Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven): Difference between revisions

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The '''Symphony No. 7''' in [[A major]], [[opus number|Op.]] 92, is a symphony in four [[movement (music)|movement]]s composed by [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] between 1811 and 1812, while improving his health in the [[Bohemia]]n spa town of [[Teplitz]]. The work is dedicated to [[Count Moritz von Fries]].

 

 

== History ==

 

Beethoven's life at this time was marked by a worsening [[hearing loss]], which made "conversation notebooks" necessary from 1819 on, with the help of which Beethoven communicated in writing.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/363133953|title=Die 9 Sinfonien Beethovens|first=Renate|last=Ulm|isbn=978-3-7618-1241-9|year=1994|publisher=[[Bärenreiter]]|location=Kassel|oclc=363133953|page=214}}</ref>

 

==Instrumentation==

 

==Form==

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The work as a whole is known for its use of rhythmic devices suggestive of a dance, such as [[dotted rhythm]] and repeated rhythmic figures. It is also tonally subtle, making use of the tensions between the key centres of A, C and F. For instance, the first movement is in [[A major]] but has repeated episodes in [[C major]] and F major. In addition, the second movement is in A minor with episodes in A major, and the third movement, a [[scherzo]], is in F major.<ref>{{cite web|title=Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92 (1812)|url=https://www.esm.rochester.edu/beethoven/symphony-no-7/|publisher=University of Rochester |access-date=2022-03-13}}</ref>

The [[Musical development|development]] section opens in C major and contains extensive episodes in F major. The movement finishes with a long [[Coda (music)|coda]], which starts similarly as the development section. The coda contains a famous twenty-bar passage consisting of a two-bar [[Motif (music)|motif]] repeated ten times to the background of a grinding four [[octave]] deep [[pedal point]] of an E.

 

 

=== II. Allegretto ===

After this, the music changes from A minor to A major as the clarinets take a calmer melody to the background of light [[Triplet (music)|triplets]] played by the violins. This section ends thirty-seven bars later with a quick descent of the strings on an A minor scale, and the first melody is resumed and elaborated upon in a strict [[fugato]].

 

 

===III. Presto – Assai meno presto===

The third movement is a [[scherzo]] in F major and trio in D major. Here, the trio (based on an Austrian pilgrims' hymn{{sfn|Grove|1962|pp=228–271}}) is played twice rather than once. This expansion of the usual A–B–A structure of [[ternary form]] into A–B–A–B–A was quite common in other works of Beethoven of this period, such as his [[Symphony No. 4 (Beethoven)|Fourth Symphony]], [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|''Pastoral Symphony'']], [[Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven)|8th Symphony]], and [[String Quartet No. 8 (Beethoven)|String Quartet Op.&nbsp;59 No.&nbsp;2]].

 

 

=== IV. Allegro con brio ===

In his book ''Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies'', [[Sir George Grove]] wrote, "The force that reigns throughout this movement is literally prodigious, and reminds one of [[Thomas Carlyle|Carlyle]]'s hero Ram Dass, who has 'fire enough in his belly to burn up the entire world.'" [[Donald Tovey]], writing in his ''[[Essays in Musical Analysis]]'', commented on this movement's "[[Dionysus|Bacchic]] fury" and many other writers have commented on its whirling dance-energy. The main theme is a precise [[duple time]] [[Variation (music)|variant]] of the instrumental [[ritornello]] in Beethoven's own arrangement of the Irish folk-song "Save me from the grave and wise", No. 8 of his [[List of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven#Folksong arrangements|Twelve Irish Folk Songs, WoO&nbsp;154]].

 

 

==Reception==

Critics and listeners have often felt stirred or inspired by the Seventh Symphony. For instance, one program-note author writes:

 

Composer and music author [[Antony Hopkins]] says of the symphony:

 

Another admirer, composer [[Richard Wagner]], referring to the lively rhythms which permeate the work, called it the "[[apotheosis]] of the dance".<ref name="grove" />

 

The oft-repeated claim that [[Carl Maria von Weber]] considered the [[Chromatic line|chromatic bass line]] in the coda of the first movement evidence that Beethoven was "ripe for the madhouse" seems to have been the invention of Beethoven's first biographer, [[Anton Schindler]]. His possessive adulation of Beethoven is well-known, and he was criticised by his contemporaries for his obsessive attacks on Weber. According to [[John Warrack]], Weber's biographer, Schindler was characteristically evasive when defending Beethoven, and there is "no shred of concrete evidence" that Weber ever made the remark.<ref>{{cite book|last=Warrack|first=John Hamilton|author-link=John Warrack|title=Carl Maria von Weber|edition=reprint, revised|publisher=Cambridge University Press Archive|year=1976|pages=98–99|isbn=0521291216}}</ref>

 

==References==