Beethoven´s Symphony no.5 Analysis of Form, Motives and Harmonies

This analysis of Beethoven’s Symphony no.5 op.67 seeks not only to analyse its form, motives and harmonies, but to also give a more judicial and descriptive thought. The analysis is divided into the four movements, each containing the most important themes which are thus analysed, along with some brushes of extra musical thought.

The first movement starts with a five bar theme (appearing no less than 45 times in the whole movement), followed by an answer of 16 bars.  

                                                                            

This famous five bar theme consists of only 4 notes played in unison. The first four notes are tonally ambiguous as it could be either E flat major or c minor, thus the answer (also 4 notes) is also ambiguous; either B flat or G with a seventh. Notice here that even though Beethoven was economical with his thematic material, it was said to convey specific states of mind in musical terms, (e.g.: Fate knocking on the door). Wilhelm Furtwangler clearly underlined two aspects of Beethoven’s motivic development; he knew how to create an adequate climax, and knew how to develop these out of its own boundaries; meaning this theme is the pure basis to the creation of the whole symphony.[1] The final D of this five bar theme is maintained longer, as it acts as a sort of dominant that is immediately resolved by the cellos with a long C, thus finally establishing the key of c minor.

Then the main theme is heard again in unison, this time starting a second higher. This is then developed in counterpoint by using the same rhythmic pattern as the original theme. Then the second subject appears with a radical change of mood, a sweet answer in E flat major, though the fearsome rhythm of 1^st theme is still maintained in the cellos and double basses.  

                                                      

This second subject is repeated and echoed by flutes and clarinets, in a sort of question-answer development. The violins then take a melody of three notes (starting in G flat) and repeated for 10 bars, creating tension, and changing the harmonies to finish again in an established E flat (also the double basses are growing chromatically up to D). Beethoven then repeats this whole section again, giving a dramatic change of key (from E flat to the return in c minor).

The developing section starts with a rhythmic variation of the first theme. The main theme comes this time in F (chord IV) played by the horns, and then passing through the tonic and dominant, until we arrive to a succession of dramatic chords. These chords grow harmonically in tension as we find diminished chords (G and then A). They finally rise until the main theme is heard in ff in great contrast with the pp from before (dynamics allow the harmonies to reverb in a unique timbre whilst making contrast really extreme). Then we return back to c minor in the recapitulation with some differences. Here we find the astonishing oboe solo, described by Karl Marx as “a witness to Beethoven’s humanity and poetic depth”[2].

                                 

This solo moves around the harmonic centre of G and D, again sustaining the music with a dominant, though this time resolving in the submediant with the violins. After another loud preface of the horns, the second subject appears in C major.[3]

Marx sees the second movement as a logical outcome of the first, a premonition of eventual victory. How interesting it is then to see that the themes of Beethoven follow a natural order, and like the characters of Shakespeare, the motives are led by their own action towards the same destiny. The second movement is a set of variations starting in A flat major, the submediant. The first variation (extended to 48 bars) contains three sections.

The first section starts with an anacrusis of a fourth moving up to the chord of A flat, (the fourth resembles the fourths of the second subject of the first movement) and is characterised by this rhythm starting in anacrusis:     

 

The second section of this first theme is a second melody with suspensions played by the flute, and deriving into a perfect cadence of A flat major. The third section starts with a I – V – I progression before a perfect cadence in C major, that is played with the thematic rhythm in unison and in ff. Every time a theme ends the next one starts with quicker notes in the viola (from semiquavers to demisemiquavers), after a dominant seventh pause. Beethoven moves dramatically to C major at the start of many of the variations. He finishes this movement with the characteristic anacrusis and a long dominant chord in the woodwind parts, giving it a sense of an unfinished variation that is suddenly resolved into chord I in A flat.

The third movement is a scherzo (ABA+ coda structure) in c minor again. Here we hear how Beethoven goes back to that sense of angst that characterised the first movement, as we find unusual modulations and continual extensions which are applied to the principal theme. Dr. Richard E. Rodda described: “...it is a carefully devised whole in which each of the movements serves to carry the work towards its end”[4]. Not only in terms of a mastering technique of form, but Beethoven here literally links the last two movements without a pause. The form along with the themes is as follows:

A. The first section opens with a motif moving in arpeggios in the tonic key:

This is then followed by a second motif of the horns played in the dominant (following the same triple rhythmic device as the 1^st movement). Both motives are then developed.

B.  The trio starts with again basses and cellos though in C major:

Marx saw this movement as a preparation for the more conclusive victory of the finale, symbolized by this C major tonality.

A. This is the modified scherzo that will lead us to the finale. It is modified to be lighter in score; meaning that Beethoven has varied the instrumental techniques (pizz). It is more extended to prepare the coda and thus balance the movement:

Coda. The composer constructs an enormous crescendo. He moves from c minor to the C major of the finale. Here we find long and sustained notes of the strings and the changing rhythm of the timpani.

E.T.A Hoffmann said of this pedal note in C of the timpani: “arouses the terror of the extraordinary, of the fear of spirits”[5].

Finally the sense of undoubting triumph falls over the last movement, releasing the listener from the previous ambiguity. This being the longest movement constitutes a restatement of the other movements, as if showing how triumph must be reiterated through repetition and balance.[6] This movement is in an unusual sonata form as at the end of the development section, the music comes to a half cadence in fortissimo, and the music continues after a pause with a new recapitulation. The first theme opens with the simple triad of C major, and its function is to move from tonic to dominant.

                           

A new theme is presented by the horns, making another simple progression of chords (I – V – I[7].) The violins answer, taking us to the tonality of G major, which will start the next theme; a 5 bar theme subdivided in ternary form (notice here again the similarity of the thematic material of the first movement). Beethoven then repeats the opening structure (as a restatement of eventual victory). Beethoven ends his work in C major, (with 29 bars of C major chords) although it started in c minor this progression was rather unusual.[8] It is important to notice that C major has had many references throughout the whole work.[9] “The finale, flooding the whole work with its C major emphasis, is the summation of a process that has been unfolding since the 1^st movement”[10].

In conclusion, after analysing themes, harmonies and form of Beethoven’s 5th, we can now carefully explore the non musical qualities that these create on the listener. After understanding how the symphony works, it appears like a perfect balance between “musical logic and spiritual logic”[11]; where Beethoven achieves both through a concise creation of the main three points of the essay.

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[1] As the author Sigmund Spaeth agreed with this by saying: “The marvel of this Fate motif is the way Beethoven builds from it a complete opening theme”.

[2] Robin Wallace, ‘Beethoven’s Critics: Aesthetic dilemmas and resolutions during the composer’s lifetime’, The Fifth Symphony (Cambridge, 1986),   pp.126-43.

[3] It is important to mention that Beethoven, with the oboe solo (A flat major) and the second subject (C major) is preparing us for the appearance of those keys in the following movements.

[4] Richard E. Rodda Symphony no.5 in C minor op.67 Programme note, [Website] http://www.kennedy-center.org, (Authored 2009, Accessed 31^st March 2013).

[5] Wallace, ‘Beethoven’s Critics: Aesthetic dilemmas and resolutions during the composer’s lifetime’, p. 136.

[6] Beethoven repeats many of the already heard themes, recycling many ideas, thus showing how this movement must be strongly restated.

[7] This passage resembles Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, as it mirrors the same rhythmic pattern. 

[8] The main opinion was that he had survived the eternal struggle with fate (c minor) and was finally victorious (C major).

[9] C major has been heard at the recapitulation of the 2^nd theme in the first movement, at the second theme of the second movement and in the trio (3^rd movement).

[10] Lewis Lockwood, ‘Beethoven; the music and the life’, New Symphonic Ideals (New York, 2003), p.224.

[11] Wilhelm Furtwangler and Walter Abendroth, ‘Gesprache uber Musik’, Third conversation (Barcelona, 2011), pp.29-41.