THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2017-2018 57
Program Notes
rondo theme is presented without introduction. It is carefully
and thoroughly examined before two lyrical motives are
presented. As a study in the way in which small musical
fragments may be woven into an exquisite whole, this
rousing movement is unexcelled.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
SYMPHONY NO. 6 IN F MAJOR, OP. 68,
“PASTORAL”
Duration: ca. 44 minutes
Overview
There is a fine and often fluid line that separates program
and absolute music. Usually composers intend their work
to be heard either with some extra-musical reference or as a
universe unto itself, but Beethoven tried to link both worlds
in his “Pastoral” Symphony. This work, with its birdcalls
and its horncalls, its thunder, wind and rain, its peasant
dances and babbling brooks, is decidedly and lovably
programmatic. Yet the composer insisted that the Symphony
is “more an expression of feeling than painting” — that it is
more pure, abstract emotion than mere imitations of various
familiar country noises. It is, in truth, both.
The extra-musical associations of the “Pastoral” Symphony
run far deeper than its simulations of nightingales
and thunder storms. Actually, there are at least three
simultaneous levels of “meaning” here. The first and most
obvious of these three is the evocation of natural sounds,
but this was only a point of departure for Beethoven into
the second degree of reference in this work, since these
woodland sounds were simply the external manifestations
of what was, for him, a much deeper reality: that God was to
be found in every tree, in every brook; indeed, that God and
Nature are, if not the same, certainly indivisible. The third
plane on which the “Pastoral” Symphony exists is heavily
influenced by the other two. This third level, the purely
musical, reflects the stability, the calm and the sense of the
infinite that Beethoven perceived in Nature. “Oh, the sweet
stillness of the woods!” he wrote. The “Pastoral” Symphony,
the most gentle and child-like work that Beethoven ever
composed, grants us not only a deeper understanding of the
great composer, but also, through his vision, a heightened
awareness of ourselves and the world around us.
What To Listen For
Beethoven gave each of the five movements of his “Pastoral”
Symphony a title describing its general character. The first
movement, filled with verdant sweetness and effusive good
humor, is headed The Awakening of Cheerful Feelings at the
Arrival in the Country. The violins present a simple theme
that pauses briefly after only four measures, as though the
composer were alighting from a coach and taking a deep
breath of the fragrant air before beginning his walk along
a shaded path. The melody grows more vigorous before it
quiets to lead almost imperceptibly to the second theme, a
descending motive played by violins above a rustling string
accompaniment. Again, the spirits swell and then relax before
the main theme returns to occupy most of the development.
To conclude the first movement, the recapitulation returns
the themes of the exposition in more richly orchestrated
settings.
The second movement, Scene at the Brook, exudes an air
of tranquility amid pleasing activity. The form is a sonataallegro
whose opening theme starts with a fragmentary idea
in the first violins sounded above a rich accompaniment. The
second subject begins with a descending motion, like that of
the first movement, but then turns back upward to form an
inverted arch. A full development section utilizing the main
theme follows. The recapitulation recalls the earlier themes
with enriched orchestration and leads to a most remarkable
coda. In the closing pages of this movement, the rustling
accompaniment ceases while all Nature seems to hold its
breath to listen to the songs of three birds — the nightingale,
the dove and the cuckoo. Twice this tiny avian concert is
performed before the movement comes quietly to its close.
Beethoven titled the scherzo Merry Gathering of the Peasants,
and filled the music with a rustic bumptiousness and simple
humor that recall a hearty if somewhat ungainly country
dance. The central trio shifts to duple meter for a stomping
dance before the scherzo returns. The festivity is halted
mid-step by the sound of the distant thunder that portends
a Storm. As the tempest passes over the horizon, the silvery
voice of the flute leads directly into the finale, Shepherd’s
Song: Joyful, Thankful Feelings after the Storm. The clarinet
and then the horn sing the unpretentious melody of the
shepherd, which returns, rondo-fashion, to support the form
of the movement. The mood of well-being and contented
satisfaction continues to the end of this wonderful work.
© 2018 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
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