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Symphony no.7: 1st movement: Poco sostenuto
Duration of performance: c. 12 minutes
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bars 1-9
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4 brief chords of the whole orchestra - in two-bar intervals - open the slow introduction with a four-note motif (1st motif of the introduction), which has been gained from the A-major triad. The motif is alternated in oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, oboe.
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bars 15-22
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Scales in a 16th-note movement provide an interesting contrast. The first motif (half-notes) combines with the 2nd motif, the chain of scales.
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bars 23-33
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The musical illustration reaches a point of rest in C major, in which a 3rd motif of the introduction is presented.
The first motif of the introduction recurs in fortissimo, together with the 2nd motif, the ascending scales.
The tension is solved - like at its first presentation - in the piano sounds of the 3rd theme in C major.
Throbbing string 16th-notes, exciting interval steps - covering 2 octaves to the bottom - initiate the change from 4/4 to 6/8 time within the 1st movement, which maintains this basic rhythm.
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bars 62-96
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The slow introduction of the symphony leads to a quick 6/8 time, from which the main theme of the 1st movement is derived. First sounded by the woodwinds, the theme is continued and taken up in fortissimo by the first violins.
The rhythm of the main theme remains the decisive element for the further development of the themes in this movement, also in an epilogue which continues the themes. The 3rd bar of the main theme starts the modulation to the secondary theme.
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bars
119-130
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The 1st secondary theme occurs, to be imitated soon after.
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bars 130-141
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The 2nd secondary theme follows immediately. It is also derived from the rhythm of the main theme. Unlike in any other Beethoven work, the forceful rhythm dominates everything, even the melody.
Gained from the main theme, but with a completely different meaning, the theme of the epilogue is introduced.
In the epilogue-coda the triad is fragmented in the rhythm of the main theme.
The exposition ends with a fortissimo rendering of the main theme. A complete scale ascension in the violins leads into a general pause of 2 bars.
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bars 177-190
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Unisono beats of the strings, caught up by the wind instruments in syncopated rhythm and separated by general pauses, lead on to the development. The 1st violins play the basic rhythm of the movement, combined with the ascending scale gained from the introduction.
The basic rhythm of the main theme remains the decisive element of the development section. New themes arise, in contrapuntal order, built on dactyl rhythms and the scale ascensions from the introduction. The material for the development section is ready: simple, but very flexible and pliable under Beethoven’s ingenious power of transformation.
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bars 201-216
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The syncopated rhythm with the C-major chord reappears 2 octaves lower, where it is imitated in canon-like form.
All the strings take up the rhythm of the movement (half a bar) and the woodwinds carry on in dactyl rhythm: 2 sections of the orchestra in dialogue! The head of the main theme is resumed in piano, unfolded in various ways to form the basis of a brilliant escalation.
This climax, which is unique even in Beethoven’s work, develops from the rhythm of the main theme.
An ascending motif in the rhythm of the main theme gradually pushes its way upward, the rhythm becomes a contrapuntal element.
The rhythm confronts the listener as the only decisive element, that is why the symphony was called an apotheosis of dance by Richard Wagner. Strings and woodwinds alternate in dactyl rhythm.
Quickly upsurging string scales lead to the main theme at the beginning of the recapitulation.
In the Coda double bass and celli intone in the rhythm of the main theme. The violins play the 5th bar of the main theme as a motif.
Two bars of basso ostinato follow, i.e. an unchanging motif, played 10 times, can be heard, the violins accompany with a motif whose content remains the same but which is rhythmically intensified. All this develops on the key-note E.
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bars 423-450
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In this rushing ahead the basic rhythm of the work is resumed in fortissimo by the whole orchestra. Like several times before in the movement, a dialogue in dactyl rhythm develops between strings and woodwinds. The movement ends with the head of the main theme, played in fortissimo. In the final chord the highest tone is a 3rd, not the root, so that you feel intuitively that this is the end of the movement but that the work as a whole has not yet found its real conclusion.
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