2014 Term 1, Week 10: Beethoven's 5th Symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven

 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770, in Bonn in Germany.
His exact birthday is not known but he was baptised on December 17th, 1770. 

Beethoven's  mother's name was Maria Magdalena Keverich. His father, Johann, was a musician  and singer who worked at the court of the Elector of Cologne, in Germany.  Beethoven had two brothers who survived to adulthood. His father taught him to play the violin and piano, but he was very cruel and would punish young Ludwig whenever he made mistakes. He wanted his son to be like Mozart and would make him practise  the piano for hours.   Young Beethoven struggled with spelling and mathematics at school  - and throughout his whole life - and said that music came to him much easier than words.  He left school at age ten to study music.  By the time young Beethoven was 12 he was earning money composing and playing the organ.

Beethoven at age 13

Like Mozart, Beethoven was a child prodigy - but he didn't travel until he was 17 and went to Vienna where he had a few music  lessons from Mozart. He returned to Bonn  to help look after his siblings when his mother died and his father became an alcoholic. He played the viola in the orchestra for court and started to compose music. He was a also a very clever pianist.

He moved to Vienna again in 1792 and stayed there for the rest of his life.  He became very popular with the wealthy and important people.

In 1801 he started to lose his hearing, and by 1817 he was completely deaf and could no longer play in concerts, but he continued to compose.  Some of his greatest works were composed after he became deaf.

Beethoven in 1803

He is one of the best known composers of all time, and he wrote music for the piano, orchestras, and other groups of instruments. He wrote symphonies, sonatas, concertos,  chamber and choral music, and an opera. Many people are familiar with much of his music - even if they don't know that he wrote it.

Beethoven's music was very different to music that had been composed and played before. It was so original that other composers and musicians were inspired to change the way that they composed.

Beethoven never married. He proposed many times but was turned down every time  - possibly because he was very bad tempered and scruffy, and because he was of 'low birth' status.

 One of his favourite foods was macaroni and cheese, and he loved strong coffee - with exactly 60 beans to one cup.

Beethoven's funeral procession

Beethoven's Grave in Vienna

 

He died on March 26th, 1827 - in Vienna - and many thousands of people  lined the streets to pay their respects.

This week we are looking at Beethoven's Symphony Number 5 in C Minor - the first movement.
This movement is written in a very common format in classical music called sonata form. Sonata form has roughly four sections.

The first section is called the Exposition. The main themes of the symphony are laid out. Then we move into the Development, where the themes are broken down and played around with (a bit like improvisation). Then we come to the Recapitulation where the main themes return again (slightly different, but mostly the same). Finally, there is a Coda, which is the ending where the whole movement is wrapped up.

 This is a live performance of  Beethoven's Symphony Number 5 - first movement.  This conductor is Gustavo Dudamel.  Watch for all the different ways he uses to get the orchestra to play louder or softer, stronger, smoothly,  or faster or slower.
- Can you hear a person in the audience coughing occasionally?
- Can you see how the orchestra and the conductor could find this distracting?  
- What sounds and patterns can you hear repeated?
- How does Beethoven make the repeated sounds different each time?

Here is a black and white video  of  the conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting Beethoven's fifth symphony - first movement. There is a commentary written along the bottom of the video explaining what is happening.


Look at pages 4 and 5 on this pdf to see a listening map for Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

Here's a bit more of a complicated listening guide with lots more music vocabulary and symbols.
And here's the answers to the questions in the listening guide. 


 Here is violinist David Garrett playing a modern arrangement of this - with dancers in the performance as well. How many instruments are there playing which would not have been around for Beethoven?

Here's another modern arrangement - Beethoven's 5th in salsa.

Here's the music - changed round a bit - with krumping / hip hop.  

Here's a fun version. Timon  is trying to conduct Beethoven's 5th, but Pumba keeps changing it to a different style. Watch how Timon conducts.

Here's another fun version where some musicians are using boomwhackers on plastic drums to beat out the rhythm of Beethoven's 5th.

Here some singers have made up a song about pumpkins  (called gourds here) to promote their churches Great Pumpkin Giveaway.

And this is just someone having a bit of fun making silly sounds into music.

Here's a group called Beethoven's Wig - and they've made up a song about Beethoven's wig. 

Here's Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) conducting an (invisible) orchestra. What makes it funny?

Air guitar time - to Metallica! These are just still photos, but you can see some pretty good moves to follow.

And here's Swedish guitarist and songwriter Yngwei Malmsteen with a classic guitar version - from 1985, so the video quality is not thaaat great.

This is quite a bit longer, but funny- especially if you understand anything about music and sport.  There are two commentators talking over the top of the music as if they were  the commentators at a sports event.

Here's a graphic score of Beethoven's Fifth. Can you see the patterns of the short, short, short, long?

Here's the score  of the beginning of the this music. Can you follow it?

Here's Walt Disney's Fanstasia version of Beetoven's 5th symphony.

This is a fast version - played, apparently, at the speed Beethoven intended it to be. the conductor is Benjamin Zander.

 This movement is written in a very common format in classical music called sonata form. Sonata form has roughly four sections.

The first section is called the Exposition. This is where the main themes of the symphony are laid out. Then we move into the Development, where the themes are broken down and played around with (a bit like improvisation). Then we come to the Recapitulation where the main themes return again (slightly different, but mostly the same). Finally, there is a Coda, which is the ending where the whole movement is wrapped up