V. THE UNIVERSALITY OF BEETHOVEN'S GENIUS.
A piece of music like this is a human document. It embraces so many phases of human feeling, and it places them all, as it were, in such proper focus that we feel in listening to it as though we had come in contact with elemental human experience. This music is not unapproachably grand; we hear in it echoes of our own strivings, hopes, and despairs. And it is this sense of proportion, this wideness of vision, that makes Beethoven's music so universal. For in the last analysis the effect of any work of art depends on the artist's sense of values; a fine situation in a novel is all the finer for being set against a proper background; a tragedy must have moments of relief; beauty alone, whether in a painting or a piece of music, soon palls upon us; in the greatest works of art this sense of values—this feeling for proportion—is always present to save the situation (whatever it may be) from the deadly sin of being uninteresting.
Beethoven continually gives evidence of his mastery over this important element in composition. The beauty of his melodies never palls. Before that point is reached there is some sudden change of feeling, some unexpected turn of melody or modulation, some brusque expression that shocks us out of our dream. He is particularly fond of the latter device, and frequently lulls us into a fancied quiet only to awaken us abruptly when we least expect it. With him everything has its proportionate value, so that we get a clearly defined impression of the whole work, just as in a fine novel the values are so carefully preserved that we feel the locality of every incident, and come to know the characters as we know our own friends.
One who is thoroughly familiar with the andante of the Fifth Symphony feels this quality as predominant. We are not enraptured by the theme itself, as we are by that of Mozart's andante from the string quartet (referred to in Chapter X), but we feel the charm of incident and by-play, we are just as much interested in the connecting passages as we are in any other part of the piece; and we think of it all as we do of a finely written play, where one incident hangs on another, and nothing happens that does not bear on the plot.
Thus, judging music from the standpoint of universal human feeling, Beethoven reaches the highest point in its development. No other composer, before or since, has equalled him in this particular, and the more we study him the more we find in him. Repeated hearings do not dim the luster of his genius, nor have the great composers who have followed him had as broad a survey of human life as he possessed.
SUGGESTIONS FOR COLLATERAL READING.
Hadow: "Oxford History," Vol. V. Parry: "Studies of Great Composers." Mason: "Beethoven and His Forerunners," Chapters VII, VIII, and IX.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] Number the measures and parts of measures consecutively from beginning to end—making 248 measures in all.
[46] "Oxford History," Vol. III, p. 85.
[47] "Oxford History of Music," Vol. V, p. 272.