but graceful legato melody introduced by violas and cellos. It is still there, on pizzicato cellos and basses, when the key changes to the tonic major and clarinet and bassoon impersonate “patience smiling at grief” as Berlioz so romantically put it.

It is scarcely necessary to stress the dance aspect of the Presto third movement, just as it would be impossible to deny the songful content of the trio sections. Whether or not the melody on which those sections are based derives from a pilgrims’ hymn from lower Austria, and at whatever tempo it is played - Beethoven’s metronome mark is controversial - the trio represents a quite remarkable suspension of movement in the middle of the most exhilarating physical activity in music so far. The long sustained monotone of the violins and the impatient gestures of the second horn emphasise the static quality of the music at this point.

Those periods of stillness are a necessary pause for breath before the still more exhilarating physical activity of the last movement. Again the rhythmic impetus is preserved throughout. The second subject is not so much a relaxation as a more graceful kind of dance step. When the momentum does seem to be held back it is to project the movement still more violently forward in a coda where, as Wagner put it, “in the last whirl of delight a kiss of triumph seals the final embrace” - which is a meaningless comment, perhaps, but certainly one in the right spirit.

Gerald Larner©

434 473 483-84 519 527 547 566 575 599 623 636-7 649-51 660 733 765-66

483 the origin of most of the important melodic ideas of the 7th and 8th symphonies occurred in 1811 and 1812

527 completed May 1812, 8th completed same year

theme of trio nothing more or less than a Lower-Austrian pilgrimage hymn

565-6 first performed University Hall 8/12/13 and 12/12

allegretto demanded da capo at both concerts - and again on 27/2/14 in the Redoutensaal

660 published 1816, dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries

35 47 50 53-4 57 59 64 107 118 136 160 163-6 221

47 cure at Teplitz

enchanted connoisseur and layman

what can you do with it? It’s like a lot of yaks jumping about.

"The extravagances of Beethoven's genius have reached the ne plus ultra in the Seventh Symphony, and he is quite ripe for the madhouse."

In Wagner's words, "if

anyone plays the Seventh, tables and benches, cans and cups, the grandmother, the blind and the lame, aye, the children in the cradle fall to dancing."

ISADORA DUNCAN

Wagner dancing it to Liszt’s accompaniment

Anton Schindler

Friedrich Wieck, Clara Schumann's father, maintained that the music could only have been written by someone

who was seriously intoxicated.

Berlioz heard the first movement as a

“Ronde des Paysans”

Beethoven's contemporary, a Dr. Iken, saw the symphony

as depicting a political revolution (a not unlikely interpretation in those heady Napoleonic

days). Alexander Oulibischoff regarded it as a lively masquerade, while A. B. Marx saw in it

a story of Moorish knighthood. Even such serious composers as Berlioz and Schumann

saw fit to attach programmatic interpretations: Berlioz described the first movement as a

peasant round dance, and Schumann left a detailed account of the symphony as

portraying a rustic wedding.

The unflattering comment regularly attributed to Weber - to the effect that “in the Seventh Symphony the extravagances of Beethoven’s genius have reached the ne plus ultra and he is quite ripe for the madhouse” - is almost certainly spurious. It does, however, reflect a feeling widespread in the nineteenth century that, except in everyone’s favourite Allegretto, the work was some way over the top. Schumann’s father-in-law Friedrich Wieck declared that it must have been written in a state of advanced intoxication. Schumann himself was tempted to invent an elaborate peasant-wedding scenario to fit the four movements - and that is only the most reasonable of several programmatic descriptions published about the same time. They make Wagner’s celebrated encomium, “the apotheosis of the dance,” seem positively modest. Indeed, in suggesting that the Seventh Symphony represents the highest development of dance rhythms rather than an excess of them, it is an inspired and illuminating observation.

The slow introduction, the longest in any of Beethoven’s symphonies and almost a movement in itself, is a preliminary confrontation of song and dance, ending in the supremacy of the latter. While woodwind instruments sustain a legato line between full-orchestral chords, violins ride over it in staccato scales. A melodious cadential figure is encountered by a rhythmic monotone which persists in woodwind and strings until it is graphically converted by flute and oboe into the first subject of the Vivace in 6/8 time. When the full orchestra takes up the main theme an ostinato in dotted rhythms on trumpets, timpani, and lower strings stresses the dance aspect. Dotted rhythms are also a prominent feature of the second subject, which makes no marked contrast with the first, and the development section survives on them.

The haunting rhythmic pattern heard on lower strings at the beginning of the Allegretto - which Beethoven was concerned not to present as a slow movement - persists throughout. It passes to the violins and becomes an equal partner with the unhappy but graceful legato melody introduced by violas and cellos. It is still there, on pizzicato cellos and basses, when the key changes to the tonic major and clarinet and bassoon intervenw tih a melody that reminded Berlioz of “patience smiling at grief.”

It is scarcely necessary to stress the dance aspect of the Presto third movement, just as it would be impossible to deny the songful content of the trio sections. Whether or not the melody on which those sections are based derives from a pilgrims’ hymn from lower Austria, and at whatever tempo it is played - Beethoven’s metronome mark is controversial - the trio represents a quite remarkable suspension of movement in the middle of the most exhilarating physical activity in music so far. The long sustained monotone of the violins and the impatient gestures of the second horn emphasise the static quality of the music at this point.

Those periods of stillness are a necessary pause for breath before the still more exhilarating physical activity of the last movement. Again the rhythmic impetus is preserved throughout. The second subject is not so much a relaxation as a more graceful kind of dance step. When the momentum does seem to be held back it is to project the movement still more violently forward in a coda where, as Wagner put it, “in the last whirl of delight a kiss of triumph seals the final embrace” - which is a meaningless comment, perhaps, but certainly one in the right spirit.