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Symphony no. 5: 1st movement

Form scheme 1st movement

The 1st movement of the symphony confronts us with a spiritual problem without solving it. Four beats with 3rd intervals form the beginning. The whole of the 1st movement evolves out of this motif.

bars 1-5

Four notes from the C-minor triad open the work, the last one is given a rest-point. The forces released by this motif provide unlimited scope for the listener’s feelings.

bars 6-21

The main theme is a staggering of the motif to a triad. Beethoven is said to have uttered the words: "I want to grab fate by the throat" and those words apply to this passage in particular.

bars 22-58

The introductory motif can be heard again. Will-power and strength stand before us in towering human greatness, based on a healthy feeling for nature. The pianist and pedagogue Charles Czerny, 1791-1857, a pupil of Beethoven’s, reports that Beethoven got the rhythm of the motif during a walk in the wood from the warbling of a blackbird. Again the motif is repeated, transposed into brighter spheres, also by means of the volume, until it plunges from its height into the depth.

bars 59-92

The secondary theme in E-flat major does not form a contrast but grows out of the main theme. The head is identical in both themes; 5th steps lead to the unfolding of the musical process in the secondary theme. Beats of the fate motif can be heard in the celli and double basses. A new subject occurs in the epilogue, followed by the epilogue coda - a condensed form of the fate motif, which forms the conclusion of the exposition.

bars 124-145

The development is totally devoted to the unfolding of the two themes which have the same root. There is no other symphonic movement in European music history that manages to create such a tonal universe out of these small basic elements. At first Beethoven modulates from E-flat major to F minor. The slightly modified fate motif remains the vital force of the development. The pianissimo rises in crescendo to a fortissimo of the whole orchestra, now Beethoven does without the 3rd step of the fate motif and reduces the three beats to two. The secondary theme is introduced into the process in fortissimo, its 2nd and 3rd bars are used as well. The general tonal colouring is gained by the confrontation of strings and woodwinds. The oboe forms a plaintive nostalgic epilogue in a brief one-bar cadenza, placed on the final G of the dominant chord of G major. In the recapitulation the arrangement of the musical material is similar to the exposition. The fate motif recurs; a change of key is necessary as the secondary theme is played in the related major key, i.e. in C major, according to the rules of the classical sonata form. The epilogue starts. The Coda heightens the tension. The fate motif as a part of the main theme dominates the process. In the secondary theme the interval steps have been changed. The 3rds of the secondary theme develop into a new theme in regular quarter-note rhythm.

bars 482-501

The ending of the 1st movement is similar to the beginning of the recapitulation - the powerful striking of the fate motif and the impressive rest-point. The main theme is heard in a questioning pianissimo, and the movement ends in fortissimo with confirming chords on dominant and tonic.

Turn over to 2nd movement