November 01, 2009
I. Years ago, when I lived in New York, I was driving home from a friend’s house late at night. I had the classical station on, and the folks on the air were talking about Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Specifically, they were talking about some sketches Beethoven had made for the ending of the first movement. It turns out Beethoven had sketched out a couple of possible endings for one of the most famous and well-known pieces of music in the world. The radio host described each ending and then played clips of an orchestra performing each one. It was clear, after hearing some of these possibilities that Beethoven ended up making the right choice, but what was startling for me was the thought that Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony did not spring from the composer’s head fully formed. In fact, there was a time when this piece of music didn’t even exist, and indeed, when it was unfinished. Think about this: Beethoven wrote this symphony over the course of years. He had plenty of time to sketch out possible beginnings, middles, codas, and recaps. With all of that time, and all of those possibilities, Beethoven’s Fifth might have ended up sounding very different than the famous work we know and love.
II. In the course of my music geekdom in high school, I took a music history course that went far beyond the freshman music appreciation semester. This was an elective for juniors and seniors who were serious about music—in other words, a geekfest. When we studied Beethoven, the teacher played for us “New Horizons in Music Appreciation,” the hilarious rendering of the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony as a sportscast narrated by Peter Schickele. The reasoning behind calling a play-by-play and color commentary for a classical piece is brilliant: sure, you have program notes to read, but as soon as the piece starts, the lights in the auditorium are dimmed. I remember sitting in class, listening to this and laughing along with the other music geeks. So pleased that I understood the jokes, I felt like part of a secret club of music lovers. If you’ve never heard “New Horizons,” the effort to find it is well worth it. It’s on the album The Wurst of PDQ Bach (along with a side-splitting madrigal called “My Bonnie Lass, She Smelleth”). Particular favorite moments: the commentators speculating that a player who flubbed an entrance might be traded to another orchestra, the excitement in the booth when the oboist seemingly forgets his place and, to everyone’s surprise, starts playing a cadenza.
III. A few years ago, I wrote a dissertation about the novel, film, and play A Clockwork Orange. The film in particular is associated heavily with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, but there is an interesting reference to the Fifth as well. Just as the main character is about to enter the house where he will commit a violent crime and later find sanctuary, he rings the doorbell. The bell plays the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth. It is Fate Knocking at the Door, or in this case, ringing. Incidentally, about fifteen years after the film, Anthony Burgess, the author of the original novel and a composer, decided to write a musical of A Clockwork Orange. In it, Burgess added text to some works of music that hadn’t been mentioned in either novel or film. One such piece is Beethoven’s Fifth. There is a courtroom scene in the play in which judge, jury, and main character participate in a chatter chorus based on the third movement of the symphony. It’s not surprising that Burgess expanded the use of Beethoven in the play. The author felt strongly about the struggle that was present in Beethoven’s work and once said that the music was, “an attempt to win through to the light of the good after wrestling with the forces of darkness.” That sounds like a great story to me.
4 comments
I wonder if we were listening to WQXR at the same time:) I'm looking forward to this weekend's performance in Pasadena, where I now reside.
Do you remember that particular program? It was fascinating. It really blew my mind! Of course, this was before I knew much about Beethoven, but still. He hemmed and hawed over that ending we all know so well. He was just a man after all.
-CG
yeah i think that's why Beethoven is so appealing to so many people - his humanity is so apparent. And you can tell from listening how emotionally connected he was to his work.
It's also a reminder of how important editing is to the process of writing (anything!)... I think most great artists, Beethoven included, are great editors of their own work.
Beethoven just seemed to want to say something so badly and have it understood by people. He wanted to communicate so much that he worked it into everything he wrote. He wanted you to walk away from his music knowing EXACTLY what he was trying to say.
It's sort of the opposite of (and this may be a bit ungenerous to this sort of music) a lot of the more modern classical stuff, where they mumble and digress and babble to themselves, and it's up to the audience to follow along, and if you don't get what they're trying to say, oh well. "If you aren't listening or you aren't following along, I don't care."
Beethoven cared whether or not you got what he meant. He WANTED an audience. So it's not just that he was so emotionally connected to his work (which he was). He wanted YOU to be just as connected to it.