The third movement of the first symphony, though called "Minuetto," is marked "allegro molto e vivace," and with its spirited theme, fascinating harmonies, and striking rhythms, is essentially a scherzo. Perhaps the most interesting single feature of it is the completely Beethovenish means adopted for getting back to the theme and the home key of C-major after the section of contrast.

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FIGURE LIX.

The passage is shown in Figure LIX, and merits careful study. From D-flat major, a key far distant from C, return is made by imperceptible degrees. At the same time there is a crescendo of power, until finally the theme breaks out vigorously in the home-key. It will be noted that the brief phrases played by the left hand in this passage are made from the first two notes of the theme itself. Thus closely does Beethoven stick to his text.

The forcible syncopated rhythms and dissonant harmonies near the end of this movement also deserve notice. They give it a rugged character strangely at variance with its title of "minuet."

In the second symphony the name scherzo is adopted, and the phials of mirth are freely opened. Sudden alternations of loud and soft are especially conspicuous, as will be seen by referring to the theme, quoted in (a) in Figure LX. Each new measure, here, brings something unexpected and deliciously piquant.

Violent shifts of accent on to ordinarily unimportant parts of the measure will be noticed in the twenty-first and twenty-fifth measures, affording relief from what might without them become monotonous.

A little later, after the reappearance of the theme, Beethoven indulges in one of those passages which puzzle us and pique our curiosity (Figure LX (b).) Where is he going? we ask ourselves, what will he do next? But after a few moments' suspense, in which the music seems to be spinning about in an eddy, so to speak, it falls into the current again, and all goes cheerfully to the end.