Opus 67 – Symphony No. 5 in C minor
I) Allegro con brio – II) Andante con moto – III) Allegro – attacca: – IV) Allegro
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz and Count Andreas Rasumowsky; composed between 1804 and early 1808; published in orchestral parts in Leipzig by Breitkopf & Härtel, April 1809; in full score by the same publisher, March 1826. GA no. 5 (series 1/5) – B. 67 – KH. 67 – L. III, p. 70 – N. 67 – T. 140.
Orchestra: 2 flutes, piccolo (in the Finale), 2 oboes, clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon (in the Finale), 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones (in the Finale), timpani, strings.
The manuscript is preserved in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. The sketches, found on various loose sheets and in notebooks, date from 1804 to 1807 and were described by Nottebohm. The first performance took place at the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808.
A passionate logic, moving through the states of mind rich in light and shadow of the Andante and the fantastic visions of the third movement, links the Allegro con brio to the Finale in an ideal relationship of cause and consequence. The theme on which the Allegro con brio is founded (the so-called “blows of Fate knocking at the door”, according to the well-known phrase attributed to Beethoven, around which too much rhetoric has been woven) has a number of precedents.
Chantavoine notes its episodic appearance in earlier works: the finale of the Fifth Piano Sonata, Op. 10 No. 1 in C minor; the first movement (coda) of the Third Piano Concerto in C minor; and the principal theme of the Allegro of the Fourth Piano Concerto, likewise contemporary with the Symphony. Torrefranca traces it to an Allegro by Giambattista Sammartini; Paribeni relates it to the theme of Clementi’s Piano Sonata in G minor, Op. 34 No. 2, where it dominates the entire first movement and, in cyclical return, the finale as well.
Yet, whatever its earliest origin or its resemblance to other rhythms or themes, the particular interjective character given to it here—constituting the unmistakable individuality of the entire movement—is sufficient to dissolve any dependence on elements of common or “natural” musicality. The second theme arises and develops within its framework. In the furrow carved by the incisiveness of its calls unfolds also the episode preceding the recapitulation, characterised by a singular handing-off of chords from the wind instruments to the strings. From its very presentation there also springs, in the recapitulation, the little oboe cadenza, like a Perché mi schiante?, more sincere and humble, moreover, than one might imagine in Dante’s interrogation. Throughout this first movement, impetus compensates for the schematic nature of the melodic line.
Developments, transitions and tonal turns are briefer and simpler than in the Third Symphony, but here everything is more purely impulse and thrust. The Andante con moto rests on the varied expressive inflection of a set of musical ideas closely related to one another. In the first thematic statement, the broad string melody, after dissolving in a supplicatory manner as it passes through the woodwinds, settles in the closing phrase as a resigned acquiescence. The second theme at first seems to continue in the same direction as the first; then it hesitates, before taking up again by modulating into an energetic passage in C major.
The repeated alternation of these two elements—of which the first, returning in varied forms, assumes from time to time different aspects, moving from serenity to idyll, to entreaty, at times almost to disconsolate irony, while the other responds with an unchanging character of affirmative certainty—culminates in a conclusion that suggests a clarification already pointing toward the resolving one of the finale. The opening theme of the third movement (Allegro) is almost note-for-note identical (apart from the different key) with that of the finale of Mozart’s Symphony in G minor, K. 550. Yet rhythm and colour lend it a distinctive physiognomy (Berlioz compared its impression “à cette émotion inexplicable qu’on éprouve sous le regard magnétique de certains individus”).
A second theme in the horns appears as a fateful summons, a heightened rhythmic accentuation and an almost witches’-sabbath illumination of the Fate theme (let us call it so, for the sake of clarity) from the first movement.
In the Trio, characteristic features include the heavy, surging figure that rises in imitation from cellos and double basses to the other instruments, robustly cadential (its motion may be compared with that of the second movement of Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto), and, in the second part, its sudden halts, in which Schumann perceived a figure of musical comedy.
This may perhaps be a personal impression; yet the Trio as a whole could be understood as a note of clamorous caricature inserted into the midst of the sinister vision, and on the other hand well suited to the violent and fantastic colouring of the overall picture. Then everything darkens: the Allegro is repeated in a spectral atmosphere, with the traits of a whirling dance in which every image of life, every clearly defined feeling, seems gradually to be distorted and dissolved.
But at the very last moment the instrumental voices begin once more to converge, overlapping and thickening in an extraordinary crescendo, until the victorious eruption of the Finale (Allegro): a sweeping resurrection, in the glorification of the key of C major, which answers triumphantly the tragic question posed by the C minor of the first movement. In this celebration converge various and diverse musical elements, thematic and developmental, some of them also linked by rhythmic analogy to the Fate theme of the opening movement. The recapitulation is ushered in by a brief return of the spectral episode that concluded the preceding movement, like a fleeting reappearance of the negative element, immediately overwhelmed by the renewed irruption of the victorious theme.
In the Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft of February 1934, Leo Schering attributed to this work the meaning of a Symphony of national resurgence or revolution (“Sie sollte sich zu einem Symbol wandeln, das gerade für uns Deutsche der Gegenwart in voller Mittagshelle leuchtet”), interpreting it—with an abundance of debatable illustrative details—according to the following scheme:
First movement: the tyrant and the people.
Second movement: a prayer to Heaven to send the saving hero.
Third movement: the people ask who this hero will be; the prophets foretell his imminent coming. In the Trio, an episode of struggle against false heroes.
Fourth movement: the hero appears in his full splendour, acclaimed by the exultant people.
[By Giovanni Biamonti, Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Turin, ILTE, 1968]
[To Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Official title: Opus 67 Symphonie Nr. 5 (c-moll) Widmung: Franz Joseph Maximilian Fürst Lobkowitz und Andreas Kyrillowitsch Graf Rasumowsky NGA1/3 AGA 5 = Serie 1/5 Beiname: Schicksalssymphonie
Origin and publication. The earliest sketches date from the first half of 1804. Beethoven then began to work on Op. 67 intermittently, probably only in the autumn/winter of 1806–07, once again breaking off in favour of other projects. Around September 1807 the principal phase of composition began for the second, third and fourth movements. By this point the first movement had probably already been largely worked out, and the autograph score had been begun. In March 1808, according to Beethoven, the symphony was „schon lange bereit“. Numerous corrections to the musical text were made subsequently. The first edition in parts was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig in April 1809, and the full score followed in March 1826.
Beethoven was already planning at least one further work of this kind while he was composing the Third Symphony, Op. 55, in 1803. Among the sketches for Op. 55 are the earliest ideas with possible references to Opp. 67 and 68. In their correspondence from this period, Ferdinand Ries and Kaspar Karl van Beethoven repeatedly mention a second symphony not yet completed (BGA 152, 163, 165, 171, 173). The composition of another symphony alongside Op. 55 was also connected with Beethoven’s plans for a journey to Paris, which never materialised (BGA 173). Perhaps for this reason, too, he suspended work on the new symphony.
Among the sketches for the Violin Concerto, Op. 61, probably written in November/December 1806, there are further sketches for Op. 67, documenting Beethoven’s resumption of the symphonic project. A sketchbook from the years 1806–07 has probably been lost; one can therefore only assume that the compositional plans for the Fifth Symphony lay dormant until work on the Mass in C major, Op. 86, was completed in August/September 1807. As a letter of March 1808 shows, the symphony was initially intended for Count Oppersdorff, who had commissioned Beethoven to write such a work: „ich will ihnen daher nur noch melden, daß ihre Symphonies schon lange bereit liegt, ich sie ihnen nun aber mit nächster Post schicke — 150 fl. können sie mir abhalten, da die Copiaturen welche ich für sie machen laßen, Wenigstens 50 fl. ausmacht — im Fall sie aber die Symphonies nicht wollen, machen sie mir’s noch vor künftigen Posttag zu wissen – im Falle sie selbe aber nehmen, dann erfreuen sie mich sobald als möglich mit den mir noch zukommenden 300 fl. — Das lezte Stück der Symphonies ist mit 3 Posaunen und flautino – zwar nicht 3 Pauken, wird aber mehr lärm als 6 Pauken und zwar bessern lärm machen“ (BGA 325)
Beethoven probably met Oppersdorff during his stay at Count Lichnowsky’s castle at Grätz in the autumn of 1806. By June 1807 Beethoven had already received 200 florins from Oppersdorff, and in March 1808 a further 150 were added. In November 1808, however, he was obliged to report: „Sie werden mich in einem falschen Lichte betrachten, aber Noth zwang mich die Symphonies, die für sie geschrieben, und noch eine Andere dazu an Jemanden ändern zu veraüßern“ (BGA 340)
Presumably Oppersdorff wrote on the receipt of 29 March 1808 the note „auf die 5. Sinphoni gegeben aber noch nicht erha[lten]. Den 25 Nov. 1808“. Beethoven eventually dedicated his Fourth Symphony, Op. 60, to the Count instead of the Fifth. According to current knowledge, the other person mentioned by Beethoven was probably Prince Lobkowitz, one of the dedicatees. The orchestral materials for the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, produced in 1808, come from his estate. He probably acquired an exclusive right of six months to both works, beginning on 1 June 1808. This prompted Beethoven to write to Breitkopf & Härtel on 8 June 1808: „Aus meh-rern Rücksichten muß ich bey den 2 Symphoniesn die Bedingung machen, daß sie vom 1-ten Juni angerechnet erst in Sechs Monathen herauskommen dörfen – Vermuthlich dörft ich eine Reise gegen den Winter machen, und wünschte daher, daß sie wenigstens im Sommer noch nicht bekannt würden“ (BGA 327)
As early as 1803, when Beethoven was noting down isolated ideas for other symphonies in the sketchbook “Landsberg 6”, alongside the sketches for the Third Symphony, an offer was made to Breitkopf & Härtel for „eine oder zwey Simpfonien“ (BGA 163). These plans initially failed. It was only in June 1808 that Beethoven again offered the publisher two symphonies (Opp. 67 and 68), as well as the Mass, Op. 86, and the Cello Sonata, Op. 69 (BGA 327). This contact was followed by a lively correspondence with Breitkopf & Härtel, in which Beethoven sought to establish closer ties with the firm.
Such a broad and uninterrupted series of first editions had never before been produced by any publisher, not even Artaria, Mollo, Cappi or the Kunst- und Industrie-Comptoir. In September 1808, during his visit to Vienna, Gottfried Christoph Härtel received copies of the scores of Opp. 67 and 68: „hier die eine Symphonies, die andere bringt ihnen Gegen Eilf halb zwölf uhr mein Bedienter auch – Der Kopist ist dran die Fehler, die ich angezeigt, in derselben zu korrigiren“ (BGA 335)
The score and parts were corrected by Beethoven. Another copy of Op. 67 was prepared before the first performance of the work on 22 December 1808.
Nicknames. The popular title “Schicksals-Symphonie” (“Fate Symphony”) goes back to Anton Schindler. The latter writes: „Den Schlüssel zu diesen Tiefen gab dessen Schöpfer selber, als er eines Tages mit dem Verfasser [Schindler] über die denselben zum Grunde liegende Idee sprach, mit den Worten ,so pocht das Schicksal an die Pforte! indem er auf den Anfang des ersten Satzes hinwies“
(Schindler/Beethoven 1860, vol. 1, p. 158)
It is unclear how seriously this information should be taken.
On the two dedicatees see Op. 18 (Lobkowitz) and Op. 59 (Rasumowsky). Beethoven specified them in a letter of 4 March 1809: „Beyde Symphoniesn Den beyden Herrn zugleich nemlich: S [einer] Exzellenz Dem Grafen Rasoumowsky und Seiner Durchlaucht dem Fürsten Lobkowitz gewidmet – Symphonies in c moll op. 60 [!], Symphonies in F op. 61 [!]“ (BGA 359)
First public performance. At Beethoven’s Academy on 22 December 1808 at the Theater an der Wien. At this Academy the following works were performed publicly for the first time (with Beethoven as soloist): the Sixth Symphony, Op. 68; the Choral Fantasy, Op. 80; and the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58, as well as the Gloria and Sanctus from the Mass in C major, Op. 86.
The sketches will be discussed in a separate article prepared for the Centro Ricerche Musicali: www.lvbeethoven.org.
Gli abbozzi saranno trattati in un articolo appositamente creato per il Centro Ricerche Musicali www.lvbeethoven.org
