Keepin’ It Classy: Composition #49/50…Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 by Ludwig van Beethoven

There used to be a television show called Name That Tune which featured contestants vying with each other to correctly guess the name of a piece of music based upon hearing only the first few notes. Well, if the piece of music in question had been Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 by Ludwig van Beethoven, four notes would have been all that were needed to correctly guess the tune. The opening four notes of this composition (which is commonly referred to as Beethoven’s 5th) are among the most universally recognizable notes in all of music history. I usually save my music links for the end of these posts, but I am going to make an exception for this extraordinary classical work. Just so that we are all on the same page going forward, please click on the link here and listen to the opening movement of one of the world’s most beloved compositions. You will know this composition right away, I guarantee it. Go ahead. Give it a listen and come back to this post when you are finished. 

Da-Da-Da-Daaaaaa! Da-Da-Da-Daaaaa! Repeat at various speeds and pitches. 

The construction of this composition seems so simple and elementary, and yet it moves us in ways that are surprising and life affirming. The story behind how Beethoven’s 5th came to be is one where world history and personal history met at a crossroads. The impact of this symphony on the history of the world to come is mutli-faceted and profound. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is regarded as one of the crowning achievements in the Arts in all of Western Civilization’s cultural history for a reason. So what is that reason? What is it about those opening four notes that leads us all on a journey from despair to redemption, finally ending in triumph and hopefulness? The answer to that question begins with an understanding of what those initial four notes are meant to signify to the listener. They announce the arrival of no greater presence than that of Fate at your front door. If your Fate beckons for you to follow, are you prepared to go where it leads? That is the question Beethoven wrestled with as he struggled to complete Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 over the course of four years. He had his own journey to complete when Fate came to call for him. Fortunately for us, Beethoven was skilled enough as a storyteller to construct a musical saga that we can all relate to. He invited us into his world and helped us make it our own. By doing so he created a masterpiece that has steeled the resolve of entire nations in times of peril and has even been selected to represent all of humanity by being sent off into space aboard Voyager 1 and 2 in hopes of contacting other forms of intelligent life in the universe. Those four notes! Those four repeating notes! They form the foundation of a musical cathedral. As Fate beckons, it is time for us to throw open the doors and look inside at a world of silence and noise. Are you brave enough to follow?

To understand the genesis of such a composition, we must first place Beethoven’s personal life in the context of events in world history, because the two are indelibly inter-related. First of all, as I have written and as many of you were already aware, Beethoven’s career was impacted greatly by the fact that he became deaf in the prime of his life. Beethoven’s deafness did not come upon him all at once as the result of an accident or incident. Instead, he became incrementally deaf over time. If you can imagine the range of human auditory capacity as being like the keys on a piano (with higher pitched tones on one end and lower tones on the other), Beethoven lost the ability to hear higher pitched sounds first. This occurred musically, but it also happened to the sounds of nature and of personal conversations, too. For someone who was so deeply invested in the nature of sound, Beethoven immediately recognized how grave his situation was becoming. This is when Fate arrived at his door. For a composer to go deaf is like a painter going blind or a runner becoming paralyzed. The very essence of who you thought you were becomes at stake. How you respond determines a great deal of how your future will unfold. Initially, Beethoven fell into despair and entertained thoughts of suicide. Luckily for the world, instead of ending his life he decided to fight back with the only weapons he had left at his disposal…lower pitched sounds and the memories of those sounds on the remainder of the auditory spectrum. Thus, Beethoven answers Fate’s call with the deep and resounding notes Da-Da-Da-Daaaaa!  Da-Da-Da-Daaaaa! before heading off into variations of this theme, which is known as a motif.  Beethoven decided to live on as fully and completely as he could. Thus, he became determined to create a symphony that explored the full story arc of despair and loss, all the way to triumph and hope. However, while Beethoven was dealing with his own personal demons, the world around him was conspiring to make life difficult, too.

Beethoven had been inspired to create his Third Symphony (known as “Eroica”) after the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. *(You can read a previous post about “Eroica” here). Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power on the promise of democratic reforms in France. For the first time ever, ordinary citizens would have an equal say in the running of their country. After centuries of living under autocratic rule, the idea that common folk could have a better life was intoxicating. Even someone like Beethoven was caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment. He initially dedicated his Third Symphony to Napoleon. However, when Napoleon betrayed that democratic promise by declaring himself Emperor, many were outraged. His spirit crushed, Beethoven actually ripped out the portion of his manuscript that showed that it was dedicated to Napoleon. The end of the 1700s and the beginning of the 1800s saw a historical event known as the Napoleonic Wars. France invaded several countries in Europe. One of those countries that fell under Napoleon’s siege guns was Austria. At the time, Beethoven was living there. So not only was Beethoven dealing with the onset of deafness and the loss of higher pitched sounds, but the remainder of his hearing was being placed into jeopardy by the blasts and bombardments caused by Napoleon’s cannons. There are reports that Beethoven placed pillows on both sides of his head to muffle the concussive blasts that were happening all around him. Warfare, deafness. Fate knocked upon Beethoven’s door armed with a myriad of challenges and obstacles to overcome.   

We hear sounds, but we also feel sounds at times, too. Beethoven has been quoted as saying that he obviously could not complete his Fifth Symphony on the basis of hearing the sounds alone. He needed other ways to construct his score so that the sounds complemented each other in harmony and in emotional resonance. Part of how he managed to do that was by learning how to recognize how each note felt. Sound waves create vibrations. These vibrations exist whenever sounds are made, whether we can hear those sounds or not. For Beethoven, part of the journey Fate took him on was having to teach himself to “listen” in an entirely new manner. He could no longer simply play a note and listen to how it sounded in combination with other notes. Now, he had to feel the notes by placing his head directly atop his piano and feeling the vibrations that accompanied each sound. In a way, he employed a hybrid style of hearing the low notes and feeling the vibrations of the rest. It was a difficult process to undertake, hence the fact that it took him over four years to complete his symphony. But according to Beethoven himself, he had constructed a multi-dimensional model of the completed symphony in his head right from the beginning, not unlike how an architect creates the blueprints for a home before the house is ever built. Little by little, Beethoven stitched together the musical story elements he needed to describe the journey he was undertaking. He refused to give in to the despair and disappointment of his circumstances and instead, he faced them all with grim and resolute determination. In the end, the symphony was completed. He had triumphed over adversity and emerged even more empowered and esteemed than ever before.

But then a funny thing happened. Beethoven debuted his latest symphony, along with several other newer works, and the whole performance flopped!  It was staged in a church that was too cold. The orchestra had only been through one rehearsal and made several unprofessional mistakes while playing. The audience felt that the concert was too long and became restless. But more than that, they were unprepared for the technical innovations that Beethoven employed, especially during his Fifth Symphony when he introduced the use of piccolos and trumpets for the first time in his career. He also began his symphony in C minor (which is usually a key reserved for stormy emotions) and ended the symphony in C major (which is meant to create a more upbeat and optimistic response in listeners). In a world in which audiences tend to know what they like and like what they know, Beethoven had given them something unexpected. Coupled with the length of the concert, the chill of the locale and the poor musicianship from the orchestra, all of Beethoven’s hard work appeared to have been for naught.  Then an angel of mercy appeared out of nowhere, as if summoned by Fate itself. One of the audience members in attendance at that concert was the writer E. T. A. Hoffmann. Hoffmann was a writer of some renown at the time. *(You can read a previously written post about how Hoffmann inspired Tchaikovsky to create the Nutcracker ballet here). Unlike many in attendance, E. T. A. Hoffmann listened to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with his storyteller’s ear firmly on the journey that Beethoven was trying to describe in music. Hoffmann found the theme of the Fifth Symphony to be thrilling and inspiring. After the concert ended, Hoffmann put quill to paper and penned an article in which he explained the story that Beethoven was attempting to tell. Hoffmann raved about the universal nature of screwing up one’s courage in the face of adversity, never giving up despite the long odds before you and triumphing over all obstacles in the end. Hoffmann’s praise allowed others to view the Fifth Symphony in a new light. From that moment on, the genius of Beethoven’s work has been accepted by all.

However, the question still remains as to why those first four notes resonate so strongly with ordinary people. There is something very primal about how we react to these notes. I am not sure if Beethoven created that primal feel or simply recognized it as a combination of sounds that had emotional appeal and went with it. But, whatever the case, these four notes are special. Here is a short example to illustrate that fact. The opening four notes from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony correspond almost exactly to the four notes that are used in morse code to signify the letter “v”. So what, you say? Here’s what. During WWII, in order to help keep up the spirits of British citizens during The Blitz, a campaign of fundraising and morale boosting was established by the British government that focused on the slogan “V for Victory”. Winston Churchill gave speeches to the nation declaring that victory was at hand and not to give up hope. In many ways, the journey of British citizens during the initial stages of WWII is not all that different from the stages of adversity experienced by Beethoven during the time the Fifth Symphony was being constructed. Clever British minds understood the link between the slogan of “V for Victory”, the morse code dot sequence for the letter “v” and the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Thus, the Fifth Symphony was often played on the BBC in combination with morale boosting “V for Victory” speeches. In the end, the mere opening notes of the symphony were enough to elicit an emotional response in British citizens that firm resolve on their parts would lead to triumph in the end. That a symphony written by a German composer helped to rally the citizens of England during a time of great peril is ironic in the extreme. But it also is true and serves to highlight the emotional universality possessed by this composition.   

One of the foundational aspects of my own personal belief system is that in times of trouble, the Arts are often the place to look to for hope and inspiration. Whether that inspiration comes from the pen of writers and poets, the brush of painters, the clay of sculptors, the voice of singers or the compositions of musicians and composers, the path forward to better days is often illuminated by the work of artists. The emotional relevance of Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 by Ludwig van Beethoven is a perfect example of this. The desire for better days, for sunlight after a storm, for peace after war….these are all universal truths that apply to us all. The story of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony may have originated within his own world, but it is an everyman tale that touches the hearts and minds of all who hear it. Especially those first four notes. Oh those first four notes. Now that is a tune I can name!

A link to the official website of the museum dedicated to Beethoven’s personal and professional journey can be found here.

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