III. INDIVIDUALITY OF THE ANDANTE OF THE FIFTH SYMPHONY.
The peculiar charm of this andante lies not so much in its melodies, beautiful as they are, as in the individuality of their treatment. The first version of the theme as it appears in Beethoven's sketch-book is shown in Figure LVI (a), and at (b) is given the first part of the completed theme.
(a)
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(b)
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FIGURE LVI.
It will be observed that the original idea was somewhat mechanical in its rhythm, and lacked that variety imparted to the completed theme by the tied note at the beginning of measure 3 and at the middle of measure 5. Beethoven's original intention must have been quite at variance in other ways with what he finally evolved, for he marks his first sketch, "Andante quasi Minuetto," i. e. "in the style of the minuet," and of this there is left no evidence whatever.
Each variation of this theme is quite distinct from the original, particularly in its mood. While the original theme has a calm and even pensive beauty, full of sentiment, the two variations of it are less serious and, at times, verge on the humorous and playful (as at measure 108), or on the grotesque (as at measure 115). But in the episodes that occur between the variations—in the transitions or links between the different parts—Beethoven's fancy has fullest play. He ranges all the way from comedy to tragedy, from delicate gaiety to lumbering, Brobdingnagian heaviness. Simple raillery seizes him when, at measure 160, he allows the violin to take up the familiar motive and toss it to the basses and take it back again, or when he amuses himself with weaving thirds up and down (134), crossing and recrossing, spinning out the little three-note motive into a fine web, which is finally torn apart as the whole orchestra thunders out the secondary theme (148).
These two passages (portions of which are shown in Figure LVII) in their freedom from restraint and their expression of the composer's idiosyncrasies, are quite beyond what had ever been attempted before. We see working here a mind full of resource and capable of sounding the greatest depths of the subject.
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FIGURE LVII.
And this highly imaginative method of treating the transitions or connecting passages is one of the fundamental differences between the variations of Haydn and Mozart and those of Beethoven "A priori," [47] says Mr. Hadow, "it would be easy to conjecture that the variation form is unsatisfactory. It affords little scope for structural organization, little for episode or adventure, it seems to have no higher aim than that of telling the same story in the largest possible number of different words. Indeed, composers before Beethoven are often in evident straits to maintain its interest." An examination of any set of variations by an inferior composer will reveal just the defects Mr. Hadow refers to. But Beethoven not only tells the story in quite different words, but finds opportunity for all sorts of interesting episodes and adventures, so that the structural weakness of the form is quite lost sight of. With him the connecting passages skillfully avoid too great stress on pure melody—with which the listeners would otherwise be surfeited—and, at the same time, they never degenerate into unmeaning passages of empty chords and scales such as often occurred in the music of Haydn and Mozart.