Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)
Symphony No. 6 | |
---|---|
by Ludwig van Beethoven | |
Other name | Pastoral Symphony |
Key | F major |
Opus | 68 |
Composed | 1802 | –1808
Dedication | Prince Lobkowitz Count Razumovsky |
Duration | About 40 minutes |
Movements | Five |
Scoring | Orchestra |
Premiere | |
Date | 22 December 1808 |
Location | Theater an der Wien, Vienna |
Conductor | Ludwig van Beethoven |
The Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony (German: Pastorale[1]), is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and completed in 1808. One of Beethoven's few works containing explicitly programmatic content,[2] the symphony was first performed alongside his fifth symphony in the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808 in a four-hour concert.[3][4]
Background
Beethoven was a lover of nature who spent a great deal of his time on walks in the country. He frequently left Vienna to work in rural locations. The composer said that the Sixth Symphony is "more the expression of feeling than painting",[5] a point underlined by the title of the first movement.
The first sketches of the Pastoral Symphony appeared in 1802. It was composed simultaneously with Beethoven's more famous Fifth Symphony. Both symphonies were premiered in a long and under-rehearsed concert in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 22 December 1808.
Frank A. D'Accone suggested that Beethoven borrowed the programmatic ideas (a shepherd's pipe, birds singing, streams flowing, and a thunderstorm) for his five-movement narrative layout from Le Portrait musical de la Nature ou Grande Symphonie, which was composed by Justin Heinrich Knecht (1752–1817) in 1784.[6]
Instrumentation
The symphony is scored for the following instrumentation:
|
|
Form
The symphony has five, rather than the four movements typical of symphonies preceding Beethoven's time, although there are no pauses between the last three movements. Beethoven wrote a programmatic title at the beginning of each movement:
No. German title English translation Tempo marking Key I. Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside Allegro ma non troppo F major II. Szene am Bach Scene by the brook Andante molto mosso B♭ major III. Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute Merry gathering of country folk Allegro F major IV. Gewitter, Sturm Thunder, Storm Allegro F minor V. Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm Shepherd's song. Cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm Allegretto F major
The third movement ends on an unresolved cadence that leads straight into the fourth. A performance of the work lasts about 35-46 minutes, depending on the choice of tempo and whether the repeats in the 1st and 3rd movements are omitted.
I. Allegro ma non troppo
The symphony begins with a placid and cheerful movement depicting the composer's feelings as he arrives in the country. The movement, in 2
4 meter, is in
II. Andante molto mosso
The second movement is another sonata-form movement, this time in 12
8 and in the key of B♭ major, the subdominant of the main key of the work. It begins with the strings playing a motif that imitates flowing water. The cello section is divided, with just two players playing the flowing-water notes on muted instruments, and the remaining cellos playing mostly pizzicato notes together with the double basses.
Towards the end is a
III. Allegro
The third movement is a
The final return of the theme conveys a riotous atmosphere with a faster tempo. The movement ends abruptly, leading without a pause into the fourth movement.
IV. Allegro
The fourth movement, in
V. Allegretto
The finale, which is in F major, is in 6
8 time. The movement is in sonata rondo form, in an Intro-[A-B-A]-C-[A-B-A]-Coda structure. Like many finales, this movement emphasizes a symmetrical eight-bar theme, in this case representing the shepherds' song of thanksgiving.
The final A section starts quietly and gradually builds to an ecstatic culmination for the full orchestra (minus piccolo and timpani) with the first violins playing very rapid triplet tremolo on a high F. There follows a fervent coda suggestive of prayer, marked by Beethoven pianissimo, sotto voce; most conductors slow the tempo for this passage. After a brief period of afterglow, the work ends with two emphatic F-major chords.
In popular culture
- The symphony was used in the 1940 Disney animated film Fantasia, albeit with mythology and alterations in the length of the piece made by conductor Leopold Stokowski.[10]
- The beginning of the first movement is used in the "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" episode of The Simpsons. The music underscores idealized scenes of children playing outside. The same excerpt would later be used again in the closing scene of the episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", this time underscoring Springfield's elderly population having fun outside.
- The first movement was used in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green (uncredited).
See also
Notes
- ^ Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 Pastorale (Schott), ed. Max Unger, pg. viii
- ISBN 978-0-521-45684-5.
- ISBN 978-0-521-45684-5.
- ^ Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 Pastorale (Schott), ed. Max Unger, pg. xi
- ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed., Stanley Sadie (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), vol. 20, p. 396.
- ISSN 1062-4074.
- ^ Program notes for the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra
- ^ Theodor W. Adorno, Beethoven: The Philosophy of Music, edited by Rolf Tiedemann, translated by Edmund Jephcott. Stanford: Stanford University Press (1998): 111. "The Scherzo is, no doubt, the model for Bruckner's scherzi. ... The caricatured dance with the famous syncopation is practically as independent of the Scherzo itself as a trio, and is also in the same key. The movement is self-contained like a suite of three dances."
- ^ The parallel is noted by Rosen (1997:402), who suggests that the Sixth Symphony be regarded as fundamentally a four-movement work, the storm music serving an extended introduction to the finale.
- ISBN 978-0-8109-8078-5.
References
- ISBN 1-85928-246-6).
- ISBN 0-521-45684-3).
- ISBN 0-393-31712-9).
- Sixth and Seventh Symphonies (Dover Publications, Inc., 1976, ISBN 0-486-23379-0).
Further reading
- Frogley, Alain (1995). "Beethoven's Struggle for Simplicity in the Sketches for the Third Movement of the Pastoral." Beethoven Forum, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 99–134.
- JSTOR 830560.
- Jander, Owen (Autumn 1993). "The Prophetic Conversation in Beethoven's 'Scene by the Brook'". .
- Kirby, F. E. (October 1970). "Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony as a Sinfonia caracteristica". .
- Knapp, Raymond (Summer 2000). "A Tale of Two Symphonies: Converging Narratives of Divine Reconciliation in Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth". JSTOR 832010.
- Lorenz, Christoph L. (1985). "Beethovens Skizzen zur 'Pastoralen.'" Die Musikforschung, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 95–108.
- Russell, Tilden (Spring 2003). "Unification in the Sixth Symphony: The Pastoral Mode." Beethoven Forum, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–17.
- Will, Richard (Fall 2002). "The Nature of the Pastoral Symphony." Beethoven Forum, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 205–215.
- Will, Richard (July 1977). "Time, Morality, and Humanity in Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony". JSTOR 831836.