Beethoven and his nine symphonies . Four notes of No. 9 are made the motive of a passage ofimitation, which might be intended to show how wellBeethoven could write a fugue— No. sf u * if we did not soon discover that he is in no humour for suchdisplays. Later on in the work he may have leisure to bring 64 THIRD SYMPHONY—BROICA. his counterpoint into play, but here his mood is too impera-tive. His thought is everything to him, the vehicle quaintly promising little bit of counterpoint is crushedby an outburst of rage, which forms the kernel of the wholemovement, and in which th
Beethoven and his nine symphonies . Four notes of No. 9 are made the motive of a passage ofimitation, which might be intended to show how wellBeethoven could write a fugue— No. sf u * if we did not soon discover that he is in no humour for suchdisplays. Later on in the work he may have leisure to bring 64 THIRD SYMPHONY—BROICA. his counterpoint into play, but here his mood is too impera-tive. His thought is everything to him, the vehicle quaintly promising little bit of counterpoint is crushedby an outburst of rage, which forms the kernel of the wholemovement, and in which the most irreconcilable discords of theharmony and the most stubborn disarrangements of therhythm unite to form a picture of obstinacy and fury, atornado which would burst the breast of any but the gigantichero whom Beethoven believes himself to be pourtraying,and who was certainly more himself than Bonaparte.* Thispassage, thirty-two bars long, is absolute Beethoven; thereis nothing like it in the old music, and it must have beenimpossible for critics, who looked to the notes alone andjudged them by the mere rules of sound, without thinking ofthe meaning they conveyed, ever
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectsymphon, bookyear1896
