Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony №7
One of the main sources of inspiration for how this program came together is this partial quote from Richard Wagner, calling Beethoven’s Symphony №7, “the Apotheosis of the Dance.” Indeed, this quote is a prime example of someone using an entirely different artform — dance — to describe the impression and meaning of a piece of music. To read Wagner’s quote in its entirety is even more powerful.
“All tumult, all yearning and storming of the heart, become here the blissful insolence of joy, which carries us away with bacchanalian power through the roomy space of nature, through all the streams and seas of life, shouting in glad self-consciousness as we sound throughout the universe the daring strains of this human sphere-dance. The Symphony is the Apotheosis of the Dance itself: it is Dance in its highest aspect, the loftiest deed of bodily motion, incorporated into an ideal mold of tone.”
Why was dance the analogy that Wagner chose to use? The answer is: rhythm. The entire symphony, from the first note to the last, focuses on rhythm. He enlivens and energizes these rhythms with simple yet unforgettable harmonies. He provides further excitement by surprising us with his typically extreme dynamics. But what is typically the most important arrow in a composer’s quiver, melody (think Tchaikovsky or Dvorak), is practically non-existent.
The first movement begins with a stately and noble introduction. There is no melody at all, just very powerful chords, bursting with energy, followed by solo instruments quietly outlining those chords, which is called an arpeggio. The next element Beethoven introduces to these chords and arpeggios are simple scales heading upward, first played as softly as possible, then as loudly as possible.
What then follows is something that could certainly be called the beginnings of a melody, but Beethoven doesn’t do anything with it except repeat it four times like a broken record. The scales return, then the simple repeating melody, which quickly disintegrates into, finally, the lively Vivace, or fast section, of the movement.
The rest of the first movement uses similar tactics, with the faster, propulsive dance rhythm keeping us completely engaged…
