The great Dailykos Beethoven Festival of 2011 continues! And it may continue over into 2012!
This is the third and last installment on our three-part diary on the Beethoven Symphony #7. As I've noted before, Beethoven tended to weight his symphonies most heavily towards the end for increased dramatic effect, and the Seventh is no different in this regard, with a final movement that's a whirling tornado.
The first and second movements have been used as soundtracks in many films, but I can't find or think of any films that used the final movement. For instance, parts of the second movement, which we covered last week, were used in the recent film Knowing(2010) to accompany The End of the World.
Knowing(2010)
More filmic Beethovenian ramblings below and then the Seventh finale...
My first experience with the Seventh, and apparently this is true for many other people as well, was through a crappy 1974 scifi film, Zardoz, starring Sean Connery, which used the the Allegretto (second movement) and the scherzo (third movement).
Short scene from Zardoz(1974)
When he saw that, young Dumbo had no idea he was listening to Beethoven, but he knew that was classy music that far outranked the film. Which was entertaining too, in the way a scifi film with lots of naked future-boobies is entertaining to a teenager.
Zenbassoon pointed out to me that the Allegretto was used to grat effect in the recent Oscar winning film The King's Speech, as well.
The First movement has had its share of film boosting. For instance, in this clip from 1968's Isadora, starring Vanessa Redgrave as Isadora Duncan.
Isadora(1968), scene with Beethoven Seventh first movement
Other famous figures that danced to the Beethoven Seventh first movement include Snoopy, in "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!" No clip for that. There are other films that used Beethoven's Seventh as well, including The Fall(2006), and others that surely escaped my eagle eye. If you think of more, let us know in comments. But I give Extra big shiny bonus points to anybody that can find an example of the final movement used in a film or cartoon.
The Seventh final movement is very off-beat!
The biggest binding feature of all four movements of the Seventh Symphony is Rhythm, with a capital R -- simple, powerful rhythms pounded senseless as the basic framework on which everything is built. Each movement has had its own rhythmic figure that everything builds from.
The rhythmic figure of the fourth movement really is off-beat, in the technical musical sense. There are four beats to a typical march. "Hup two three four! Hup two three four! Move your ass, private!" If you repeat HUP two three four a few times to yourself, you'll notice that some beats have a stronger beat, with HUP being the strongest, THREE being the second strongest, and TWO being the weakest. ONE and THREE are called downbeats, and ordinary, un-hip, non-rock, non-ethnic music puts the accent on those beats, just as a drill sergeant would.
TWO and FOUR are the upbeats. Music on the upbeats is usually associated with jazz, rock, and certain types of ethnic music. Here's a little Two and Four beat music for you...
Back Beat Boogie, Harry James(1939)
I remember Pearl Bailey or Della Reese on a talk show, one time, talking about how when she went on tour in Japan, nightclub audiences would always clap on TWOs and FOURs, which she had never seen any audience do before. There are cultural aspects to this, obviously.
In the Symphony #7 finale, Beethoven shifts the accent to the TWO beat, and emphasizes it with blacksmith-like hammer blows to create a driving, addictive rhythm. The drums get a real workout in this movement. And my own lack of musical training may fail me in some regards because there are a number of clever musical tricks he plays at points with syncopation and moving the beat again by half a beat. For instance in the second theme. I'll excerpt just that part so you can see what I mean:
Excerpt from Beethoven Symphony #7, second theme
Notice the skipping rhythm in the first part there... and then it switches to another syncopated rhythm, throwing you off. I can barely read music, but I went poring through the music score in prep for this diary thinking I might be able to pinpoint and explain just what he does there, but it's so slickly done it would be a shame to even try.
This is typical of Beethoven's sense of humor. This is musical wit. I can think of many other examples of Beethoven doing similar things, slightly shifting the center of gravity in a sneaky way so you go, "Huh? Wait! What happened?" I've listened to that hundreds or thousands of times over the years, and I still find myself listening for it like a cat watching a DVD player blink. Things like that are what make you obsess over Beethoven's symphonies long after most other toys would have lost their charm.
Here's one of the greatest and trickiest examples of Beethovenian beat manipulation. This comes from the scherzo of his String Quartet in F Opus 135, my favorite of all Beethoven scherzo movements.
Beethoven String Quartet Opus 135, scherzo movement, Prazak Quartet
I could do a long diary just about that one movement. Hell, I probably will some day! It's much more extreme than anything in the Seventh, and it's typical of the loopy eccentricities that marked Beethoven's Late Period.
The rhythm tricks in the Seventh finale are lotsa lotsa fun. But the part of the finale that lingers the longest, the most striking feature of it, is the coda (Italian for tail). As I noted before, Beethoven weights his symphonies towards the end, and this ending is rich.
Just to remind ourselves what a coda is and where it fits into the layout of the movement, let's put up our Sonata-allegro form graphic one more time. This is the form used for the finale:
ONWARDS! To the MUSIC!
I dinked around with a lot of different clips, different conductors, before settling on the one below. Many of the famous modern commercial recordings of the Beethoven symphonies like von Karajan disappear very quickly from Youtube because of copyright issues, so the remaining clips I have to choose from are usually lesser quality audio film performances, good quality audio from less well known conductors, or great performances with poor audio by old conductors like Furtwangler and Toscanini. I was all set to go with Furtwangler today... until I found this clip, and I fell in love with it.
What's so good about it? Well, the conductor's pretty good. What's right about it is what's wrong about it -- they messed up the placement of the microphones, placing one of them too close to the drums. That would never happen in a studio-produced recording. Be that as it may, I find it very interesting this way.
Beethoven Symphony #7, final movement Allegro con Brio, Mariss Jansson and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra
Introduction 0:00
DUM! bada BUM... DUM bada BUM! And we're off.
Exposition First Theme (0:08)
With the drums hammering on those TWOs, the strings race through a jig-like dance melody, fairly simple in itself. The overall tone is one of exhilaration. At 0:47, we start the bridge to the second theme in a new contrasting key.
Exposition Second Theme (1:09)
This is the theme I excerpted above, the devious one. Notice also how, having softened the volume, sudden volume spikes (sforzandos in Italian) on the upbeats rattle you.
Exposition Codetta (1:36)
The tripping dum dadum dadum rhythm of the second theme segues into a rising, furious cadence here. And we are ready for...
Repeat of the Whole Exposition! (1:59)
Yes, we repeat everything from the top. It was good the first time, so it should be twice as good the second! The end of the codetta, the first time around, dumped us back in A major, ready to repeat everything. And we do, the first theme, second theme, codetta again...
So when we reach the end of the codetta the second time, we feel like we know what should happen, that same comfortable return to the home key... But NO!
The Development! (3:40)
The development begins. the plot thickens. Rather than the comfortable return to A major, we find ourselves in a new alien key, terra infirma. (And either my guitar is out of tune or the clip is, so I'm not going to guess at actual keys today).
As I've explained in prior posts, the Exposition is like the introduction of the cast of characters and their problem at the beginning of a sitcom episode. The development is where things HAPPEN to those characters. And so, here, in the development, the pace picks up as things start happening to the now-familiar themes.
At 3:43, in this new key, the orchestra begins to play the jig-like first theme again... And then stops, as if lost! The music shifts to a new key and tries again, this time in a minor key at 3:49. But this too is interrupted at 3:54. The orchestra shifts to a new key... but before even trying, goes to yet another! And another! And another! At last at 4:01, it seems to have found some stable place that it's comfortable with and resumes, once again the jig-like first theme and gets almost a full, complete restatement of it.
But as it reaches the end of that restatement at 4:30, the key begins wandering again. The strings spin out a repeating rhythmic figure as the music, having lost its stability begins to rise in in chromatic half-steps, building suspense. This "chromatic rising half-step" thing, by the way, will return to us very soon in the best part of the coda, so stay tuned for that.
At 4:59, the tension lifts. The music softens. A solo flute peeks its vulnerable head out and whistles the jig-like first theme again. Of course I'm projecting here, but the sense I get is of it testing the waters. "Is it safe to come out and play again, yet?" It's interesting to watch Janson's face here, his expression one of a mouse sneaking past a cat.
The flute suddenly (5;12) reaches a dissonant note, lingers on it. And...
Recapitulation First Theme (5:16)
It's the return of the jig theme! We're back in A major, the home key, and we're back to the hammer blows and the jig-like theme again, exactly like before.
But something is different. At 5:50, the point where before we began the transition to the second theme, this part is different. "Lucy, you gotta lotta 'splainin' to do!"
Recapitulation Second Theme (6:06)
The tripping, tricky, second theme returns, but now in the home key. This is the lesson learned from our adventure.
At 6:36, the codetta is repeated here. And this is where many symphonies WOULD JUST END.
The Coda of the Beethoven Seventh Symphony Finale (7:03)
DUM! bada BUM... DUM bada BUM!
Oh, we're not over yet. If you've been watching the progress bar on the clip, you can see that we've got a ways to go. The second movement may be the most popular of the movements, but the coda of the final movement is the most ANALYZED part of the Seventh Symphony, partly because there is so much going on here in a compact space, and at a point where other symphonies contemporaneous with the Seventh usually just... took a bow and waited for the roses! Beethoven saves the best for last, turning it into a sort of second development with much sharper edges.
We begin with DUM! bada BUM... DUM bada BUM! The same motif that started the movement, that started the repeat of the exposition, that started the development. The string launch into a repeat of the transition music between the first and second theme. But as it travels through many key changes, the music descends, the center of gravity shifting to the lower-ranged instruments, lower and lower, down to the contrabasses, the deepest of the stringed instruments. Having gone to such lengths to establish the tonal stability of the home key in the recapitulation, it's like we are being sucked into a spiraling vortex. At 7:24, the woodwinds play worrisome fragments atop this. At this point, the basses are basically just repeating two notes a half-step apart over and over again, but gradually stepping it downwards.
Deeper we go, until at 7:42, we begin to bottom out again, and begin the slow climb back out. It is at this dark point we really reach the climax of the symphony. Just as alarming as it was going DOWN, it's exhilarating coming back up again, the mood brightens, becomes ecstatic. (See Janson's half-turned face at 7:57)
At 7:52, DUM bada BUM motif is back in force, accompanied by the brass who let loose now. The drums pound out those twos and fours, and we can feel the end coming soon. A rolling thunder of drums tees us up for the end. But it's one last tease. The music, softens, crouches down, as it begins its final leap.
(Look at how exhausted that poor drummer looks at 8:19.)
Another great drum roll at 8:22 with brass blaring. At 8:29, it's all finish line. DUM! bada BUM! bada BUM! And we're done with the Beethoven Symphony #7.
THE END
Next week:
Lone1c will be guest-hosting next Thursdays diary (11/17) on the Beethoven Symphony #4. The following Thursday, Thanskgiving (11/24) Zenbassoon will guest-host a diary on the Beethoven Symphony #8. I expect they will both have very different styles from my own, and I like that -- didactic diversity is good. And I'll be around in the comments section.
The Thursday after that (12/01) I'll be back with the first of a FOUR-part diary on the Beethoven Symphony #9. I thought about trying to cram it into three, but the Ninth is just too damn big, too much stuff. My goal is to get the Ode to Joy done before New Year's, and I think we'll manage just that.
If you're catching these diaries by "Following" Dumbo (me), do yourself a favor and follow the CMOPUS tag instead. Otherwise, you might miss the guest-host diaries.