No. 11

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F, Pastoral

In 1801, Franz Joseph Haydn led the very first performance of his oratorio, “The Seasons”. It was in four parts, and I think you can guess the name of each part. You’re right, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. A trio of soloists named Simon, a baritone; Lucas, a tenor and Jane, a soprano take us through the seasons singing airs, duets and trios supported now and then by a chorus. In Spring, for example, every one joins together to sing a “Song of Joy” that begins, “Spring her lovely charms unfolding…. Summer ends with a thunder storm stretched over three numbers. First the storm approaches, or as the trio sings, “Behold! Slow settling o’er the lurid grove…;” the chorus answers “Hark! The deep tremendous voice…”, and Summer ends with storm as the trio of soloists and the chorus join together to sing, “Now cease the conflict’s fierce winds…” The oratorio became immensely popular. As Haydn was called upon to lead “The Seasons” now and then, Beethoven was often in the audience, and he saw for himself the enthusiasm of the Viennese audiences that flocked to each performance.

Haydn complained about all the decorative touches that the 2 and a half hours of “The Seasons” required. He “illustrated” streamlets babbling, the croaking of frogs, the cock crowing and many other natural sounds. Most of the people in the audiences that gathered to hear “The Seasons” were delighted by these passing imitations. Yet the truth was Haydn despised these pictorial excursions. He understood them to be part of the tradition of oratorio and so if the text mentioned a lowing cattle some “lowing” was expected and so these “illustrations” had to be put up with like the spun sugar rose blooms plopped on to a birthday cake. Haydn thought of music as an intellectual and emotional enterprise on its own. The father of the symphony, “Papa” Haydn didn’t think of music as primarily illustrative or imitative of anything. It was itself an engaging, even enthralling activity for audiences to enjoy or to be moved by. The power of music was best expressed by a separate piece of music with its own unique identity and narrative power. So the old man appreciated the honor and attention “The Season’s” brought him even as he grumbled about its numerous “illustrations” tolerated because they brought delight to the great mass of folk.

By 1802, Beethoven began to work on a symphony that would transport audiences to the countryside as well. But Beethoven didn’t concentrate on one symphony at a time. It was Beethoven’s way to work on two symphonies at once, in this case, the fiery, ever onward Fifth in C minor and the gentler, episodic Sixth in F major. The Fifth Symphony turned out to be just what Haydn thought a symphony should be, an all engrossing intellectual and emotional experience. Still it is a symphony that does not leave much time for reflection as it relentlessly pursues its way to the brigade of C major chords that bring the Symphony to its grand conclusion. Haydn’s emphasis on the intellectual attributes of a symphony led Haydn to sprinkle his symphonies with surprises and even jokes. But Beethoven wasn’t interested in evoking smiles, he trafficked in out sized sensations.

Beethoven is the first composer to tell us how and where he sought inspiration. He is the first of innumerable composers after him who made being in nature an explicit source of personal inspiration. Beethoven liked to walk out of Vienna into the countryside with his sketchbooks stuffed in his pockets. When Beethoven finished his Sixth Symphony, he took an extraordinary step to separate this symphony from other forms of pastoral music. He gave each movement a descriptive subtitle. In order the titles were: 1) Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the countryside; 2) Scene by the brook; 3) Merry gathering of country folk; 4) Thunder, storm; 5) Shepherd's song: cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm. Notice the repetition of the words "feelings" and "cheerful". Beethoven didn't just want to illustrate the sounds or happenings in the countryside; he wanted to make the listener feel them and to experience the sensations of being released from the cares and congestion of "urban" life. Beethoven wanted to make the old trope that the country side ias a place of refreshment and re-creation palpable to the listener. He wanted the symphony to become the same kind of "place," evoke the same kind of emotional experience that the countryside was said to evoke.

It helped that Beethoven was willing to announce that the countryside played a role in helping him compose music. Haydn had been a servant most of his life, had worn another man's livery and worked to please an employer. Only in London did Haydn suddenly encounter a "public" whose demands listening to music were on a whole different order than Haydn's employers' requirements. The public demanded immediate, complete satisfaction. Beethoven was the first composer to actually advertise how he composed, he slyly referenced the cogitating, the brain work that went into conceiving the products of his thought. It allowed the virtuoso pianist Beethoven, who was going deaf, to be identified anew without being attached to any instrument, simply as a man who given the right stimulation would produce out of his head wondrous pieces of music. The double composition of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies rebranded Beethoven as the wild haired, brainy nature struck composer of what his critics called “monstrous” symphonies and concertos.

Top 40 Countdown

A few years ago the listeners to WNED Classical told us what they thought a TOP 40 list of Classical pieces should be. Six hundred and twenty-two different pieces were put forward, and over nine hundred listeners participated. The result, The WNED Classical Top 40, was both startling and comforting. There were a number of surprises, Stravinsky and Copland made the list; Mendelssohn and Schumann did not! It was comforting to know that the two most popular composers were Beethoven and J.S. Bach. The biggest surprise of all was the piece that crowned the list as No. 1.