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47-536: The Symphony No. 5 in C minor , Op. 67, also known as the Fate Symphony (German: Schicksalssinfonie ), is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1804 and 1808. It is one of the best-known compositions in classical music and one of the most frequently played symphonies, and it is widely considered one of the cornerstones of western music . First performed in Vienna's Theater an der Wien in 1808,

94-416: A coda to close the movement. There is a hint in the middle of the movement that is similar to the coda of the 3rd. A typical performance of this movement lasts approximately 8 to 11 minutes. The third movement is in ternary form , consisting of a scherzo and trio. Beethoven started using a scherzo as a 3rd movement in the 3rd symphony (breaking with the tradition of using a minuet as a 3rd movement). In

141-415: A harmony provided by clarinets, bassoons, and violins, with a triplet arpeggio in the violas and bass. A variation of the first theme reasserts itself. This is followed up by a third theme, thirty-second notes in the violas and cellos with a counterphrase running in the flute, oboe, and bassoon. Following an interlude, the whole orchestra participates in a fortissimo, leading to a series of crescendos and

188-539: A highly romanticized view of the composer. There is another tale concerning the same motif; the version given here is from Antony Hopkins 's description of the symphony. Carl Czerny (Beethoven's pupil, who premiered the "Emperor" Concerto in Vienna) claimed that "the little pattern of notes had come to [Beethoven] from a yellow-hammer 's song, heard as he walked in the Prater -park in Vienna." Hopkins further remarks that "given

235-751: A long previous history, but first came to general prominence in the mid-seventeenth century amongst the French scholar-critics associated with the Court of Versailles , helping to place it at the centre of artistic activity for all of Europe. The term itself, however, was only first devised in the twentieth century by German musicologists Hermann Kretzschmar , Harry Goldschmidt , and Arnold Schering , to describe this aesthetic theory. René Descartes held that there were six basic affects, which can be combined into numerous intermediate forms: Another authority also mentions sadness, anger, and jealousy. These were attributed to

282-633: A motif repeating throughout the work for a very different and dramatic effect, he says. Evaluations of these interpretations tend to be skeptical. "The popular legend that Beethoven intended this grand exordium of the symphony to suggest 'Fate Knocking at the gate' is apocryphal; Beethoven's pupil, Ferdinand Ries , was really author of this would-be poetic exegesis, which Beethoven received very sarcastically when Ries imparted it to him." Elizabeth Schwarm Glesner remarks that "Beethoven had been known to say nearly anything to relieve himself of questioning pests"; this might be taken to impugn both tales. The key of

329-420: A regular part of the musical language of the composers of Beethoven's day. C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C , consisting of the pitches C, D , E ♭ , F , G , A ♭ , and B ♭ . Its key signature consists of three flats . Its relative major is E ♭ major and its parallel major is C major . The C natural minor scale is: Changes needed for

376-512: A rhythmic motif unifies the symphony: "This profound discovery was supposed to reveal an unsuspected unity in the work, but it does not seem to have been carried far enough." Applied consistently, he continues, the same approach would lead to the conclusion that many other works by Beethoven are also "unified" with this symphony, as the motif appears in the "Appassionata" piano sonata , the Fourth Piano Concerto ( listen ) , and in

423-411: Is assuredly stirred, deeply and intimately, by a feeling that is none other than that unutterable portentous longing, and until the final chord—indeed, even in the moments that follow it—he will be powerless to step out of that wondrous spirit realm where grief and joy embrace him in the form of sound.... The symphony soon acquired its status as a central item in the orchestral repertoire. It was played in

470-524: Is coincidentally also the Roman numeral character for the number five and the phrase " V for Victory " became a campaign of the Allies of World War II after Winston Churchill starting using it as a catchphrase in 1940. Beethoven's Victory Symphony happened to be his Fifth (or vice versa) although this is coincidental. Some thirty years after this piece was written, the rhythm of the opening phrase – "dit-dit-dit-dah" –

517-411: Is commonly asserted that the opening four-note rhythmic motif (short-short-short-long; see above) is repeated throughout the symphony, unifying it. "It is a rhythmic pattern (dit-dit-dit-dot) that makes its appearance in each of the other three movements and thus contributes to the overall unity of the symphony" (Doug Briscoe); "a single motif that unifies the entire work" (Peter Gutmann); "the key motif of

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564-526: Is in E ♭ major , the relative major , and it is more lyrical, written piano and featuring the four-note motif in the string accompaniment. The codetta is again based on the four-note motif. The development section follows, including the bridge. During the recapitulation, there is a brief solo passage for oboe in quasi-improvisatory style, and the movement ends with a massive coda . A typical performance of this movement lasts approximately 7 to 8 minutes. The second movement, in A ♭ major,

611-459: Is in four movements: The first movement opens with the four-note motif discussed above, one of the most famous motifs in Western music. There is considerable debate among conductors as to the manner of playing the four opening bars. Some conductors take it in strict allegro tempo; others take the liberty of a weighty treatment, playing the motif in a much slower and more stately tempo; yet others take

658-777: The Fourth Piano Concerto , the Fourth Symphony , and the Mass in C . The final preparation of the Fifth Symphony, which took place in 1807–1808, was carried out in parallel with the Sixth Symphony , which premiered at the same concert. Beethoven was in his mid-thirties during this time; his personal life was troubled by increasing deafness. In the world at large, the period was marked by the Napoleonic Wars , political turmoil in Austria, and

705-729: The String Quartet, Op. 74 . Tovey concludes, "the simple truth is that Beethoven could not do without just such purely rhythmic figures at this stage of his art." To Tovey's objection can be added the prominence of the short-short-short-long rhythmic figure in earlier works by Beethoven's older Classical contemporaries such as Haydn and Mozart. To give just two examples, it is found in Haydn's "Miracle" Symphony, No. 96 ( listen ) and in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25, K. 503 ( listen ). Such examples show that "short-short-short-long" rhythms were

752-556: The Voyager probes in 1977. Groundbreaking in terms of both its technical and its emotional impact, the Fifth has had a large influence on composers and music critics, and inspired work by such composers as Brahms , Tchaikovsky (his 4th Symphony in particular), Bruckner , Mahler , and Berlioz . Since the Second World War, it has sometimes been referred to as the "Victory Symphony". "V"

799-405: The subdominant key of C minor's relative key ( E ♭ major ), is a lyrical work in double variation form, which means that two themes are presented and varied in alternation. Following the variations there is a long coda. The movement opens with an announcement of its theme, a melody in unison by violas and cellos, with accompaniment by the double basses. A second theme soon follows, with

846-437: The "unbelievably long" pure C major cadence is needed "to ground the extreme tension of [this] immense work." A typical performance of this movement lasts approximately 8 to 11 minutes. The 19th century musicologist Gustav Nottebohm first pointed out that the third movement's theme has the same sequence of intervals as the opening theme of the final movement of Mozart 's famous Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550. Here are

893-400: The 4th he chose to return to the minuet form. From the 5th on he adopts the scherzo for good. The movement returns to the opening key of C minor and begins with the following theme, played by the cellos and double basses: The opening theme is answered by a contrasting theme played by the winds , and this sequence is repeated. Then the horns loudly announce the main theme of the movement, and

940-561: The Fifth Symphony, C minor , is commonly regarded as a special key for Beethoven , specifically a "stormy, heroic tonality". Beethoven wrote a number of works in C minor whose character is broadly similar to that of the Fifth Symphony. Pianist and writer Charles Rosen says, Beethoven in C minor has come to symbolize his artistic character. In every case, it reveals Beethoven as Hero. C minor does not show Beethoven at his most subtle, but it does give him to us in his most extroverted form, where he seems to be most impatient of any compromise. It

987-455: The choice between a yellow-hammer and Fate-at-the-door, the public has preferred the more dramatic myth, though Czerny's account is too unlikely to have been invented." In his Omnibus television lecture series in 1954, Leonard Bernstein likened the Fate Motif to the four note coda common to symphonies. These notes would terminate the symphony as a musical coda, but for Beethoven they become

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1034-404: The composer as a symphony that begins in C minor is expected to finish in that key. In Beethoven's words: Many assert that every minor piece must end in the minor. Nego! ...Joy follows sorrow, sunshine—rain. The triumphant and exhilarating finale is written in an unusual variant of sonata form: at the end of the development section, the music halts on a dominant cadence , played fortissimo, and

1081-554: The concert—and at one point, following a mistake by one of the performers in the Choral Fantasy, Beethoven had to stop the music and start again. The auditorium was extremely cold and the audience was exhausted by the length of the programme. However, a year and a half later, publication of the score resulted in a rapturous unsigned review (actually by music critic E. T. A. Hoffmann ) in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung . He described

1128-439: The entire symphony"; "the rhythm of the famous opening figure ... recurs at crucial points in later movements" (Richard Bratby). The New Grove encyclopedia cautiously endorses this view, reporting that "[t]he famous opening motif is to be heard in almost every bar of the first movement—and, allowing for modifications, in the other movements." There are several passages in the symphony that have led to this view. For instance, in

1175-449: The famous 'motto' (3 + 1) from the first movement, which gradually takes command of the whole movement." The third movement is also notable for its transition to the fourth movement, widely considered one of the greatest musical transitions of all time. A typical performance of this movement lasts approximately 4 to 8 minutes. The fourth movement begins without pause from the transition. The music resounds in C major, an unusual choice by

1222-412: The famous motif, commanding the listener's attention. Following the first four bars, Beethoven uses imitations and sequences to expand the theme, these pithy imitations tumbling over each other with such rhythmic regularity that they appear to form a single, flowing melody. Shortly after, a very short fortissimo bridge, played by the horns, takes place before a second theme is introduced. This second theme

1269-614: The first eight notes of Mozart's theme: While such resemblances sometimes occur by accident, this is unlikely to be so in the present case. Nottebohm discovered the resemblance when he examined a sketchbook used by Beethoven in composing the Fifth Symphony: here, 29 bars of Mozart's finale appear, copied out by Beethoven. Much has been written about the Fifth Symphony in books, scholarly articles, and program notes for live and recorded performances. This section summarizes some themes that commonly appear in this material. The initial motif of

1316-437: The four-note opening motif in particular, are known worldwide, with the motif appearing frequently in popular culture, from disco versions to rock and roll covers , to uses in film and television. Like Beethoven's Eroica (heroic) and Pastorale (rural) , Symphony No. 5 was given an explicit name besides the numbering, though not by Beethoven himself. The Fifth Symphony had a long development process, as Beethoven worked out

1363-456: The fundamental idea of his work: "Thus Fate knocks at the door!" Schindler's testimony concerning any point of Beethoven's life is disparaged by many experts (Schindler is believed to have forged entries in Beethoven's so-called "conversation books", the books in which the deaf Beethoven got others to write their side of conversations with him). Moreover, it is often commented that Schindler offered

1410-710: The inaugural concerts of the New York Philharmonic on 7 December 1842, and the [US] National Symphony Orchestra on 2 November 1931. It was first recorded by the Odeon Orchestra under Friedrich Kark in 1910. The First Movement (as performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra ) was featured on the Voyager Golden Record , a phonograph record containing a broad sample of the images, common sounds, languages, and music of Earth, sent into outer space aboard

1457-417: The melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The C harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are: The scale degree chords of C minor are: Doctrine of the affections The doctrine of the affections was an elaborate theory based on the idea that the passions could be represented by their outward visible or audible signs. It drew largely on elements with

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1504-459: The motif molto ritardando. The first movement is in the traditional sonata form that Beethoven inherited from his Classical predecessors, such as Haydn and Mozart (in which the main ideas that are introduced in the first few pages undergo elaborate development through many keys , with a dramatic return to the opening section—the recapitulation —about three-quarters of the way through). It starts out with two dramatic fortissimo phrases,

1551-403: The music continues after a pause with a quiet reprise of the "horn theme" of the scherzo movement. The recapitulation is then introduced by a crescendo coming out of the last bars of the interpolated scherzo section, just as the same music was introduced at the opening of the movement. The interruption of the finale with material from the third "dance" movement was pioneered by Haydn , who had done

1598-446: The music proceeds from there. The trio section is in C major and is written in a contrapuntal texture. When the scherzo returns for the final time, it is performed by the strings pizzicato and very quietly. "The scherzo offers contrasts that are somewhat similar to those of the slow movement [ Andante con moto ] in that they derive from extreme difference in character between scherzo and trio ... The Scherzo then contrasts this figure with

1645-479: The music with dramatic imagery: Radiant beams shoot through this region's deep night, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy everything within us except the pain of endless longing—a longing in which every pleasure that rose up in jubilant tones sinks and succumbs, and only through this pain, which, while consuming but not destroying love, hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with full-voiced harmonies of all

1692-565: The musical ideas for the work. The first "sketches" (rough drafts of melodies and other musical ideas) date from 1804 following the completion of the Third Symphony . Beethoven repeatedly interrupted his work on the Fifth to prepare other compositions, including the first version of Fidelio , the Appassionata piano sonata , the three Razumovsky string quartets , the Violin Concerto ,

1739-533: The occupation of Vienna by Napoleon 's troops in 1805. The symphony was written at his lodgings at the Pasqualati House in Vienna. The Fifth Symphony premiered on 22 December 1808 at a mammoth concert at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna consisting entirely of Beethoven premieres, and directed by Beethoven himself on the conductor's podium. The concert lasted for more than four hours. The two symphonies appeared on

1786-481: The op. 70 string trios, published in three installments in December 1813, E.T.A. Hoffmann further praised the "indescribably profound, magnificent symphony in C minor": How this wonderful composition, in a climax that climbs on and on, leads the listener imperiously forward into the spirit world of the infinite!... No doubt the whole rushes like an ingenious rhapsody past many a man, but the soul of each thoughtful listener

1833-405: The other hand, some commentators are unimpressed with these resemblances and consider them to be accidental. Antony Hopkins, discussing the theme in the scherzo, says "no musician with an ounce of feeling could confuse [the two rhythms]", explaining that the scherzo rhythm begins on a strong musical beat whereas the first-movement theme begins on a weak one. Donald Tovey pours scorn on the idea that

1880-417: The passions, we live on and are captivated beholders of the spirits. Apart from the extravagant praise, Hoffmann devoted by far the largest part of his review to a detailed analysis of the symphony, in order to show his readers the devices Beethoven used to arouse particular affects in the listener. In an essay titled "Beethoven's Instrumental Music", compiled from this 1810 review and another one from 1813 on

1927-444: The physiological effects of humors. Lorenzo Giacomini (1552–1598) in his Orationi e discorsi defined an affection as "a spiritual movement or operation of the mind in which it is attracted or repelled by an object it has come to know as a result of an imbalance in the animal spirits and vapours that flow continually throughout the body". Descartes also proposed that the affections were reliant upon humors. Contemporary beliefs were that

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1974-544: The programme in reverse order: the Sixth was played first, and the Fifth appeared in the second half. The programme was as follows: Beethoven dedicated the Fifth Symphony to two of his patrons, Prince Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz and Count Razumovsky . The dedication appeared in the first printed edition of April 1809. There was little critical response to the premiere performance, which took place under adverse conditions. The orchestra did not play well—with only one rehearsal before

2021-490: The same in his Symphony No. 46 in B, from 1772. It is unknown whether Beethoven was familiar with this work or not. The Fifth Symphony finale includes a very long coda, in which the main themes of the movement are played in temporally compressed form. Towards the end the tempo is increased to presto . The symphony ends with 29 bars of C major chords, played fortissimo. In The Classical Style , Charles Rosen suggests that this ending reflects Beethoven's sense of proportions:

2068-417: The symphony has sometimes been credited with symbolic significance as a representation of Fate knocking at the door. This idea comes from Beethoven's secretary and factotum Anton Schindler , who wrote, many years after Beethoven's death: The composer himself provided the key to these depths when one day, in this author's presence, he pointed to the beginning of the first movement and expressed in these words

2115-409: The third movement the horns play the following solo in which the short-short-short-long pattern occurs repeatedly: In the second movement, an accompanying line plays a similar rhythm: In the finale, Doug Briscoe suggests that the motif may be heard in the piccolo part, presumably meaning the following passage: Later, in the coda of the finale, the bass instruments repeatedly play the following: On

2162-558: The work achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterward. E. T. A. Hoffmann described the symphony as "one of the most important works of the time". As is typical of symphonies during the Classical period, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony has four movements . It begins with a distinctive four-note "short-short-short-long" motif , often characterized as " fate knocking at the door", the Schicksals-Motiv ( fate motif ): The symphony, and

2209-533: Was used for the letter "V" in Morse code , though this is also coincidental. During the Second World War, the BBC prefaced its broadcasts to Special Operations Executives (SOE) across the world with those four notes, played on drums. This was at the suggestion of intelligence agent Courtenay Edward Stevens . The symphony is scored for the following orchestra: A typical performance usually lasts around 30–40 minutes. The work

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