Completed in April of 1812, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 debuted at one of his most successful concerts. After Napoleon's occupations of Vienna in 1805 and 1809, the Duke of Wellington changed the war's direction with his defeat of Napoleon's younger brother Joseph in June 1813—ultimately leading to the Congress of Vienna. Along with Wellington's Victory (also known as the “Battle Symphony”), the Seventh Symphony premiered on December 8, 1813, at a benefit concert for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau a few months earlier. The symphony was extremely well-received, with an audience well aware of the war's impending and victorious end. Composer and violinist Louis Spohr, who played in the orchestra, reported that Beethoven conducted the work with particular zeal: “As a sforzando occurred, he tore his arms with a great vehemence asunder ... at the entrance of a forte he jumped in the air.” Others have found the work equally inspiring. In one particularly famous description, Richard Wagner wrote of the symphony, “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.”
Wagner’s characterization—the “Apotheosis of the Dance…incorporated into an ideal mold of tone”—hints at one of the Seventh Symphony’s most fascinating contrasts. In some respects, the Seventh Symphony is almost wildly festive: as Maynard Solomon writes in his famous biography of Beethoven, “The apparently diverse free-associational images of these critics—of masses of people, of powerful rhythmic energy discharged in action or in dance, of celebrations, weddings, and revelry—may well be variations on a single image: the carnival or festival, which from time immemorial has temporarily lifted the burden of perpetual subjugation to the prevailing social and natural order by periodically suspending all customary privileges, norms, and imperatives.” At the same time, Beethoven plays with some fundamental concepts—the single pitch, the scale, the chord—in a way that undermines any notion of a complete loss of control.
In the first movement, a lengthy introduction dead-ends at one of the most basic musical elements, a single pitch—then repeated an octave lower—that haltingly segues into the movement’s central theme. The ensuing Allegretto, written in A minor, begins and ends with the same unstable chord. The symphony’s dance-like spirit comes to the fore in the third movement scherzo, marked Presto. The concluding Allegro con brio is full of rhythmic energy, which Beethoven almost seems to turn on and off at will, playing with listeners’ expectations. He distills the melody and harmony to its most straightforward, fundamental state at several points before moving off into more complex musical territory. Motivic repetition and brilliant scale motion take the monumental symphony to its exciting close.
©Jennifer More, 2023