Beethoven Symphony No. 5

Symphony No. 5, Op. 67

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

Date of publication: 1808

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony had a long and difficult birth. Beethoven began his earliest sketches in 1804 and did not finish it until 1808, a four-year stretch that also saw the completion of his Fourth and Sixth Symphonies, two concertos, and multiple other pieces. During this time, Beethoven's life was troubled by increasing deafness. In the world at large, the period was marked by the Napoleonic Wars, political turmoil in Austria, and the occupation of Vienna (where Beethoven lived) by Napoleon's troops in 1805. It was thus amidst the turmoil of war, revolution, and personal crisis that Beethoven wrote his Fifth Symphony, a symphony that revolutionized music forever. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was the first symphony to give the music a new emotional character and arc. Beethoven takes listeners on a journey from the darkness and violence of the C minor first movement to the exultant triumph of the C major finale. It takes the theme of heroic struggle and expands it to cover the entire four movements of the symphony. The first movement begins with perhaps the four most famous notes in all music. Traditionally interpreted as “fate knocking at the door,” this brutal and emotional opening forms the basis of the entire symphony. By the time the next generation of composers came into their own, the Fifth was a cornerstone of the newly forming standard repertoire. Groundbreaking in terms of both its technical and its emotional impact, the Fifth has had a large influence on composers, inspiring work by such composers as Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, and Berlioz.

Movements:

I. Allegro con brio (C minor)

II. Andante con moto (A♭ major)

III. Scherzo: Allegro (C minor)

IV. Allegro – Presto (C major)