Beethoven's symphonies. The sixth, pastoral symphony - the role of the leitmotif in the dramaturgy of the symphony

Subject: Beethoven's works.

Plan:

1. Introduction.

2. Early creativity.

3. The heroic principle in Beethoven's work.

4. Still an innovator in his later years.

5. Symphonic creativity. Ninth Symphony

1. Introduction

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN – German composer, representative of the Viennese classical school. He created a heroic-dramatic type of symphony (3rd “Heroic”, 1804, 5th, 1808, 9th, 1823, symphonies; opera “Fidelio”, final version 1814; overtures “Coriolanus”, 1807, “Egmont”, 1810; a number of instrumental ensembles, sonatas, concerts). Complete deafness that befell Beethoven in the middle creative path, did not break his will. Later works are distinguished by their philosophical character. 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos; 16 string quartets and other ensembles; instrumental sonatas, including 32 for piano (among them the so-called “Pathetique”, 1798, “Lunar”, 1801, “Appassionata”, 1805), 10 for violin and piano; "Solemn Mass" (1823).

2. Early work

Initial music education Beethoven received, under the guidance of his father, a chorister of the court chapel of the Elector of Cologne in Bonn. From 1780 he studied with the court organist K. G. Nefe. At the age of less than 12, Beethoven successfully replaced Nefe; At the same time, his first publication came out (12 variations for the clavier on the march of E. K. Dresler). In 1787, Beethoven visited W. A. ​​Mozart in Vienna, who highly appreciated his art as an improvising pianist. Beethoven's first stay in the then musical capital of Europe was short-lived (after learning that his mother was dying, he returned to Bonn).

In 1789 he entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bonn, but did not study there for long. In 1792, Beethoven finally moved to Vienna, where he first improved in composition with J. Haydn (with whom he did not have a good relationship), then with I. B. Schenk, I. G. Albrechtsberger and A. Salieri. Until 1794 he used financial support Elector, after which he found rich patrons among the Viennese aristocracy.

Beethoven soon became one of the most fashionable salon pianists in Vienna. Beethoven's public debut as a pianist took place in 1795. His first major publications dated the same year: three piano trios Op. 1 and three sonatas for piano op. 2. According to contemporaries, Beethoven’s playing combined a stormy temperament and virtuoso brilliance with a wealth of imagination and depth of feeling. It is not surprising that his deepest and original works of this period are intended for piano.

Before 1802, Beethoven created 20 piano sonatas, including the “Pathetique” (1798) and the so-called “Moonlight” (No. 2 of two “fantasy sonatas” op. 27, 1801). In a number of sonatas, Beethoven overcomes the classical three-part scheme by placing an additional part - a minuet or scherzo - between the slow movement and the finale, thereby making the sonata cycle similar to a symphonic cycle. Between 1795 and 1802, the first three piano concertos, the first two symphonies (1800 and 1802), 6 string quartets (Op. 18, 1800), eight sonatas for violin and piano (including “Spring Sonata” Op. 24, 1801), 2 sonatas for cello and piano op. 5 (1796), Septet for oboe, horn, bassoon and strings Op. 20 (1800), many other chamber ensemble works. Beethoven's only ballet, “The Works of Prometheus” (1801), dates back to the same period, one of the themes of which was subsequently used in the finale of the “Eroic Symphony” and in the monumental piano cycle of 15 variations with fugue (1806). From a young age, Beethoven amazed and delighted his contemporaries with the scale of his plans, the inexhaustible inventiveness of their implementation and the tireless desire for something new.

3. The heroic principle in Beethoven’s work.

In the late 1790s, Beethoven began to develop deafness; no later than 1801, he realized that this disease was progressing and threatened with complete loss of hearing. In October 1802, while in the village of Heiligenstadt near Vienna, Beethoven sent his two brothers a document of extremely pessimistic content, known as the “Heiligenstadt Testament”. Soon, however, he managed to overcome the mental crisis and returned to creativity. New - so-called middle - period creative biography Beethoven's period, which is generally considered to have begun in 1803 and ended in 1812, is marked by an intensification of dramatic and heroic motifs in his music. The author’s subtitle of the Third Symphony, “Heroic” (1803), could serve as an epigraph to the entire period; Initially, Beethoven intended to dedicate it to Napoleon Bonaparte, but upon learning that he declared himself emperor, he abandoned this intention. Such works as the Fifth Symphony (1808) with its famous “motive of fate”, the opera “Fidelio” based on the plot of a captive fighter for justice (the first 2 editions 1805-1806, the final one - 1814), the overture “Coriolanus” are also imbued with a heroic, rebellious spirit "(1807) and "Egmont" (1810), the first movement of the "Kreutzer Sonata" for violin and piano (1803), piano sonata"Appassionata" (1805), cycle of 32 variations in C minor for piano (1806).

Beethoven's style of the middle period is characterized by an unprecedented scope and intensity of motivic work, increased scale of sonata development, and striking thematic, dynamic, tempo, and register contrasts. All these features are also inherent in those masterpieces of 1803-12 that are difficult to attribute to the actual “heroic” line. These are Symphonies No. 4 (1806), 6 (“Pastoral”, 1808), 7 and 8 (both 1812), Concertos for piano and orchestra No. 4 and 5 (1806, 1809) Concerto for violin and orchestra (1806), Sonata Op. 53 for piano (Waldstein Sonata or Aurora, 1804), three string quartets Op. 59, dedicated to Count A. Razumovsky, at whose request Beethoven included Russian folk themes in the first and second of them (1805-1806), Trio for piano, violin and cello op. 97, dedicated to Beethoven's friend and patron Archduke Rudolph (the so-called "Archduke Trio", 1811).

By the mid-1800s, Beethoven was already universally revered as by far the first composer of his time. In 1808 he actually gave his last concert as a pianist (a later charity performance in 1814 was unsuccessful, since by that time Beethoven was already almost completely deaf). At the same time he was offered the post of court conductor in Kassel. Not wanting to allow the composer to leave, three Viennese aristocrats allocated him a high salary, which, however, soon depreciated due to circumstances related to the Napoleonic wars. Nevertheless, Beethoven remained in Vienna.

4. Still an innovator in his later years

In 1813-1815 Beethoven composed little. He experienced a decline in moral and creative strength due to deafness and a breakdown in his matrimonial plans. In addition, in 1815, the care of his nephew (the son of his late brother), who had a very difficult disposition, fell on his shoulders. Be that as it may, in 1815 a new, relatively speaking, late period of the composer’s work began. Over the course of 11 years, 16 large-scale works came from his pen: two sonatas for cello and piano (Op. 102, 1815), five sonatas for piano (1816-22), piano Variations on Diabelli's Waltz (1823), Solemn Mass ( 1823), Ninth Symphony (1823) and 6 string quartets (1825-1826).

In the music of late Beethoven, such a feature of his previous style as a wealth of contrasts is preserved and even intensified. Both in its dramatic and ecstatically jubilant moments, and in its lyrical or prayerful and meditative episodes, this music appeals to the extreme possibilities of human perception and empathy. For Beethoven, the act of composing was a struggle with inert sonic matter, as eloquently evidenced by the hasty and often illegible recordings of his drafts; the emotional atmosphere of his later opuses is largely determined by the feeling of painfully overcome opposition.

The late Beethoven paid little attention to the conventions accepted in performing practice (a characteristic touch: upon learning that violinists were complaining about technical difficulties in his quartet, Beethoven exclaimed: “What do I care about their violins when inspiration speaks in me!”). He has a special predilection for extremely high and extremely low instrumental registers (which is undoubtedly associated with a narrowing of the spectrum of sounds accessible to his hearing), for complex, often highly sophisticated polyphonic and variation forms, to expand the traditional scheme of a four-part instrumental cycle by including additional parts or sections.

One of Beethoven’s most daring experiments in updating the form is the huge choral finale of the Ninth Symphony based on the text of F. Schiller’s ode “To Joy.” Here, for the first time in the history of music, Beethoven carried out a synthesis of the symphonic and oratorio genres. The Ninth Symphony served as a model for artists of the Romantic era, fascinated by the utopia of synthetic art that could transform human nature and spiritually unite the masses of people.

As for the esoteric music of the latest sonatas, variations and especially quartets, it is customary to see in it a harbinger of some important principles organization of thematics, rhythm, harmony, which developed in the 20th century. In the Solemn Mass, which Beethoven considered his best creation, the pathos of the universal message and the sophisticated, sometimes almost chamber writing with elements of stylization in an archaic spirit form a unique unity.

In the 1820s, Beethoven's fame went far beyond the borders of Austria and Germany. The solemn mass, written according to an order received from London, was first performed in St. Petersburg. Although the work of the late Beethoven did not correspond much to the tastes of the contemporary Viennese public, who gave their sympathies to G. Rossini and lighter forms of chamber music, his fellow citizens realized the true scale of his personality. When Beethoven died, last path About ten thousand people accompanied him.

5. Symphonic creativity

Symphony is the most serious and responsible genre of orchestral music. Like a novel or drama, a symphony has access to a range of the most diverse phenomena of life in all their complexity and diversity.

Beethoven's symphonies arose on the ground prepared by the entire course of development instrumental music 18th century, especially by his immediate predecessors – Haydn and Mozart. The sonata-symphonic cycle that finally took shape in their work, its reasonable, harmonious structures turned out to be a solid foundation for the massive architecture of Beethoven's symphonies.

But Beethoven's symphony could become what it is only as a result of the interaction of many phenomena and their deep generalization. Opera played a major role in the development of the symphony. Operatic dramaturgy had a significant influence on the process of dramatizing the symphony - this was clearly already in the work of Mozart. With Beethoven, the symphony grows into a truly dramatic instrumental genre.

The principles of operatic dramaturgy, applied to the symphony, contributed to deepening the contrasts and enlarging the overall plan of the symphony; they dictated the need for greater consistency and regularity in relation to the parts of the cycle, greater internal connection. Following the path paved by Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven created majestic tragedies and dramas in symphonic instrumental forms.

An artist of a different historical era, he intrudes into those areas of spiritual interests that his predecessors cautiously avoided and could only touch on indirectly.

The line between the symphonic art of Beethoven and the symphony of the 18th century is drawn primarily by theme, ideological content, character musical images. Beethoven's symphony, addressed to huge human masses, needed monumental forms “in proportion to the number, the breath, the sight of the assembled thousands.” Indeed, Beethoven pushes the boundaries of his symphonies widely and freely. Thus, the Allegro of the Eroica is almost twice as large as the Allegro of Mozart’s largest symphony – “Jupiter”, and the gigantic dimensions of the Ninth are generally incommensurable with any of the previously written symphonic works.

The high awareness of the responsibility of the artist, the boldness of his plans and creative concepts can explain the fact that Beethoven did not dare to write symphonies until he was thirty. The same reasons apparently caused the slowness, severe ingenuity, and tension with which he handled each topic. Any symphonic work by Beethoven is the fruit of a long, sometimes many years of work: the Eroica was created over the course of a year and a half, Beethoven began the Fifth in 1805 and finished in 1808, and work on the Ninth Symphony lasted almost ten years. It should be added that most of the symphonies, from the Third to the Eighth, not to mention the Ninth, fall during the heyday and highest rise of Beethoven's creativity.

In the First Symphony in C major, the features of Beethoven's new style still appear very timidly and modestly. According to Berlioz, the First Symphony is “excellently written music, but it is not yet Beethoven.” There is a noticeable movement forward in the Second Symphony in D major, which appeared in 1802. The confidently masculine tone, the swiftness of the dynamics, and all its forward energy reveal much more clearly the face of the creator of future triumphal-heroic creations. “Everything in this symphony is noble, energetic, proud. Everything in this symphony breathes with joy, and even the warlike impulses of the first Allegro are completely devoid of any kind of fury,” writes G. Berlioz. But a genuine, although prepared, but always amazing creative takeoff occurred in the Third Symphony. Only here truly “for the first time all the immense, amazing power of the creative genius of Beethoven was revealed, who in his first two symphonies is still nothing more than a good follower of his predecessors - Haydn and Mozart.”

Having gone through the labyrinth of spiritual quests, Beethoven found his heroic-epic theme in the Third Symphony. For the first time in art, the passionate drama of the era, its shocks and catastrophes was refracted with such depth of generalizations. The man himself is shown, winning the right to freedom, love and joy.

Starting with the Third Symphony, the heroic theme inspires Beethoven to create the most outstanding symphonic works - the Fifth Symphony, the Egmont Overture, Coriolanus, Leonore No. 3. At the end of his life, this theme is revived with unattainable artistic perfection and scope in the Ninth Symphony.

But each time the twist on this central theme for Beethoven is different. If the Third Symphony in its spirit approaches the epic of ancient art, then the Fifth Symphony, with its laconicism and dynamic dramaturgy, is perceived as a rapidly developing drama.

At the same time Beethoven raises symphonic music and other layers. The poetry of spring and youth, the joy of life, its perpetual motion– this is how the complex of poetic images of the Fourth Symphony in B major appears. The Sixth (Pastoral) Symphony is dedicated to the theme of nature. In the “incomprehensibly excellent,” according to Glinka, the Seventh Symphony in A major, life phenomena appear in generalized dance images; the dynamics of life, its miraculous beauty is hidden behind the bright sparkle of changing rhythmic figures, behind unexpected turns dance moves. Even the deepest sadness of the famous Allegretto is not able to extinguish the sparkle of the dance, to moderate the fiery temperament of the dance of the parts surrounding the Allegretto.

Next to the mighty frescoes of the Seventh is a subtle and graceful chamber painting of the Eighth Symphony in F major.

Ninth Symphony

The Ninth Symphony is one of the most outstanding works in world history. musical culture. In terms of the greatness of the idea and the depth of its aesthetic content, the breadth of its concept and the powerful dynamics of musical images, the Ninth Symphony surpasses everything created by Beethoven himself.

Although the Ninth Symphony is far from Beethoven’s last creation, it was the work that completed the composer’s long-term ideological and artistic quest. In it, Beethoven's ideas of democracy and heroic struggle found the highest expression, and in it the new principles of symphonic thinking were embodied with incomparable perfection.

In the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven poses a vitally important problem central to his work: man and existence, tyranny and the unity of all for the victory of justice and goodness. This problem was clearly defined in the Third and Fifth symphonies, but in the ninth it takes on a pan-human, universal character. Hence the scale of innovation, the grandeur of the composition and forms.

The ideological concept of the symphony led to a fundamental change in the genre of the symphony and its dramaturgy. Beethoven introduces the word, the sound of human voices, into the realm of purely instrumental music. This invention of Beethoven was used more than once by composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The organization of the symphonic cycle itself has also changed. Beethoven subordinates the usual principle of contrast (alternation of fast and slow parts) to the idea of ​​continuous education of development. First, two fast movements follow one after another, where the most dramatic situations of the symphony are concentrated, and the slow movement, moved to third place, prepares - in lyrical and philosophical terms - the onset of the finale. Thus, everything moves towards the finale - the result complex processes life struggle, the various stages and aspects of which are given in the preceding parts.

In the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven solves the problem of thematic unification of the cycle in a new way. He deepens the intonational connections between the movements and, continuing what was found in the Third and Fifth Symphonies, goes even further along the path of musical concretization of the ideological concept, or, in other words, along the path to programmaticity. The finale repeats all the themes of the previous movements - a kind of musical explanation of the symphony's concept, followed by a verbal one.

References:

1. E. Tsareva. Musical literature foreign countries.

2. G. Berlioz. Critical essay on Beethoven's symphonies.

3. Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

4. Pruss I.E. Small history of art.

The sixth, Pastoral Symphony (F-dur, op. 68, 1808) occupies a special place in Beethoven’s work. It was from this symphony that representatives of the romantic movement largely took their starting point. program symphony. Berlioz was an enthusiastic fan of the Sixth Symphony.

The theme of nature receives wide philosophical embodiment in the music of Beethoven, one of the greatest poets of nature. In the Sixth Symphony, these images acquired their most complete expression, for the very theme of the symphony is nature and pictures of rural life. For Beethoven, nature was not only an object for creating picturesque paintings. She was for him an expression of a comprehensive, life-giving principle. It was in communion with nature that Beethoven found those hours of pure joy that he so craved. Statements from Beethoven's diaries and letters speak of his enthusiastic pantheistic attitude towards nature (see pp. II31-133). More than once we come across statements in Beethoven’s notes that his ideal is “free,” that is, natural nature.

The theme of nature in Beethoven's work is connected with another theme in which he expresses himself as a follower of Rousseau - this is the poetry of a simple, natural life in communication with nature, the spiritual purity of the peasant. In the notes to the Pastoral sketches, Beethoven refers several times to “memories of life in the countryside” as main motive content of the symphony. This idea was preserved in the full title of the symphony on title page manuscripts (see below).

The Rousseauist idea of ​​the Pastoral Symphony connects Beethoven with Haydn (oratorio “The Seasons”). But in Beethoven the touch of patriarchy that is observed in Haydn disappears. He interprets the theme of nature and rural life as one of the variants of his main theme about the “free man” - This makes him similar to the “sturmers”, who, following Rousseau, saw a liberating principle in nature and contrasted it with the world of violence and coercion.

In the Pastoral Symphony, Beethoven turned to a plot that was encountered more than once in music. Among the programmatic works of the past, many are devoted to images of nature. But Beethoven solves the principle of programming in music in a new way. From naive illustrativeness he moves on to a poetic, spiritual embodiment of nature. Beethoven expressed his view of programming with the words: “More an expression of feeling than painting.” The author gave such advance notice and program in the manuscript of the symphony.

However, one should not think that Beethoven abandoned pictorial and visual possibilities here. musical language. Beethoven's Sixth Symphony is an example of the fusion of expressive and pictorial principles. Her images are deep in mood, poetic, inspired by a great inner feeling, imbued with a generalizing philosophical thought and at the same time picturesque.

The thematic nature of the symphony is characteristic. Beethoven turns here to folk melodies (although he very rarely quoted genuine folk melodies): in the Sixth Symphony, researchers find Slavic folk origins. In particular, B. Bartok, a great expert folk music various countries, writes that the main part of the first part of the Pastoral is a Croatian children's song. Other researchers (Becker, Schönewolf) also point to the Croatian melody from D. K. Kuhach’s collection “Songs of the South Slavs,” which was the prototype of the main part of the I part of the Pastoral:

The appearance of the Pastoral Symphony is characterized by a wide implementation of genres of folk music - landler (extreme sections of the scherzo), song (in the finale). The song origins are also visible in the scherzo trio - Nottebohm cites Beethoven's sketch of the song “The Happiness of Friendship” (“Glück der Freundschaft, op. 88”), which was later used in the symphony:

The picturesque thematic quality of the Sixth Symphony is manifested in the wide use of ornamental elements - gruppetto various types, .figurations, long grace notes, arpeggios; This type of melody, along with folk song, is the basis of the thematic theme of the Sixth Symphony. This is especially noticeable in the slow part. Its main part grows out of the gruppetto (Beethoven said that he captured the melody of an oriole here).

Attention to the coloristic side is clearly manifested in the harmonic language of the symphony. The tertian comparisons of keys in the development sections are noteworthy. They play a large role in the development of the first movement (B-dur - D-dur; G-dur - E-dur), and in the development of the Andante (“Scene by the Stream”), which is colorful ornamental variations on the theme of the main part. There is a lot of bright picturesqueness in the music of movements III, IV and V. Thus, not a single part goes beyond the plan of the programmatic picture music, while maintaining the full depth of the poetic idea of ​​the symphony.

The orchestra of the Sixth Symphony is distinguished by an abundance of solo wind instruments (clarinet, flute, horn). In the “Scene by the Stream” (Andante), Beethoven uses the rich timbres of string instruments in a new way. He uses divisi and mutes in the cello part, reproducing the “murmur of a brook” (author's note in the manuscript). Such techniques of orchestral writing are characteristic of later times. In connection with them, we can talk about Beethoven's anticipation of the features of the romantic orchestra.

The dramaturgy of the symphony as a whole is very different from the dramaturgy of the heroic symphonies. In sonata forms (I, II, V movements) the contrasts and boundaries between sections are smoothed out. “There are no conflicts or struggles here. Smooth transitions from one thought to another are characteristic. This is especially clearly expressed in Part II: the secondary part continues the main one, entering against the same background against which the main part sounded:

Becker writes in this regard about the technique of “stringing melodies.” The abundance of thematic elements and the dominance of the melodic principle are indeed the most characteristic features of the style of the Pastoral Symphony.

The indicated features of the Sixth Symphony are also manifested in the method of developing themes - the leading role belongs to variation. In Part II and the finale, Beethoven introduces variation sections into sonata form (development in the “Scene by the Stream”, main part in the finale). This combination of sonata and variation will become one of the fundamental principles in Schubert's lyric symphonism.

The logic of the cycle of the Pastoral Symphony, while possessing typical classical contrasts, is determined, however, by the program (hence its five-part structure and the absence of caesuras between movements III, IV and V). Its cycle is not characterized by such effective and consistent development as in heroic symphonies, where the first part is the focus of the conflict, and the finale is its resolution. In the sequence of parts, factors of the program-picture order play a large role, although they are subordinated to the general idea of ​​the unity of man with nature.

For Beethoven, a symphony is a purely social genre, performed mainly in large halls quite a solid big orchestra. The genre is ideologically very significant, which does not allow writing works in series. Therefore, Beethoven's symphonies, as a rule, are much larger than even Mozart's (except for the 1st and 8th).

There are some regularities in the sequence of Beethoven's symphonies. Odd numbered symphonies are more explosive, heroic or dramatic (except for the 1st), and even numbered symphonies are more “peaceful”, genre-based (mostly the 4th, 6th and 8th).

The main features of the Beethoven symphonic method:

1. Showing the image in the unity of opposing elements fighting each other. Beethoven's themes are often built on contrasting motifs that form an internal unity.

2. The huge role of derivative contrast. Derivative contrast refers to a principle of development in which a new contrasting motif or theme is the result of a transformation of the previous material.

3. Continuity of development and qualitative changes in images. Development begins in exposure. Having begun in the exhibition, the development process covers not only development, but also reprise and coda, which turns into a second development.

A qualitatively new unity of the sonata-symphonic cycle, compared to the cycles of Haydn and Mozart. The symphony becomes an “instrumental drama”, where each part is a necessary link in a single musical and dramatic “action”. The culmination of this “drama” is the ending. The brightest example of Beethoven's instrumental drama is the “Eroic” symphony, all parts of which are connected common line development aimed at the grandiose picture of national triumph in the finale.

Speaking about Beethoven's symphonies, we should emphasize his orchestral innovation. Among the innovations:

1. Actual formation of the copper group. Although the trumpets are still played and recorded together with the timpani, functionally they and the horns are beginning to be treated as a single group. They are also joined by trombones, which were not in symphony orchestra Haydn and Mozart.

2. Compaction of the “middle tier” forces the vertical to increase above and below. The piccolo flute appears above, and the contrabassoon appears below. But in any case, there are always two flutes and bassoons in a Beethoven orchestra.

Continuing the tradition of Haydn's London Symphonies and Mozart's later symphonies, Beethoven enhances the independence and virtuosity of the parts of almost all instruments, including the trumpet (the famous solo offstage in the Leonora overtures No. 2 and No. 3) and timpani. He often actually has 5 string parts (double basses are separated from cellos), and sometimes more

All woodwinds, including the bassoon, as well as horns (in chorus, as in the Scherzo trio of the 3rd symphony, or separately) can solo, performing very bright material.

Opera played a major role in the development of the symphony. Operatic dramaturgy had a significant influence on the process of dramatizing the symphony - this was clearly already in the work of Mozart. With Beethoven, the symphony grows into a truly dramatic instrumental genre.

He wrote only 9 symphonies.

No. 3, Heroic

No. 6, Pastoral

No. 9, Ode to Joy

And 11 overtures:

Beethoven continues in them the traditions of the symphonic overture genre of Gluck, Mozart, Cherubini. 10 overtures, except for “Name Day”, were written for theatrical productions. The best of them are Egmont, Coriolanus, as well as the overture to the opera Fidelio (Leonora 2 and 3). Beethoven embodies civic heroic themes in the overtures and generally expresses main idea plays. Program overtures (distinguished by their vivid theatricality and imagery). They use the intonations of songs, dances, hymns, and marches.

Considered to be Beethoven's early symphony, the Symphony in C major "Jena" is now recognized as belonging to Friedrich Witt.

Beethoven in the last year of his life was going to write,

The most outstanding area of ​​Beethoven's work is symphonic music. It is one of the greatest achievements of world culture and stands on a par with such artistic phenomena as Bach's Passions, the poetry of Goethe and Pushkin, and Shakespeare's tragedies. Beethoven was the first to give the symphony public importance and raised it to the ideological level of philosophy and literature. The inherent features of monumental generalization and the ability to address all of humanity in art found full and perfect expression here.

Beethoven's symphonism in its origins is closely related to the early Viennese classics. In this area (more than in piano, opera or choral music) he directly continues their traditions. The continuity of the symphonic principles of Haydn and Mozart is noticeable in Beethoven right up to his mature works.

In the works of early Viennese classics The basic principles of symphonic thinking were formed. Their music is already dominated by “the continuity of musical consciousness, when not a single element is thought or perceived as independent among many others” (Asafiev). The symphonies of Haydn and Mozart were distinguished by their broad generalizing character. They embodied a diverse range of typical images and ideas of their time.

From Haydn, Beethoven adopted the flexible, plastic and harmonious form of the early classicist symphony, the laconicism of his symphonic writing, and his principle of motivic development. All of Beethoven's genre-dance symphonies go back to Haydn's direction of symphony.

In many ways, Beethowe's style was prepared by Mozart's later symphonies with their internal contrast, intonation unity, integrity of the cycle structure, and variety of development and polyphonic techniques. Beethoven was close to the drama, emotional depth, and artistic individualization of these works.

Finally, in Beethoven's early symphonies there is a clear continuity of characteristic intonations that were preserved in the Viennese music XVIII century.

And yet, despite all the obvious connections with the symphonic culture of the Age of Enlightenment, Beethoven's symphonies differ significantly from the works of his predecessors.

During his life, this greatest symphonist, a brilliant master of sonata writing, created only nine symphonies. Let's compare this number with more than forty symphonies belonging to Mozart, with more than a hundred written by Haydn. Let us remember that our first work in symphonic genre Beethoven composed it very late - at the age of thirty, revealing at the same time loyalty to traditions, which seems incompatible with the bold innovation of his own piano works the same years. This paradoxical situation is explained by one circumstance: the appearance of each symphony seemed to mark the birth of a whole world for Beethoven. Each of them summarized a whole stage of creative quest, each revealed its own unique range of images and ideas. IN symphonic creativity Beethoven has no typical techniques, commonplaces, repetitive thoughts or images. In terms of the significance of ideas, the power of emotional impact, and the individuality of content, Beethoven's works rise above the entire instrumental culture of the 18th century. Each of his symphonies occupies an outstanding place in world musical creativity.

Beethoven's nine symphonies concentrate the composer's leading artistic aspirations throughout his entire career. With all the individual originality and stylistic differences between the early and late works, Beethoven’s nine symphonies seem to form together a single grandiose cycle.

The first symphony sums up the quests of the early period, but in the Second, Third, and Fifth, images of revolutionary heroism are expressed with increasing purposefulness. Moreover, after almost every monumental dramatic symphony, Beethoven turned to a contrasting emotional sphere. The Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth symphonies, with their lyrical, genre, scherzo-humorous features, set off the tension and majesty of the heroic-dramatic ideas of the other symphonies. And finally, in the Ninth last time Beethoven returns to the theme of tragic struggle and optimistic life affirmation. He achieves in it the utmost artistic expressiveness, philosophical depth and drama. This symphony crowns all works of world civil-heroic music of the past.

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, strings.

History of creation

The birth of the Pastoral Symphony occurs during the central period of Beethoven's work. Almost simultaneously, three symphonies came out of his pen, completely different in character: in 1805 he began writing a heroic symphony in C minor, now known as No. 5, in mid-November of the following year he completed the lyrical Fourth, in B-flat major, and in 1807 he began composing the Pastoral. Completed at the same time as the C minor in 1808, it differs sharply from it. Beethoven, having come to terms with an incurable illness - deafness - here does not fight a hostile fate, but glorifies the great power of nature, the simple joys of life.

Like the C minor, the Pastoral Symphony is dedicated to Beethoven’s patron, the Viennese philanthropist Prince F. I. Lobkowitz and the Russian envoy in Vienna, Count A. K. Razumovsky. Both of them were first performed in a large “academy” (that is, a concert in which the works of only one author were performed by himself as a virtuoso instrumentalist or by an orchestra under his direction) on December 22, 1808 at the Vienna Theater. The first number of the program was “Symphony entitled “Memories of Rural Life”, F major, No. 5.” Only some time later she became Sixth. The concert, held in a cold hall where the audience sat in fur coats, was not a success. The orchestra was a mixed one, of a low level. Beethoven quarreled with the musicians during the rehearsal; conductor I. Seyfried worked with them, and the author only directed the premiere.

The pastoral symphony occupies a special place in his work. It is software-based, and the only one of the nine has not only common name, but also headings for each part. These parts are not four, as has long been established in the symphonic cycle, but five, which is connected specifically with the program: between the simple-hearted village dance and the peaceful finale there is a dramatic picture of a thunderstorm.

Beethoven loved to spend the summer in quiet villages in the vicinity of Vienna, wandering through forests and meadows from dawn to dusk, rain or shine, and in this communication with nature the ideas for his compositions arose. “No man can love rural life as much as I do, for oak groves, trees, rocky mountains respond to the thoughts and experiences of man.” Pastoral, which, according to the composer himself, depicts the feelings born from contact with the natural world and rural life, has become one of the most romantic essays Beethoven. It is not without reason that many romantics saw her as the source of their inspiration. This is evidenced by Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique, Schumann's Rhine Symphony, Mendelssohn's Scottish and Italian symphonies, the symphonic poem "Preludes" and many of Liszt's piano pieces.

Music

First part called by the composer “Joyful feelings upon arrival in the village.” The simple, repeatedly repeated main theme sounded by the violins is close to folk round dance melodies, and the accompaniment by violas and cellos is reminiscent of the hum of village bagpipes. Several side topics contrast little with the main one. The development is also idyllic, devoid of sharp contrasts. A long stay in one emotional state is diversified by colorful comparisons of tonalities, changes in orchestral timbres, and increases and decreases in sonority, which anticipates the principles of development among the romantics.

Second part- “Scene by the Stream” is imbued with the same serene feelings. The melodious violin melody slowly unfolds against a murmuring background of other strings, which persists throughout the movement. Only at the very end does the stream fall silent and the roll call of birds becomes audible: the trill of a nightingale (flute), the cry of a quail (oboe), the cuckoo's cuckoo (clarinet). Listening to this music, it is impossible to imagine that it was written by a deaf composer who has not heard birdsong for a long time!

Third part- “A cheerful gathering of villagers” - the most cheerful and carefree. It combines the sly simplicity of peasant dances, introduced into the symphony by Beethoven's teacher Haydn, and the sharp humor of Beethoven's typically scherzos. The initial section is based on the repeated juxtaposition of two themes - abrupt, with persistent stubborn repetitions, and lyrical melodious, but not without humor: the bassoon accompaniment sounds out of time, as if from inexperienced village musicians. The next theme, flexible and graceful, in the transparent timbre of the oboe accompanied by the violins, is also not without a comic touch, which is given to it by the syncopated rhythm and the sudden entry of the bassoon bass. In the faster trio, a rough chant with sharp accents is persistently repeated, in a very loud sound - as if the village musicians were playing with all their might, sparing no effort. In repeating the opening section, Beethoven breaks with classical tradition: instead of going through all the themes in full, there is only a brief reminder of the first two.

Part four- "Storm. Storm" - begins immediately, without interruption. It forms a sharp contrast to everything that preceded it and is the only dramatic episode of the symphony. Painting a majestic picture of the raging elements, the composer resorts to visual techniques, expanding the composition of the orchestra, including, as in the finale of the Fifth, the piccolo flute and trombones, which had not previously been used in symphonic music. The contrast is especially sharply emphasized by the fact that this part is not separated by a pause from the neighboring ones: starting suddenly, it also passes without a pause into the finale, where the mood of the first parts returns.

Final- “Shepherd's song. Joyful and grateful feelings after the storm.” The calm melody of the clarinet, answered by the horn, resembles the roll call of shepherd's horns against the background of bagpipes - they are imitated by the sustained sounds of violas and cellos. The roll call of instruments gradually fades into the distance - the last one to carry out the melody is the horn with a mute against the background of light passages of strings. This is how this unique Beethoven symphony ends in an unusual way.

A. Koenigsberg

Nature and the merging of man with it, a sense of peace of mind, simple joys inspired by the gracious charm of the natural world - these are the themes, the range of images of this work.

Among Beethoven's nine symphonies, the Sixth is the only programmatic one in the direct sense of the term, that is, it has a general name that outlines the direction of poetic thought; in addition, each of the parts of the symphonic cycle is entitled: the first part is “Joyful feelings upon arrival in the village”, the second is “Scene by the stream”, the third is “Merry gathering of villagers”, the fourth is “Thunderstorm” and the fifth is “Shepherd’s song” (“Joyful and grateful feelings after the storm”).

In his attitude to the problem " nature and man“Beethoven, as we have already mentioned, is close to the ideas of J.-J. Rousseau. He perceives nature lovingly, idyllically, reminiscent of Haydn, who glorified the idyll of nature and rural labor in the oratorio “The Seasons”.

At the same time, Beethoven also acts as an artist of modern times. This is reflected in the greater poetic spirituality of the images of nature, and in picturesqueness symphonies.

Keeping intact the basic pattern of cyclic forms - the contrast of compared parts - Beethoven forms the symphony as a series of relatively independent paintings, which depict various phenomena and states of nature or genre and everyday scenes from rural life.

The programmatic and picturesque nature of the Pastoral Symphony was reflected in the features of its composition and musical language. This is the only time that Beethoven deviates from the four-part composition in his symphonic works.

The Sixth Symphony can be seen as a five-movement cycle; if we take into account that the last three parts go without interruption and in a sense continue one another, then only three parts are formed.

This “free” interpretation of the cycle, as well as the type of programming and the characteristic nature of the titles, anticipate future works by Berlioz, Liszt and other romantic composers. The figurative structure itself, including new, more subtle psychological reactions caused by communication with nature, makes the Pastoral Symphony a harbinger romantic direction in music.

IN first part Beethoven himself emphasizes in the title of the symphony that this is not a description rural landscape, A feelings, called by him. This movement is devoid of illustrativeness and onomatopoeia, which are found in other parts of the symphony.

Using a folk song as the main theme, Beethoven enhances its characteristicity with the originality of harmonization: the theme sounds against the background of a sustained fifth in the bass (a typical interval of folk instruments):

The violins freely and easily “bring out” the spreading pattern of the melody of the side part; “It’s important” is echoed by the bass. The contrapuntal development seems to fill the theme with ever new juices:

Serene peace and transparency of the air are felt in the theme of the final part with its naively ingenuous instrumental strumming (a new version of the primary chant) and the roll call against the backdrop of the fading rustling of the bass, based on the tonic organ sound of C-dur (the tonality of the secondary and final parts):

The development, especially its first section, is interesting due to the novelty of development techniques. Taken as an object for development, the characteristic chant of the main part is repeated many times without any changes, but it is colored by the play of registers, instrumental timbres, and the movement of keys through thirds: B-dur - D-dur, G-dur - E-dur.

Techniques of this kind of colorful comparisons of tones, which would become widespread among the romantics, are aimed at evoking a certain mood, a feeling of a given landscape, scenery, picture of nature.

But in second part, in "Scene by the Stream", as well as in fourth- “The Thunderstorm” - an abundance of figurative and onomatopoeic techniques. In the second part, short trills, grace notes, small and longer melodic turns are woven into the fabric of the accompaniment, conveying the calm flow of the stream. The soft colors of the entire sound palette paint an idyllic picture of nature, its tremulous calls, the slightest fluttering, the whisper of leaves, etc. Beethoven completes the entire “scene” with a witty depiction of the colorful hubbub of birds:

The next three parts, connected into one series, are scenes of peasant life.

Third part symphonies - “A Merry Gathering of Peasants” - a juicy and lively genre sketch. There is a lot of humor and sincere fun in it. Great charm is given to it by subtly noticed and sharply reproduced details, such as a bassoonist from a simple village orchestra entering out of place or a deliberate imitation of a heavy peasant dance:

A simple village celebration is suddenly interrupted by a thunderstorm. The musical image of a thunderstorm - a raging element - is often found in a variety of musical genres XVIII and XIX centuries. Beethoven's interpretation of this phenomenon is closest to Haydn's: a thunderstorm is not a disaster, not devastation, but grace, it fills the earth and air with moisture and is necessary for the growth of all living things.

Nevertheless, the image of a thunderstorm in the Sixth Symphony is an exception among works of this kind. It amazes with its true spontaneity, the limitless power of reproducing the phenomenon itself. Although Beethoven uses characteristic onomatopoeic techniques, the main thing here is dramatic power.

Last part- “Shepherd’s Song” is a logical conclusion to the symphony that follows from the whole concept. In it, Beethoven glorifies the life-giving beauty of nature. The most significant thing that the ear notes in the last part of the symphony is its songfulness, the national character of the music itself. The slowly flowing pastoral melody that dominates throughout is saturated with the finest poetry, which spiritualizes the entire sound of this unusual finale: