Beethoven's seventh symphony . eat, it is perhaps,as has already been hinted, that fit is the most roman-tic of the nine, by which is meant that it is full ofswift, unexpected changes and contrasts which ex-cite the imagination in the highest degree, and whirlit suddenly into new and strange regions. Thereare some places in this Vivace where a suddenchange occurs from fortissimo to pia?iissimo, whichhave an effect unknown elsewhere. A sudden hushfrom ff to pft, in the full hurry and swing of a move-ment, is a favorite device of Beethovens, and isalways highly effective ; but here the change fr
Beethoven's seventh symphony . eat, it is perhaps,as has already been hinted, that fit is the most roman-tic of the nine, by which is meant that it is full ofswift, unexpected changes and contrasts which ex-cite the imagination in the highest degree, and whirlit suddenly into new and strange regions. Thereare some places in this Vivace where a suddenchange occurs from fortissimo to pia?iissimo, whichhave an effect unknown elsewhere. A sudden hushfrom ff to pft, in the full hurry and swing of a move-ment, is a favorite device of Beethovens, and isalways highly effective ; but here the change fromloud to soft is accompanied by a simultaneous changein harmony, or by an interruption of the figure, or abold leap from the top to the bottom of the scale,producing the most surprising and irresistible effect,wo of the passages referred to may be instanced: — 15 no. 6. i—^ rrj Strings. — —%&- -J- #r7= =1 t^2 ~W* 3^ fi=£ -0- -0- -0- . -^m-— 0—w ^ iff PP& J * *-£ Jm &c. JE2S_%^~^ **—*— No. 7. j^s,. In the second example, the resolution of the har-mony (the F-sharp and E in the Violins on the F-natural) is an invention of Beethovens, and addsgreatly to the effect of the plunge through two oc-taves, and the sudden hush in the tremolando. Asimilar effect will occur to most hearers, in the ThirdOverture to Leonora (a work which surely deservesthe epithet of romantic as truly as anything inmusic), near the beginning of the Allegro, a suddentransition from C major to F-sharp major, accompa-nied with a change from loud to soft. But, indeed, i6 this Vivace is full of these sudden effects,— especiallyits second portion,—and they give it a distinct char-acter from the opening movements of any of theother Symphonies. What can be more arresting, for instance, than theway in which, at the beginning of the second half ofthe movement, after a loud, rough ascent of all theStrings in unison, fortissimo, enforced by all theWind in the intervals, also fortissimo, and on a st
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbeethov, bookyear1882
