5th symphony (Beethoven)

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Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th Symphony ( C minor , Opus 67) is one of his most famous works and one of the most popular pieces in classical music . It is also known as the symphony of fate . The playing time is depending on the interpretation of just under 31 to just over 39 minutes.

The entire four-movement symphony is often identified with the concise opening motif , with the three distinctive eighth notes on  G , followed by a long  E- flat in the same dynamic (fortissimo) .

In the so-called romantic Beethoven reception , which extended into the 20th century, Beethoven's "Fifth" was interpreted in the sense of a fateful drama as a musically objectified narrative of defeat and triumph, of the eternal human struggle, of suffering and redemption. Similar to the 9th Symphony with its “ Ode to Joy ”, according to this interpretation, with its per aspera ad astra , its way through night to light, from C minor to C major , it deals with a fundamental idea of European culture . Even if this interpretation is sometimes viewed as pathetic today, it can definitely be stated that Beethoven's Fifth, together with the 3rd symphony , in whose parallel key it is, and even more so the 9th symphony, the symphonic work of the 19th. It had a major influence on the 19th century - from Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms to Pjotr ​​Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Anton Bruckner to Gustav Mahler . It is also one of the works that is able to cast a spell over and over again both classical music lovers and people who are otherwise hardly inclined to classical music, not least through its rhythmic power, which is already in the initial motif by means of the unison of the Strings appears particularly concise.

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The opening motif of the 5th symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Work data

Date of origin: First records go back to 1800. Direct transcriptions can be found in Beethoven's sketchbook from February and March 1804. It was completed in the period from April 1807 to spring 1808.

World premiere: Together with the Pastorale , the Piano Concerto No. 4, G major op. 58 , parts of the Mass in C major, op. 86 and the choir fantasy on December 22nd, 1808 in the Theater an der Wien .

Orchestra: 1 piccolo , 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 1 contrabassoon , 2 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , timpani in C and G, string orchestra (1st violin , 2nd violin, viola , violoncello , double bass )

History of origin

Beethoven's first sketches for the 5th Symphony were made in 1803 and 1804, i.e. between the completion of the Eroica and before work on the 4th Symphony (completed in autumn 1806). After the Upper Silesian Count Franz von Oppersdorff met Beethoven in 1806, he commissioned two symphonies from him. The 5th symphony was completed in Vienna in 1807 and in the spring of 1808, when work on the 6th symphony was also completed. After the symphony was initially to be dedicated to Oppersdorff, the latter made several payments, which would have secured his rights for a certain period of time. In the end, Beethoven sold his work to Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz and dedicated it to him and the son of the last hetman in the Ukraine, Count Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumowski , to whom the three string quartets op. 59 were later dedicated. Beethoven wrote to Oppersdorff on November 1, 1808: "Noth forced me to sell the symphony that was written for you [...] to someone else." As compensation, he dedicated the 4th symphony to him. In June 1808, while expecting better payment, Beethoven offered the work to Breitkopf & Härtel , who published it in 1809.

Autograph of the first page of the score of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

The symphony was premiered on December 22nd, 1808 as part of a four-hour concert in the Theater an der Wien . In this historically significant concert, in which Beethoven also gave the world premiere of his 4th piano concerto , the 6th symphony and the fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra were performed for the first time, and parts of the mass were also performed in C major and the aria "Ah, perfido!" The performance was unpleasant because the musicians in the orchestra had not rehearsed enough and the theater was unheated. At the time of the premiere, Beethoven had numbered the 5th and 6th symphonies in reverse order and only later decided to use today's numbering.

Little can be said about Beethoven's thoughts and motivations for the 5th Symphony, since no statements by the composer himself about his work have been passed down. In the 19th century in particular, Beethoven's deafness, which began in 1798, and his shocking realization in the Heiligenstadt Testament (1802) were associated with the interpretation of a musical statement in the work. In 1859, Alexander Ulibischeff presented a privatistic interpretation of the knocking motif of the fifth symphony: "He opens his door at the fateful knocks, and a black ghost appears before him [...] in order to prophesy the nothing of complete deafness."

In her study of the history of the reception of the fifth symphony, Mechthild Fuchs accepts both the biographical and the historical aspects as the background for the interpretation of the work: “But a direct explanation of the contents of the fifth symphony from Beethoven's biography or from the revolutionary movements of his time would be too short. In the investigations into Beethoven's image, which are based on his own self-portrayal or his image in the music-interested public, I came to the conclusion that although these factors are important as a background for an interpretation, his artistic intentions are important don't exhaust it. ” Harry Goldschmidt summarized the philosophical implications of the various interpretations:

“'Fate' [...] has a secular as well as a concrete, thoroughly repressive meaning. In no case does it go hand in hand with an unhistorical, personal interpretation. The same must be said of the rebellion. Otherwise handwriting would never have become so super-personal, musical language of the masses in the ideal use of the word. At the same time it was the eminently modern language, with all the historical experiences from the modern age. Kant, Beethoven's philosophical authority, defined the bourgeois Enlightenment as the 'emancipation from self-inflicted immaturity'. Fate was no longer passively accepted, it had neither become inescapable nor invincible. The inner course of the sentence sequence speaks for this. Fate only appears inescapable in the first sentence. "

Like most of Beethoven's surviving statements, his well-known quote on the fifth symphony is based on the statements of his secretary Anton Schindler and is therefore only of questionable authenticity. Schindler quoted Beethoven's words about his work: “The key to these depths was given by its creator himself when he spoke to the author one day about the underlying idea, with the words: So fate knocks at the gate by he pointed to the beginning of the first movement. ”This interpretation, associated with the term“ Fate Symphony ”, has come under fire in current research - partly rightly. However, in her study, Fuchs considers Schindler's statement to be credible; the frequent interpretation as "fate symphony" is for them an indication that this interpretation is appropriate. Harry Goldschmidt, on the other hand, emphasized the political significance of the work and the concept of fate that may appear in it:

“When Goethe spoke to Napoleon about 'fate', the answer he received was: 'La politique c'est le destin!' ["Politics is fate!"] It is unlikely that this Napoleonic, better Bonapartist citizen term of 'fate' would not have been the same as that of the composer of the symphony on Bonaparte. […] In this respect, the C minor symphony, brought to an end after the victories of Jena and Auerstedt, was an eminently anti-Napoleonic work. It is even possible that the disappointment with the coronation of the emperor after the completion of the 'Eroica' prompted the 'Parallel Symphony' soon thereafter. Like the Coriolan overture composed at the same time, in the same style and key, it is written 'in tyrannos' [“against the tyrants”]. "

Regardless of the fact that there are no reliable statements from Beethoven, the work is seen by musicologists as a link between the 3rd , 7th and 9th symphonies , in which Beethoven came up with an independent symphonic tonal language.

Structure and analysis

Overview of sentence names:

  1. Allegro con brio
  2. Andante con moto
  3. Allegro
  4. Allegro

First sentence

Orchestra recording of the
1st movement, playing time 8:20 minutes (8.42 MB), source: en: Musopen
First topic

Allegro con brio, 2/4 time , C minor

The first movement is a classical sonata main movement form , which differs from the conventional form model of the symphony insofar as the composer uses an extremely short but very concise motif instead of a theme made up of several motifs (one could almost call it a "main rhythm" speaking instead of a main topic). In addition, the secondary theme plays a very subordinate role: it only appears in the exposition and recapitulation and is accompanied by the rhythm of the main theme in the bass from the very first appearance. The movement thus has a strong tendency towards monothematic, which is also common in Haydn's symphonies .

The exposure starts without slow introduction directly with the five cycles of the above graduated "fate motif". It draws its tension from the two fermatas and above all from the fact that the key is initially undecided. The listener could just as easily assume E flat major to be the basic key, only from bar 7 onwards does the key C of the cellos and bassoons create harmonic clarity. The motif then wanders through the voices ( audio sample ? / I ) and merges into a rhythmic eighth- note flow that ends in the tutti on the dominant . The initial motif is repeated with the notes of the diminished seventh chord , and then, in the same way as before, it merges into a chordal tutti , which then introduces the secondary theme. Audio file / audio sample

Horn transition
Page topic (beginning)

A short horn motif ( audio sample ? / I ), which begins with the same rhythm but a different tone sequence, leads over to the secondary theme ( parallel key in E flat major) in evenly flowing quarters ( audio sample ? / I ). Audio file / audio sample Audio file / audio sample

A downward-moving eighth-note figure (first in the strings , then in the winds ) and the main rhythm that sounds again conclude the exposition.

The first part of the implementation deals with the topic, harmoniously modified many times. After a dynamic increase, the variant of the main motif, continued in falling fifths, appears in measure 179, which introduced the second theme in the exposition. However, you wait in vain for its entry, instead the basses bring a descending counterpoint. After a transposed repetition of this passage, there is a third announcement of the secondary theme, which, however, already gets stuck in the beginning and ends in a kind of static sound surface that is played alternately by the wind and string group in diminuendo ( audio sample ? / I ). Audio file / audio sample

Sound surface (excerpt)

After this oppressive phase of paralysis, which Berlioz compared to the groan of a dying man, the main motif breaks in with brutal violence and, with eight romps on a flat -f, leads over to the recapitulation, which - apart from an inserted recitative-like oboe- cantilena - the exposition repeated. True to the tradition of the Picardian third , which is often used in classical symphonies , Beethoven now performs the secondary theme in C major. The following very extended coda closes the movement in a minor key.

Second sentence

First subject of the 2nd movement
Second subject of the 2nd movement

Andante con moto, 3/8 time , A flat major

The second movement is in the key of the 6th degree or the tonic counter-sound of C minor, i.e. A flat major. In every respect it represents a sharp contrast to the first movement: there an extremely short, rhythmically concise motif, here a sweeping, curved, dotted , singing theme ( audio sample ? / I ). It takes on the task that the secondary theme of the first sentence could barely perceive due to the dominance of the main theme. Audio file / audio sample

The sentence can be formally divided into four sections: theme and three free variations . The second variation takes on the function of a development, the fourth variation that of a recapitulation and coda. The first section is structured as follows: After the main theme, also in A flat major, the second theme appears in clarinet and bassoon. It ends with the sound of C-E flat, which is reinterpreted in a modulation as the C minor third and finally leads to C major, where the theme is repeated in fortissimo , brightly shining and "with timpani and trumpets" ( audio sample ? / i ). A second transition leads back to the dominant E flat major. The first theme, which appears first as a dotted line, appears in the three variations, first in continuous sixteenths, then in thirty-second notes and finally as a canon followed by a short coda. Audio file / audio sample

Third sentence

Allegro, 3/4 time , C minor

The third movement - a scherzo , as it has been typical since Beethoven instead of the traditional minuet - is again in C minor. In Beethoven literature, it is often denied the character of an independent movement and ascribed the function of a tension-increasing transition to the finale ( Walter Riezler ). Beethoven also completed the movement with the fair copy of the score and cut it by half after the world premiere. The movement has the form Scherzo - Trio - shortened Scherzo recapitulation with transition to the finale.

Joke theme

The Scherzo consists of a double bass motif, rising in quarters, which opens up a pitch range of almost two octaves ( audio sample ? / I ) and is answered by the high strings. This is followed by a fanfare-like four-tone motif, first in the horns and then in the tutti (three quarters, dotted halves), which is reminiscent of the first theme of the first movement. The first theme (this time in B flat minor) and the horn motif appear again in a varied form, before they are combined in a kind of development at the end of the scherzo. Eighth-note figures in the violins and a concluding tutti (with timpani) lead over to the middle section. It is noteworthy that in the Scherzo part Beethoven dispenses with the usual division into two repeated parts. Audio file / audio sample

Trio of the 3rd movement

The trio is a fugato that starts with the strings and then involves the wind instruments. The second part begins with a mission interrupted by hesitation. It is not repeated in full, but ends with a pianissimo line falling through three octaves from the flutes to the bassoons . This is followed by a shortened recapitulation of the scherzo, in pianissimo and pizzicato . After a fifteen bars pianissimo organ point A in the bass, the opening motif is heard briefly. The timpani drive the music forward by rhythmically indicating the main motif, then playing quarter notes, eighth notes and finally a drum roll. With this huge increase, attacca starts the finale. There is no formal separation of the movements: This stylistic device was very rare in the music of this time.

Fourth sentence

Allegro, 4/4 time , C major

Compared to the opening movement, the final movement has the emphasis of the symphony: This tendency to shift the focus to the end shows the 9th symphony even more clearly later. The "cheerful, problem-free" character, as was still common in some of Beethoven's earlier symphonies, is no longer used. The contrast between the dramatic and gloomy C minor of the first movement and the jubilant C major of the final movement has the Beethoven literature to the well-known pictures ( “per aspera ad astra” - “through night to the light”, rising sun, triumphal march, Victory over fate, redemption etc.) animated. In order to increase the triumphant character, Beethoven uses the form of the march, as he did later in the 9th Symphony . The orchestra will also be expanded to include the piccolo , contrabassoon and trombones . Like the first movement, the 4th movement is built in the sonata main movement form, but the exposition lasts 85 bars, the development 66 bars, the recapitulation, on the other hand, has 110 bars and the coda as much as 126. which is shifted towards the end, as is the overall structure of the symphony.

Main motif of the 4th movement

The first theme begins with a triad fanfare and sets up a clear tonic . ( Audio sample ? / I ). After a transition section in continuous eighths and a second theme, which is related to the first in its structure of triad tones ( audio sample ? / I ), follows the side movement in G major, which is rhythmically raised by triplets ( audio sample ? / I ) The triplet theme is continued and ends in a tutti after a short figure in the horns.Audio file / audio sample Audio file / audio sample Audio file / audio sample

Triplet theme

Clarinet , bassoon , viola and cello begin a new, short theme, which is then taken up by the whole orchestra. A tutti ends the exposition. The following development works mainly with the triplet motif of the side movement. It wanders through the individual voices or, as in the sheet music example, it is combined with triplets of the brass and timpani. Above a long organ point of the basses on note g , the other strings play in continuous eighth notes in order to conclude with a tutti in fortissimo .

Referring triplet theme

Now the first violins start surprisingly with a rhythmic formula only on the G note in pianissimo . This part is based on the Scherzo of the third movement, but without the bass line. A tutti then leads over to the recapitulation, which is slightly longer than when it first appeared due to two inserted parts. The second theme, which is heard in the bassoon and answered by the horns, opens the coda. This uses a motif related to the main theme (GcGedcg), which leads to the last Presto after starting twice . Seven quarter beats in the orchestra, separated by long pauses, finally end the work.

Recordings

In 2011 there were 150 recordings of the work. Therefore only a few recordings can be mentioned separately. The first recording was made by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Arthur Nikisch in 1913. In the period that followed, two different interpretive approaches can be pursued: on the one hand, the romantic Beethoven interpretation, represented by Wilhelm Furtwängler , Otto Klemperer , Bruno Walter and Willem Mengelberg . The tempos are serene and significantly slower than specified by the composer (up to 40 minutes total playing time). The individual sections within a movement are also set off from one another in terms of speed , the upper voices are emphasized compared to the opposing voices. The other approach (first represented by Arturo Toscanini ) follows the fast metronome numbers (with the prescribed repetitions of 33 minutes total playing time), has a leaner sound and tries to work out the structure of the sentence. Other important recordings have been made by Carlos Kleiber , René Leibowitz , Herbert von Karajan , Leonard Bernstein , Ferenc Fricsay , George Szell , Rafael Kubelík and Igor Markevitch . In the course of historical performance practice, recordings of Beethoven's symphonies were also made on original instruments (e.g. by Sir Roger Norrington , Frans Brüggen and Sir John Eliot Gardiner ). A rhythmically concise recording based on the original text was made under David Zinman . The piano arrangement by Franz Liszt (in recordings by Konstantin Scherbakov , Cyprien Katsaris , Glenn Gould , Paul Badura-Skoda and İdil Biret ) should also be mentioned. There is an arrangement for organ by Ernst-Erich Stender .

Reception of the work

Through contemporaries

According to contemporary reports, the first performance of the work was not very successful. The reaction of the audience ranged from reserve to helplessness to rejection. In addition, there was the fact that the orchestra's performance was apparently not entirely convincing. For example, the music writer and composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt wrote :

"Singers and orchestra were composed of very heterogeneous parts, and it was not even possible to put on a complete rehearsal of all the pieces to be performed, all of which were full of great difficulties."

Theater an der Wien, the location of the premiere - engraving after Jakob Alt around 1815

The second occupation of Vienna by the French army prevented the work from being repeated. After the publication of the printed parts and the arrangement for piano four hands in 1809, an intensive occupation with the symphony began. Several performances followed in Germany and neighboring countries. A score was not printed until 1826. The work enjoyed increasing popularity. So by 1828, seven hundred copies were printed using the same printing plates, and another 350 by 1862. In addition, versions for septet (strings and flute), string quintet and piano quartet as well as piano versions by Carl Czerny , Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Franz Liszt were created .

In romance

A growing number of reviews, reviews, and comments emerged. One of the most important and momentous among them is the one written in 1810 by ETA Hoffmann for the Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , which contains the first detailed analysis of the formal structure and the structural relationships of the work. In addition, it pointed the way for the massive interpretation towards the romantic Beethoven image, which soon afterwards began .

“Beethoven carries the romanticism of music deep in his heart, which he expresses with great ingenuity and prudence in his works. Rec. Has never felt this more vividly than with the present symphony, which in a climax that continues to the end unfolds that romanticism of Beethoven more than any other of his works, and irresistibly tears the listener away into the wonderful spirit realm of the infinite. "

Critical voices, like that of Louis Spohr , who criticized the lack of orientation of the work on the classical model of Haydn and Mozart, became increasingly rare :

“With many individual beauties, it does not form a classic whole. In particular, the theme of the first movement immediately lacks the dignity which the beginning of the symphony, according to my feelings, must have. The last sentence, with its insignificant noise, is the least satisfactory. "

The symphony was met with ever greater admiration, and Romantic composers like Berlioz and Schumann believed that Beethoven was a pioneer of their own musical language. Berlioz wrote:

"Undoubtedly the most famous of them all and, in our opinion, the first in which Beethoven let his wide imagination run free without taking any strange idea as a guide or support."

Richard Wagner already saw the work in relation to his own musical drama :

“Here the lyrical pathos is almost stepping on the ground of an ideal drama in a more specific sense, and it would seem doubtful whether the musical conception might not already be tarnished in its purity in this way, because it would have to induce ideas to be drawn in appear in and of themselves quite alien to the spirit of music, on the other hand it cannot be overlooked that the master was in no way guided in this by a wandering aesthetic speculation, but only by a thoroughly ideal instinct that had been sterilized in the most intrinsic area of ​​music. "

20th century

In the 20th century, the work had finally become a work of art known and recognized worldwide. Now a more objective, analytical approach also prevailed, the most important representative of which was Heinrich Schenker . Schenker writes in the preface to an analysis of the much-invoked "wrestling with fate":

"So if Beethoven ranked in tones, none of the legends and no hermeneutic interpretation is sufficient to explain the world of tones if you don't think and feel with the tones as they think for themselves, as it were."

The Nazis saw in Beethoven's music German, of course, world superior mental capacities showed. In particular, the “spirit of the times”, the “awakening of the German people”, which should prepare to dominate culturally as a “Germanic race”, was meant to be ascertained here. As early as 1934, Arnold Schering had raved about the 5th Symphony as a work of the “national uprising” and equated it with the image of the “struggle for existence of a people that seeks a leader and finally finds it” . Beethoven's works allegedly conveyed these feelings of the “heroic” and “Faustian”, “sublime” and “monumental”. The fact that the BBC used the letter "V" for Victory in the Morse alphabet ( ··· - ) as a jingle during World War II was later interpreted as a reference to the head motif in the first sentence, but was not originally intended.

Authors like Theodor Adorno then emphasized in the 1960s and 1970s the connection between the work and the emancipation efforts of the bourgeoisie that emerged around 1800 . This is how Adorno writes about the Beethoven symphonies in his sociology of music :

"Beethoven's symphonies were, objectively, popular speeches to mankind, who, by demonstrating the law of their life, wanted to bring them to the unconscious consciousness of that unity that is otherwise hidden from individuals in their diffuse existence."

From a musical point of view, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was recorded in various ways in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Charles Ives cited the work in his Concord Sonata (1915), Arnold Schönberg in his Ode to Napoleon (1942), and Wolfgang Fortner in his Mouvements for piano and orchestra (1953). In particular, the opening motif of the first movement has been picked up by brass bands, dance bands, and rock and pop bands ( Ekseption , Walter Murphy , Steve Vai , Joe Satriani , Electric Light Orchestra and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra ) in recent decades . The R&B singer Robin Thicke achieved chart positions worldwide with the song When I Get You Alone , which is based on an adaptation of the symphony's opening motif.

In the 1949 feature film Rotation by Wolfgang Staudte, Beethoven's Fifth is the only soundtrack . In the television film Spiel um Zeit (1981) based on the novel The Girls Orchestra of Auschwitz by Fania Fénelon , the development of the first movement serves to extend the life of the musicians. In Disney's Fantasia 2000 , the symphony is underlaid with the butterfly scene and serves as the opening music. Priscilla Presley said that Elvis Presley “ loved the symphony in particular. When he put it on, he turned up the volume as much as possible and began to conduct. "

To the musical text

Cover of edition 1329 from 1809

The musical text of the work is based on the following five main sources, some of which are contradicting in detail:

  • The score by Beethoven's own hand ( autograph ), which he used for the premiere. It is owned by the State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin.
  • The handwritten parts that were created for the premiere. It was partly created under Beethoven's supervision. It is owned by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna .
  • A handwriting by the copyist Schlemmer, with Beethoven's corrections, which the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house used as an engraving model. It is in the publisher's archive.
  • The printed parts, which appeared in 1809 under the publisher number 1329 by the same publisher.
  • The printed score published by the publisher in 1826 under the number 4302.

There are differences between these sources, especially between handwritten and printed ones. These mainly relate to dynamics , phrasing and articulation . The manuscripts go in the direction of a very graduated dynamic and detailed phrasing and articulation. The printed sources adapt more to the traditional conventions of orchestral practice. An important difference between the autograph and the printed version concerns the scherzo . It was originally 611 bars long, which Beethoven probably found too long in retrospect and shortened it considerably. Two bars of the repetition, which make no sense in the shortened version, appear in the music editions strangely enough until 1846, when Felix Mendelssohn pointed this out to Bartholdy , despite Beethoven's letters to the publisher . The majority of the scores used today are based on the complete edition of Beethoven's works published in 1862, which in turn is based on the printed versions of 1809 and 1826. Different scores were published by Elliot Forbes and Peter Gülke , which take the mentioned discrepancies into account.

literature

  • Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.): Ludwig van Beethoven. Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. Facsimile. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2002, ISBN 3-89007-408-1 .
  • Max Chop : Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies (No. 4–6), historically and musically analyzed, with numerous musical examples by Max Chop. Reclam, Leipzig 1910.
  • Eliot Forbes: Beethoven. Symphony No. 5 in C minor. Norton, New York 1971, ISBN 0-393-09893-1 .
  • Mechtild Fuchs: “So fate knocks at the gate”. Investigations and suggestions for the reception of symphonic music of the 19th century. Katzbichler, Munich / Salzburg 1986, ISBN 3-87397-088-0 .
  • Harry Goldschmidt : Beethoven. Factory introductions . Reclam, Leipzig 1975.
  • Peter Gülke : On the new edition of the Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Peters, Leipzig 1978.
  • Wulf Konold : Ludwig van Beethoven. 5th symphony. Schott, Mainz 1979, 1989, ISBN 3-7957-8101-9 .
  • Lewis Lockwood : Beethoven - his music, his life. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02231-8 .
  • Karl Nef : Beethoven's nine symphonies. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1928.
  • Dieter Rexroth : Beethoven's symphonies. A musical factory guide. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-44809-7 .
  • Heinrich Schenker : Beethoven. 5th symphony. Presentation of the musical content according to the manuscript, taking into account the lecture and the literature. Tonwille-Verlag, Vienna 1925.
  • Peter Schnaus : ETA Hoffmann as Beethoven reviewer for the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. Music publisher Katzbichler, Munich 1977.
  • Renate Ulm (Ed.): The 9 symphonies of Beethoven. Origin, interpretation, effect. Foreword by Lorin Maazel . 6th edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel u. a. 2009, ISBN 978-3-7618-1241-9 (Bärenreiter introduction to works).

Web links

Commons : 5th Symphony (Beethoven) incl. Audio files  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: ETA Hoffmann's epoch-making article Beethoven's instrumental music  - sources and full texts

Background and work analysis

Sheet music editions

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fuchs: “So fate knocks at the gate”. 1986, pp. 118f.
  2. ↑ Compare for example Hans Mersmann: Beethoven. The synthesis of styles. Published by Julius Bard, Berlin 1922, p. 37.
  3. ↑ See for example Hermann Kretzschmar: Guide through the concert hall. I: Symphony and Suite . AG Liebeskind, Leipzig 1887, pp. 88-92.
  4. ^ Mathias Mayer: The art of abdication. Nine chapters on the power of impotence . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2001, ISBN 3-8260-1992-X , p. 100 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  5. ^ Franz Joachim Reichsgraf von Oppersdorff . beethoven-haus-bonn.de; Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  6. ^ Rexroth: Beethoven's symphonies . 2005, p. 96.
  7. ^ Ludwig van Beethoven; Sieghard Brandenburg (ed.): Correspondence. Complete edition. Volume 2. Henle, Munich 1996, p. 26.
  8. ↑ Symphony No. 4 (B flat major) op.60 . beethoven-haus-bonn.de; Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  9. ↑ Betsy Schwarm: Classical Music Insights . Understanding and Enjoying Great Music. Trafford Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4269-9420-3 , pp. 22 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ↑ a b Alexander Wheelock Thayer: Ludwig van Beethoven's life . Volume 3. 3rd edition. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1917, p. 83 ( zeno.org ).
  11. ^ William Kinderman: Beethoven . University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles 1995, ISBN 0-520-08796-8 , pp. 130 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  12. ^ Anton Schindler: Biography of Ludwig van Beethoven. Volume 1. 3rd edition. Aschendorff, Münster 1860, p. 148 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  13. ↑ Alexander Ulibischeff: Beethoven, his critics and his interpreters . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1859, pp. 207 ff. ( Limited preview in the Google book search).
  14. ↑ Fuchs: “So fate knocks at the gate”. 1986, p. 154.
  15. ^ Harry Goldschmidt: Beethoven. Factory introductions. Reclam, Leipzig 1975, p. 41.
  16. ^ Anton Schindler: Biography of Ludwig van Beethoven. Volume 1. Third edition. Aschendorff, Münster 1860, p. 158 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  17. ↑ Fuchs: “So fate knocks at the gate”. 1986, pp. 117-153.
  18. ↑ The news of Napoleon's victory at Jena and Auerstedt on October 14th, 1806 provoked Beethoven about his famous dictum "It's a shame that I don't understand the art of war as well as the art of music, I would defeat him!" Harry Goldschmidt: Beethoven. Factory introductions. Reclam, Leipzig 1975, p. 49.
  19. ^ Harry Goldschmidt: Beethoven. Factory introductions . Reclam, Leipzig 1975, pp. 40f. - The same anti-Napoleonic impetus determines, in addition to the Coriolan overture, op. 62 (1807), the 5th piano concerto , op. 73 (1809), the incidental music to Goethe's “Egmont” , op. 84 (1810), the 7th symphony , op 92 (1812) and (unmistakably) the “Battle Symphony” “ Wellington's Victory or The Battle of Vittoria”, op. 91 from 1813. (cf. ibid .: pp. 41, 95ff, 52ff, 49ff, 329ff.).
  20. ^ Rexroth: Beethoven's symphonies . 2005, p. 98.
  21. ↑ Karl Nef: Beethoven's nine symphonies . Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1928, p. 144.
  22. ^ Walter Riezler: Ludwig van Beethoven . 8th edition. Atlantis, Zurich 1962.
  23. ↑ Lockwood: Beethoven . 2009, p. 172, refers to Haydn's Symphonies No. 45 and No. 46 .
  24. ↑ Gernot Gruber, Matthias Schmidt (ed.): The symphony at the time of the Viennese classicism . Laaber Verlag, Laaber 2006, ISBN 3-89007-284-4 , p. 291 (Handbook of musical genres; Volume 2).
  25. ↑ Fuchs: “So fate knocks at the gate”. 1986, pp. 136f.
  26. ↑ Beethoven discography (PDF; 1.4 MB) beethoven-haus-bonn.de, pp. 236–240; Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  27. ^ Konold: Ludwig van Beethoven. 1979, p. 179.
  28. ↑ Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann: Review of the 5th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Col. 634.
  29. ↑ Ludwig Louis Spohr; Folker Göthel (ed.): Memories of life . Volume 1, Musikverlag Schneider, Tutzing 1968, p. 203 ( online ).
  30. ↑ Hector Berlioz: Literary works: musical forays, studies, deification, failures and reviews . Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1912, p. 25.
  31. ^ Richard Wagner: Beethoven . EW Fritzsch, Leipzig 1870, p. 43f. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  32. ↑ Schenker: Beethoven. 5th symphony. 1925, p. 31 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  33. ^ Arnold Schering: On the meaning of the 4th and 5th symphonies by Beethoven. In: Journal of Musicology . 16, 1934, p. 85.
  34. ^ David B. Dennis: Beethoven in German Politics, 1870-1989. Yale University Press, New Haven 1996, ISBN 0-300-06399-7 , pp. 170f ( limited preview in Google book search).
  35. ^ Theodor W. Adorno : Collected Writings, Volume 14: Dissonances. Introduction to the sociology of music. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1973, p. 281 ( uni-lueneburg.de ( Memento from January 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )).
  36. ↑ Fuchs: “So fate knocks at the gate”. 1986, p. 121.
  37. ↑ Fuchs: “So fate knocks at the gate”. 1986, p. 123f.
  38. ↑ Zeit-Magazin , No. 48/2015, p. 26.
  39. ^ Digitized version , Lübeck City Library
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 3, 2012 .