Beethoven's Love of Nature cont.
Hi Everyone:
This is the second of my two Substack posts on Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony. Just as a reminder. Beethoven bonded with nature like no other composer. As he wrote in one of his letters: “How glad I am to be able to roam in wood and thicket, among the trees, and flowers and rocks. No one can love the country as I do…My bad hearing does not trouble me here. In the country, every tree seems to speak to me, saying ‘Holy ! Holy!’ In the woods there is enchantment which expresses all things.”
Here is a link to my initial commentary about the work-- the context within which it was premiered, some thoughts about the first movement, and a performance by Daniel Barenboim conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the 2012 London Proms. This is a remarkable youth ensemble founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said in 1999. It draws upon the finest young musical talent in Spain and Middle Eastern countries –something to help transcend the ugly realities of war and so much more: https://joshuaberrett.substack.com/p/beethoven-was-a-nature-lover-too
Before launching into my discussion of the second through fifth movements of the “Pastoral,” let me draw your attention to a phrase in the above quote,”…My bad hearing does not trouble me here.” It is an allusion to an episode in the summer of 1802 -- one that was as traumatic as it was transformative. Some of the intensity of that episode is preserved in what is known as the “Heiligenstadt Testament,” a document found among his papers only after his death.
Named after a village then in the countryside on the outskirts of Vienna, it is a confessional addressed to humanity at large, opening with the words “O you people” (“O ihr Menschen”). Beethoven wants all the world to know how unbearable the torment of his deafness is, that it has brought him to deep despair and thoughts of suicide. Forced to withdraw from society, he has become the solitary artist. He writes pointedly about feeling humiliated when someone standing next to him heard a flute in the distance and he heard nothing, or someone heard a shepherd singing and again he heard nothing. He goes on to say that such incidents drove him almost to despair, ”…a little more of that and I would have ended my life; it was only my art that held me back.”
Significantly, Beethoven uses the word “art” in referring to his music. His core idea is that his music, far from simply involving pleasant sounds to be enjoyed in the here and now, conveys a message of spiritual upliftment that is as timeless as it is transcendent. This is a quality that should become very clear as we wend our way through the rest of the “Pastoral.”
Like all the movements in this symphony, the second has a subtitle, which is “Scene by the Brook.” This movement, like the first, induces a relaxed mindfulness in the listener, except that Beethoven sounds even “lazier” here, repeating himself and seemingly sounding reluctant to move on. And the brook keeps murmuring away. One is hardly aware that this movement, like the first, follows the outline of what is called sonata form; that is, it consists of an exposition, a development, a varied recapitulation and coda. In the words of one commentator, “[the music] never loses flow or falls out of proportion. The brook goes on forever; the importance of that fact lies in its effect upon the poetic mind of the listener basking in the sun on its banks.”
For the second through fifth movements, I have chosen a performance by Ariane Matiakh conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (2022). One of the outstanding young woman conductors now on the international scene, she is remarkably expressive, both gesturally and in her facial expressions. Also, during the ovation at the end, she does something that is not always done enough—acknowledges many individual players and sections of the orchestra.
The second movement starts at 11:52.
11:52: Exposition begins with a pattern in the strings playing in a low register, suggesting murmuring of the brook. Almost immediately, you will hear a six-note turn in the first violins which seems to say:” sit down right beside me.” It gradually expands into much of the essential melodic material of the movement.
14:53: Warm bassoon solo introduced; picked up by other instruments say “Oh, (slow exhale) so glad to be here.” [6 secs.]
16:17: Development; should sense a certain instability as Beethoven goes through a number of changes of key.
19:24: Start of varied recapitulation.
20:28: Return of bassoon solo, picked up by other instruments.
23:00: Start of coda, and a special treat for birders—imitations of the bird calls of a nightingale, quail, and cuckoo. Beethoven does this twice. You will hear an elaborate trill on the flute, three fast high-pitched notes on the oboe, and a clarinet “cuckoo.”
24:01: The end of the movement.
The third movement, “Merry Gathering of Country Folk,” starts at 24:11.
This is the scherzo of the “Pastoral.” Scherzo movements like this are lively affairs. Written in ¾ time, they are essentially uptempo versions of the minuet with a pulse or beat of “one-to-the-bar.” Beethoven is in his element, enjoying every moment. I say this because of a pattern he follows in this movement—one of contrasting articulation and dynamics. There is an initial phrase—crisp, staccato, soft, stepping lightly—even a little surreptitious—and then a legato forte answering phrase first heard at 24:16—as if he is singing his heart out.
24:39: There is a build-up of intensity culminating in a fast three-beat call by the French horns.
24:54: Features an oboe-bassoon duet—Beethoven’s take on country folk making music. By the way, what they play inspired the later pop tune “Oh, where, oh where, has my little dog gone?” There is a build-up as this music is picked up by the rest of the orchestra.
25:46: Brings us to the movement’s midsection. There is a shift to sharply accented duple time and a suggestion of heavy foot-stomping.
26:18: Trumpets call a halt with a two note falling figure, as if saying “O-KAY.”
26:26: Marks the start of the reprise of the movement’s opening material.
28:35: Brings the trumpets and “O-KAY” once again. A repetition of the opening material follows, only to be cut short as we transition to the fourth movement, “Storm.”
29:12: Brings an ominous tremolo in the lower strings, and nervous figures in the upper strings. There is a huge build-up of tension
29:39: Brings the deluge. Beethoven’s soundscape evokes a thunderstorm, complete with suggestions of lightning and howling winds. The movement is in F minor, one of the darkest and most intense keys for Beethoven. His orchestration is also dramatically different in that it includes timpani, trumpets, trombones, and a piccolo for the howling winds.
31:36: There is a churning chromaticism in the strings as the movement reaches its climax, beefed up by the trombones. The storm finally abates; there is a clearing of the air as the ascending line of the flute helps us transition to the finale fifth movement, “The Shepherd’s Hymn of Thanksgiving.”
32:49: Brings the shepherd call on the clarinet. With the underpinning of a folk-like drone in the violas, the movement starts with a clarinet playing this shepherd’s yodel which is answered by the French horn—akin to what shepherds actually did in Beethoven’s day. The violins then make their opening statement as they sing the joyful hymn of thanks in a serene F major. This is the principal theme of the finale, a sonata-form movement. The whole orchestra rejoices.
33:55: Brings a secondary theme, one actually growing organically out of the thanksgiving theme. It is introduced by cellos and then picked up by the violins. Joyous affirmation prevails.
35:33: Brings a new theme featuring the clarinets and bassoons. There is a brief development section.
36:55: Brings a reprise of the thanksgiving theme, now highly embellished.
39:01: Is where the elaborate coda starts.
41:05: Marks a moment of quiet reverence, as if Beethoven is speaking to God. The works serene closing measures suggest a soul finally at peace with the world.
Let me close with the eloquent words of musicologist Edward Downes, at one time program annotator for the New York Philharmonic and one of the luminaries .at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
“…his tragedy ceases to exist. It is as if the whole world were exulting in the miracle of the fresh-washed sky and air and the return of the sun. The entire finale seems an ecstatic hymn of thanks to some pantheistic god, to Nature with a capital “N”, to the sun, to whatever beneficent power one can perceive in a universe that seemed as dark and terrifyingly irrational in Beethoven’s day as it can in ours. That a man of sorrow and self-inflicted miseries like Beethoven could glimpse such glory and, by the incomprehensible alchemy of his art, lift us to share his vision—even if only for a few minutes—is a miracle that remains as fresh as tomorrow’s sunrise.”
Copyright 2024 by Joshua Berrett.
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Many thanks, Jena; the pleasure is mine.
Josh
The •best• listener’s guide I’ve ever seen! Thank you!!! Most music appreciation textbooks only teach the 5th symphony (as, no doubt, you know well), but the 6th shows a rarely discussed side of LvB’s art that deserves to be better known. Bravo!