- Beethoven composed this symphony between 1807–8.
- Beethoven’s 5th Symphony premiered at the 1808 four-hour Viennese concert described here, along with his 6th Symphony, Choral Fantasy, his Piano Concerto No. 4, and more.
- According to legend, Beethoven described the opening (and recurring) motif as “fate knocking at the door,” but there is no reliable proof that he actually said this.
- Despite its probable lack of programmatic significance, the whole symphony is built on that one little rhythmic idea of short-short-short-long.
- That motif can be heard in nearly every bar of the first movement, and it recurs in each of the subsequent movements, sometimes transformed. For example, the rhythm of the 4th movement’s opening starts with the motif in reverse: long-long-long-short.
- When the same thematic material occurs in more than one of a piece’s movements, this is called cyclic form or thematic unification.1 In the 19th century, when scholars were beginning to analyze this idea in works by Beethoven and others, they used the term organicism.2
Sources
- Michael Kennedy and Joyce Bourne Kennedy, “cyclic form,” in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Oxford University Press, 2007), accessed February 10, 2021, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199203833.001.0001/acref-9780199203833-e-2358.
- Douglas Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), accessed February 10, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040026.
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