jan 1, 1808 - Fifth Symphony

Description:

The Fifth and Fate
1. While the Fifth Symphony is Beethoven’s most famous work today, it was not during his lifetime.
2. The symphony also includes a feature of his music known as organicism: All movements grow out of a single germ/idea.
3. Several unexpected passages, such as the short oboe cadenza, force the listener to
question why the music behaves as it does. This is a new self-conscious subjectivity, and it is
purely instrumental music, making a point without reference to text.
4. The second movement is an unusual variation set with two alternating themes.
5. The last two movements are linked.
6. For the design of a symphony to cover all four movements, the overarching tension
and release, the sheer power of Beethoven’s Fifth demonstrates what Hoffmann called “the spirit world of infinite.”

Key term: Organicism is the belief that art should imitate the forms of nature. It is illustrated well in the second bullet point of this tab.

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