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FIGURE LXII.

In this wonderful movement the Beethoven scherzo first reaches its full stature. It may be questioned whether he ever achieved anything finer.

Yet in its own way the scherzo of the Fifth Symphony[51] is equally original and characteristic, and as we have already analyzed two movements of that symphony we will now make a detailed analysis of this movement too.

EXAMPLE FOR ANALYSIS, No. 24.

Beethoven: Scherzo from the Fifth Symphony.

This scherzo is interlinked with the finale, into which it is merged by a famous passage derived from the scherzo itself, and leading up from the softest pianissimo to a grand outburst of the full orchestra. We shall, however, end our analysis where this passage begins. The complete scherzo, therefore, omitting this link-passage, will have three hundred and thirty measures, which should be numbered continuously for easy reference (counting the first partial measure as one, as well as the incomplete measures at the beginning of the trio).

The theme is of a very curious character, certainly nothing like the usual bustling scherzo theme, but on the contrary mysterious, vague, groping. Berlioz says of it: "It is as fascinating as the gaze of a mesmerizer." After seventeen measures of this, a more energetic, rhythmic theme succeeds (20-45) given out by the horns, fortissimo, with rugged chords in accompaniment, in which we recognize a new variant of that motive of three short notes and a long, which was so prominent in the first movement (see Chapter XII). The remainder of the scherzo proper is worked up out of these two contrasting strains, thus: 46-71, from the first, mysterious one; 72-97, from the second, energetic one; 98-133, beginning softly in mystery with the first, and later (116) continuing with it a new, more lively melody (note how the phrase of measures 3 and 4 persists in the bass all through this part); 134-141, concluding cadence, on the second strain.

The trio, measures 142 to 238, is irresistibly ludicrous in the elephantine antics through which the unwieldy double-basses are put. They announce (142-148) a scrambling fugue theme, which is "answered"—in imitation—several times at higher pitches (measures 148, 154, 156) by the other and more agile stringed instruments. A sonorous close is reached at the double bar.

Then comes a most grotesque and amusing passage, in which, three several times, these poor lumbering double basses hurl themselves upon the theme, twice only to give up in despair after the first measure and pause as if for breath. The effect of this brave attack and utter failure to "keep up the pace" is irresistibly comic. But the third time proverbially never fails, and in the measures following 168 they hold to their effort with bull-dog tenacity, and succeed in reaching a safe haven in the G of measure 173. Thereupon the theme enters once more above them, and is once more carried through an exciting fugal chase, the entrances, which the student should trace out carefully, occurring in measures 176, 180, 182, and 184, each time a little higher up. The cadence is reached in 200, and the entire passage from the inept onslaughts of the basses is almost literally repeated (200-227), except that now it becomes quieter and quieter, and finally leads back to the mysterious scherzo theme (239-257).