Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)

When Beethoven began composing the 7th symphony, Napoleon was planning his campaign against Russia. After the 3rd Symphony, and possibly the 5th as well, the 7th Symphony seems to be another of Beethoven's musical confrontations with Napoleon, this time in the context of the European wars of liberation from years of Napoleonic domination.[2]

Beethoven's life at this time was marked by a worsening hearing loss, which made "conversation notebooks" necessary from 1819 on, with the help of which Beethoven communicated in writing.[3]

The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in A (E and D in the inner movements), 2 trumpets in D, timpani, and strings.[10]

There are four movements:

A typical performance lasts approximately 33–45 minutes depending on the choice of tempo, and if the repeats in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th movements are omitted

The work as a whole is known for its use of rhythmic devices suggestive of a dance, such as dotted rhythm and repeated rhythmic figures. It is also tonally subtle, making use of the tensions between the key centres of A, C and F. For instance, the first movement is in A major but has repeated episodes in C major and F major. In addition, the second movement is in A minor with episodes in A major, and the third movement, a scherzo, is in F major.[11]

I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace

The first movement starts with a long, expanded introduction marked Poco sostenuto (metronome mark:  = 69) that is noted for its long ascending scales and a cascading series of applied dominants that facilitates modulations to C major and F major. From the last episode in F major, the movement transitions to Vivace through a series of no fewer than sixty-one repetitions of the note E.

The Vivace (. = 104) is in sonata form, and is dominated by lively dance-like dotted rhythms, sudden dynamic changes, and abrupt modulations. The first theme of the Vivace is shown below.

The development section opens in C major and contains extensive episodes in F major. The movement finishes with a long coda, which starts similarly as the development section. The coda contains a famous twenty-bar passage consisting of a two-bar motif repeated ten times to the background of a grinding four octave deep pedal point of an E.

A typical performance of this movement lasts approximately 10–16 minutes.

II. Allegretto

The second movement in A minor has a tempo marking of allegretto ("a little lively"), making it slow only in comparison to the other three movements. This movement was encored at the premiere and has remained popular since. Its reliance on the string section makes it a good example of Beethoven's advances in orchestral writing for strings, building on the experimental innovations of Haydn.[12]

The movement is structured in ternary form. It begins with the main melody played by the violas and cellos, an ostinato (repeated rhythmic figure, or ground bass, or passacaglia of a quarter note, two eighth notes and two quarter notes).

This melody is then played by the second violins while the violas and cellos play a second melody, described by George Grove as, "like a string of beauties hand-in-hand, each afraid to lose her hold on her neighbours".[13] The first violins then take the first melody while the second violins take the second. This progression culminates with the wind section playing the first melody while the first violin plays the second.

After this, the music changes from A minor to A major as the clarinets take a calmer melody to the background of light triplets played by the violins. This section ends thirty-seven bars later with a quick descent of the strings on an A minor scale, and the first melody is resumed and elaborated upon in a strict fugato.

A typical performance of this movement lasts approximately 7–10 minutes.

IV. Allegro con brio

The last movement is in sonata form. According to music historian Glenn Stanley, Beethoven "exploited the possibility that a string section can realize both angularity and rhythmic contrast if used as an obbligato-like background",[12] particularly in the coda, which contains an example, rare in Beethoven's music, of the dynamic marking fff.

In his book Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies, Sir George Grove wrote, "The force that reigns throughout this movement is literally prodigious, and reminds one of Carlyle's hero Ram Dass, who has 'fire enough in his belly to burn up the entire world.'" Donald Tovey, writing in his Essays in Musical Analysis, commented on this movement's "Bacchic fury" and many other writers have commented on its whirling dance-energy. The main theme is a precise duple time variant of the instrumental ritornello in Beethoven's own arrangement of the Irish folk-song "Save me from the grave and wise", No. 8 of his Twelve Irish Folk Songs, WoO 154.

A typical performance of this movement lasts approximately 6–9 minutes.

Critics and listeners have often felt stirred or inspired by the Seventh Symphony. For instance, one program-note author writes:

... the final movement zips along at an irrepressible pace that threatens to sweep the entire orchestra off its feet and around the theater, caught up in the sheer joy of performing one of the most perfect symphonies ever written.[15]

Composer and music author Antony Hopkins says of the symphony:

The Seventh Symphony perhaps more than any of the others gives us a feeling of true spontaneity; the notes seem to fly off the page as we are borne along on a floodtide of inspired invention. Beethoven himself spoke of it fondly as "one of my best works". Who are we to dispute his judgment?[16]

Another admirer, composer Richard Wagner, referring to the lively rhythms which permeate the work, called it the "apotheosis of the dance".[13]

On the other hand, admiration for the work has not been universal. Friedrich Wieck, who was present during rehearsals, said that the consensus, among musicians and laymen alike, was that Beethoven must have composed the symphony in a drunken state;[17] and the conductor Thomas Beecham commented on the third movement: "What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about."[18]

The oft-repeated claim that Carl Maria von Weber considered the chromatic bass line in the coda of the first movement evidence that Beethoven was "ripe for the madhouse" seems to have been the invention of Beethoven's first biographer, Anton Schindler. His possessive adulation of Beethoven is well-known, and he was criticised by his contemporaries for his obsessive attacks on Weber. According to John Warrack, Weber's biographer, Schindler was characteristically evasive when defending Beethoven, and there is "no shred of concrete evidence" that Weber ever made the remark.[19]

• The 1934 horror film The Black Cat features the second movement prominently.[20]
• The 1944 film This Happy Breed features the second movement playing on the radio just before the announcement of the King's passing.
• The 1974 science fiction film Zardoz (1974), directed by John Boorman. An excerpt from the Second Movement is played in the first few minutes, and later over the closing montage and the end credits.[21]
• The first episode of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) features the first movement to "underscore the vastness and diversity of Earth with its 'resplendent spaciousness'".[20]
• The 1995 drama film Mr. Holland's Opus uses the second movement to underscore the high school music teacher Mr. Holland recounting the tragedy of Beethoven's hearing loss, with Holland's son being deaf and unable to share his father's passion for music.[20]
• The 2006 film The Fall uses the second movement at several points in the film.[22]
• The 2006 live-action adaption of Nodame Cantabile uses the first movement as the opening theme. The 2007 anime adaptation uses it as the ending theme.[23]
• The 2007 comedy-drama film The Darjeeling Limited uses the fourth movement.[20]
• The 2009 science fiction film Knowing uses the second movement during the climactic scene, a mass exodus from apocalyptic Boston.[24]
• In the 2010 historical drama film The King's Speech, the second movement is used during King George's climactic speech at Buckingham Palace after the commencement of the country's involvement in World War II. The slow build up of the movement "accents his struggle and his perseverance".[20][24]
• In Les Écorchés, the seventh episode of the second season of the Westworld television series, it is played as the copied mind of Robert Ford takes control of Bernard whilst waxing poetically about the human urge to destroy beautiful things.
• In the 2016 superhero film X-Men: Apocalypse the second movement is played during the launch of all the world's nuclear weapons.[25][26]
• In the 2023 Gothic horror miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher (miniseries), the second movement is played when the titular family has their last supper together in the first episode. It also plays over the credits of the episode.

External video
Performances of the Seventh Symphony
Video on YouTube, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Iván Fischer conducting
Video on YouTube, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting
Video on YouTube, Bundesjugendorchester, Paavo Järvi conducting

• Media related to Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven) at Wikimedia Commons
• Symphony No. 7: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Full Score of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony
• "Notes on Beethoven's Seventh Symphony" by Christopher H. Gibbs, program note for a Philadelphia Orchestra performance, via NPR, 13 June 2006
• "Aperçu of Apotheosis", Program notes by Ron Drummond, Northwest Sinfonietta, October 2003
• Program notes by Christine Lee Gengaro for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, November 2010
• Peter Gutmann (2013). "Classical Notes: Ludwig Van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92".