Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph (163 page)

25. Nottebohm,
Two Beethoven Sketchbooks
, 71–72.

26. The superimposition of the recapitulation is the horn's Hero theme on the tonic triad against A-flat–B-flat in tremolo strings, representing a dominant seventh.
Grove Music Online
points out that the resulting dissonance of G and A-flat can be seen as another avatar of the primal melodic G–A-flat motif from the first page—in other words, a case of Beethoven's making a melodic figure into a harmonic one.

27. The apt adjective
evil
for the climactic harmony (an A-minor chord with added ♭6, scored to emphasize the E–F dissonance) is from Adolph Marx. My description aspires to convey the drama and intensity of these pages in the development, but as always there is a formal process going on too: those screaming tutti harmonies from m. 276 are a long windup to the “new” theme in E minor, a systematic preparation for that distant key. The bass line from m. 248 makes a long descent from D to B, the dominant of E minor. Meanwhile the “sore” C-sharp/D-flat is part of the new E-minor theme, as part of the three-note chromatic slide on its original pitches D-sharp/E-flat–D–C-sharp. The hair-raising climactic chord in the development, as should be expected in Beethoven, is foreshadowed earlier: in the lacerating A7–over–B-flat chord at the end of the exposition, m. 147. (The first long sketch for the development [Nottebohm,
Two Beethoven Sketchbooks
, 74–76] had a different bass descent, and the climactic harmony was on a diminished-seventh chord—dissonant, but far less shocking than the final version.)

28. See Nottebohm,
Two Beethoven Sketchbooks
, 81. Another detail of the development's new theme helps cement the connection of its descending three-note chromatic slide to the ones in the Hero theme. As was said in the previous note, in E minor, the development theme has in m. 286 the same enharmonic pitches as the Hero theme's chromatic slide on the first page: D-sharp–D–C-sharp. Meanwhile there is an intriguing divide between what I suspect most listeners hear as the essential new theme and the way Beethoven seems to have thought of it. All his sketches have only the
lower
line, the one derived from the Hero theme, standing in for the whole. Most listeners, however, naturally tend to hear the
upper
line (a foreshadowing of the second-movement dirge) as the “real” new theme. I think both lines contribute to the effect of what I call an integrative theme, at once looking backward to the Hero theme and forward to the
Funeral March
.

29. The new, double theme is heard four times in the development: in E minor, A minor, E-flat minor, and G-flat major (the last truncated). In the scoring Beethoven alternates emphasizing the lower and upper lines; the G-flat version is only the upper line.

30. The most common way for a coda to anticipate and/or prepare the next movement is tonally, an example being the way the final G-sharp of the middle movement of the Third Piano Concerto prepares the G–A-flat that opens the rondo theme. The idea of a coda foreshadowing
themes
of the next movement I have not found in the literature, but that happens sometimes in Beethoven, for example, in the first movement of the
Eroica
and, as we will see, in the first-movement recapitulation and coda of the Fifth Symphony.

31. Nottebohm,
Two Beethoven Sketchbooks
, 80.

32. My sense of the ending began with Brinkmann in “Time of the
Eroica
.”

33. Burnham, in
Beethoven Hero
: “The final melodic utterance of the opening theme has thematic stability but no thematic closure . . . the unstable and volatile theme of the opening bars is now heard as a stable, indeed, potentially unending iteration” (19). Burnham presents the progress of the first movement in structural terms as a series of upbeats and downbeats at various levels: the first presentations of the Hero theme, for example, form an upbeat to its
tutti fortissimo
eruption on the third page, but that presentation is also unfinished, forming an upbeat at a higher level.

34. Kramer, “Notes to Beethoven's Education,” 99. There are sketches for
Eroica
horn passages on the same pages of Beethoven's notes from the horn article.

35. I see the
Eroica
as a narrative on the idea of the Hero in general, as embodied particularly in Bonaparte, but not as a “program” piece in the terms of the later nineteenth century. Neither here nor in most of Beethoven's other named pieces—especially the
Pastoral
Symphony and the
Lebewohl
Sonata—do I see a point-by-point narrative of events or ideas (though there is the all-too-blatant narrative of
Wellington's Victory
). His programs in symphonies and sonatas seem to me general, not specific. True, if it were discovered that, as a private device, Beethoven had modeled his first movement on, say, a particular battle or campaign of Napoleon's, I would not be particularly surprised. But in the absence of evidence I'm not inclined to speculate, and I don't hear that overtly suggested in the music. Perhaps my sense of the overall narrative will seem a stretch to some. But Beethoven conceived his works as wholes, and he would not give a piece a title and then drop the program after the first two movements. While I don't doubt that his “characteristic” conception covered the whole piece, then, there's no question that the narrative implications of the last two movements are more obscure than for the first two. I should mention that my programmatic narrative of the first two movements generally agrees with writers going back to Adolph Marx, who are the main subject of Burnham's
Beethoven Hero
.

36. Broyles,
Beethoven
, 123.

37. See Nottebohm,
Two Beethoven Sketchbooks
, 81–84.

38. Palisca, “French Revolutionary Models,” 202. Even though Beethoven's phrase may well be based on Gossec, consciously or not, there is a significant difference in effect between the two marches. Only a close comparison of the notes reveals the similarities; the sound hardly does. Palisca cites possible connections to other pieces, especially by Cherubini. Czerny cites a model in a funeral march by Paer.

39. A summary of the form of the
Funeral March:

 

Part 1. A (dirge, C min.) B (E♭ maj.) A
₁
(F min.) B
₁
(E♭ maj.) A
₂
(F min.) Closing (C min.)

Part 2. C (Trio, C & F maj.) // A (C min.) Double Fugue (F & C min., E♭ maj.) Interlude (briefly A♭ maj.)

Part 3. A
₃
(C min.) B (E♭ maj.) A
₄
(F min., C min.) Closing (C min.)

CODA (D♭ maj.–C min.)

 

The second movement, like the others, has richly interwoven motivic and tonal relationships. The dirge
Thema
, besides its derivation from the end of the
Prometheus
bass, is built on an ascending triad (C minor), recalling the Hero theme. The middle theme begins with a simple ascending triad. The dirge melody meanwhile ascends first from G through C to G, sharing the tonic-dominant emphasis of the
Prometheus
bass opening and its main compass from dominant to dominant. The three-note chromatic motif is a feature of the B theme (first at mm. 21–22). Within the movement, the A-flat to E-flat descent in mm. 6–7 is augmented to make the beginning of the B theme from m. 17. That motif is inverted to make the imitative bass/viola accompaniment in the C section (from m. 69), which becomes the main fugue subject from m. 114. The symphony's home key of E-flat major turns up in the B theme and the fugue. Based on the first page of the symphony, the A-flat–G motif is featured throughout, likewise the primal C-sharp/D-flat sore note. One idea derived from the A-flat–G figure is the wailing appoggiaturas on those notes (also on F-sharp–G). One feature that unites the kaleidoscopic world of the second movement is the rhythmic motif quarter–eighth–eighth, which is implied in the dirge and overt in the B theme. The scoring is likewise kaleidoscopic, starting with the dark texture of the opening and then the rich B theme, with cellos and basses divided, all the strings in their lowest registers. The horns are brilliantly handled thoughout, with only a few stopped notes, carefully placed—above all, the piercing low B in m. 231, another of the small but powerful scoring details in the movement (which includes the oboe in its most poignant mode). On modern valved horns the piercing effect of the stopped horn near the end is lost—but I suggest that the low B should still be stopped.

 

40. For me and I suspect for many musicians the horn peroration at the climax of the fugue in the
Funeral March
is one of those moments that represent one of the highest, most heart-filling, most intensely humanistic summits that music is capable of. That moment is one of the reasons some of us are musicians in the first place. And yet, as I always say, it's all made of scales going up and down: just
scales
.

41. The surging bass line at the end of the
Funeral March
will be echoed in the bass line at the end of the Ninth Symphony first movement—likewise a funeral march.

42. Nottebohm,
Two Beethoven Sketchbooks
, 87–88.

43. Ibid., 88. Note bars 5–8 in the scherzo; they are derived from the “hook” motif in bars 7–8 of the
Prometheus
bass.

44. Ibid., 90.

45. The folkish theme of the scherzo is another one built on the scaffolding of the
Prometheus
bass. Its structural notes are the
basso
's E-flat and B-flat, its main compass an octave—though from tonic to tonic rather than the bass's dominant to dominant.

46. My feeling is that Beethoven looked at the
Eroica
as an end-directed work, whose meaning and material are paid off in the finale. But in practice I think the finale lacks the weight and impact of the first movement, partly because much of it is in the light and rather conventional style of ballet music. Many people, and I am inclined to that camp, feel the finale does not work ideally for this symphony, because however beautifully conceived in both musical and symbolic terms, for all its gathering glories, the finale doesn't quite have the impact and scale to fulfill its function as the symphony's goal and apotheosis. The coda of the finale, however, is surely as glorious as it needs to be and forms a perfect conclusion to the symphony.

47. Schiller,
Aesthetic Education
, 300. I'm not suggesting that Beethoven knew this passage, from a letter of Schiller's to his friend C. G. Körner, but rather that this passage reflects the widespread reputation of the
englische
(see Aldrich, “Social Dancing”).

48. It was Thomas Sipe's
Beethoven: Eroica Symphony
that pointed out for me the presence of the
englische
in the finale; its meaning was amplified by Aldrich's article on social dancing in Vienna and by Schiller's letter about the
englische
. Sipe relates the implied image of society in the finale to the Aesthetic State envisioned in Schiller's
Aesthetic Education
and provides a quite specific program relating to that social and philosophical work. Meanwhile, as Sipe notes, Constantin Floros has derived the whole of the
Eroica
from the story of the
Prometheus
ballet. Since, as I've said, it's likely that the ballet's story had some influence from the
Aesthetic Education
, Floros and Sipe are on firm ground concerning influences on the finale, and certainly the scenario and ideas from the ballet contributed to the creation of the
Eroica
. But in regard to the finale I depart from Sipe's and Floros's interpretation, mainly for two reasons. First, as I said earlier, I don't think Beethoven wrote programs that specific or that abstractly philosophical. Second, their interpretations have little to do with Napoleon as the ideal of a benevolent despot, which I insist is the essential subject of the symphony from beginning to end. Beethoven would not switch programs in the middle of a program piece, or drop the program either. I think the main foundation of the
Eroica
was that image of Napoleon and ideals founded on Beethoven's
Bildung
in Bonn. In any case, generations of scholars and musicians have rarely if ever considered that this symphony was written from first note to last as a “characteristic” piece called, and in large part about, Bonaparte. As is clear, I'm proposing to put that fact back into the equation, without denying that the symphony is also about the heroic principle in a larger perspective—and no less is a triumph in “abstract” terms. Which is to say that Beethoven's later title
Eroica
was appropriate to the conception. Still, my interpretation is not entirely antithetical to that of Sipe and Floros. Sipe writes, “After the hero's military accomplishment and funeral solemnity, after the return of the troops to domestic concerns, Beethoven envisioned a new, peaceful political order. Schiller's idealism shaped that vision” (113). To that point we are in agreement and I have echoed his words—though I think the Schiller connection has more to do with “An die Freude,” which Beethoven did read, than
Aesthetic Education
, which likely he did not (though ideas from it were present in the zeitgeist). But the
road
to Elysium in “An die Freude” is not the doing of a hero but rather something humanity achieves for itself. Beethoven will return to that question with the Ninth Symphony.

49. Nottebohm,
Two Beethoven Sketchbooks
, 94. I believe Beethoven's key choices (and for that matter Haydn's and Mozart's) have an internal reason as part of the overall structure of a work, so here are some ideas about why he begins the introduction of the finale in G minor (quickly modulating to E-flat). G minor has an important place in the development of the first movement and turns up in the scherzo. More immediately, the introduction of the finale foreshadows the G-minor military march in the middle of the finale. There may be more, if rather arcane, reasons. The C-sharp on the first page of the symphony resolves as if it were part of a German sixth on E-flat (that note is missing), to a G-minor chord. More significantly, the added note that makes the
Prometheus
theme into the Hero theme is G. The A-flat–G figure heard from the first page of the symphony forward may play a part as well. Meanwhile A-flat turns up as an emphasized key or chord several times in the finale (it is the dominant of D-flat); starting in m. 231, Beethoven makes a repeated point of A-flat as the Neapolitan chord of G minor.