Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his 7th Symphony between 1811-12. The symphony is dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries, who was the patron (financial support) for Beethoven and a number of other composers at the time. It was premiered in 1813 at a benefit concert for the wounded soldiers from the Battle of Hanau. Beethoven himself conducted the symphony, which was an instant success and Beethoven himself considered it to be one of his best pieces of music.
The symphony consists of four movements, from which I will review the most important themes below.
Bang! The symphony begins with a chord, emphasised strongly by the whole orchestra, followed by a quiet melody in the oboe. This structure continues, with strong accents throughout the orchestra and a lightly played melody in the woodwinds.
Quietly this continues. Slowly the strings build up underneath, but it remains calm. Then the whole orchestra joins in, the power increases and we hear the melody from the woodwinds now exposed to the whole orchestra. The markings that used to be chords for the whole orchestra are now only played in the timpani.
The build-up and development of the theme continues, but slowly the orchestra loses power and soon only the flutes are left, using the last of their energy to create a new melody in the oboe.
The oboe melody develops and is soon taken over by the strings, but it remains calm. But Beethoven managed to increase the dynamics and power of the orchestra almost imperceptibly, so when we return to the melody that opened the symphony afterwards, it seems natural, even though the contrast is great.
In what follows, Beethoven works through these themes and ideas, almost bringing the orchestra to a complete stop. The first part of the movement is now over and the next part begins, with the flute almost running the whole orchestra along.
This part consists of three themes. The first one we have just heard is presented on the flute. This is processed by the whole orchestra and then leads into the next theme, which is somewhat similar. It is played here by the strings:
The third and final theme in this section is also played by the strings and has significantly more power and tempo:
After this theme is played through, we hear the entire part again, exactly as it was played the first time. Then comes a development section where the first theme is pulled in many different directions and worked through. After this part comes a piece that summarises the three themes from before, where they are developed slightly and played elsewhere in the orchestra. Here comes the first theme, this time played in the strings:
We hear the second theme again, changed very little:
And finally, the third theme, also changed very little:
The second movement is arguably the best known, it has been used for numerous film soundtracks and was also the most successful in Beethoven's time. The structure is relatively simple, there are only two real themes in this movement. The movement opens with an introduction to the first theme:
This very simple theme begins in the violas and slowly flows up through the string section. When it reaches the 1st violins, the movement really begins:
Because the theme is simple, this movement is all about dynamics, and Beethoven shows how he totally masters the orchestra. He keeps moving the theme up through the instrumental groups, continually increasing the power, but the theme is always clear to us. Soon he introduces the second theme, which is different but also simple:
These two themes form the basis of the second movement. The first theme is continuously varied and the most notable variation is the fourth, which also begins the coda of the movement:
The third movement is by far the fastest in the symphony and also contains the most significant shifts in dynamics and tempo, with the orchestra going straight into the first theme:
This theme is the basic idea of this movement, and we get to hear it twice as the entire presentation is repeated. It is then reworked in the following long piece - and then this whole reworking is repeated in full length. But then something happens, many of the instruments stop playing, the tempo drops by half and the bassoon, clarinet and horn present us with a new theme:
This is standard practice in symphonies at this time: In one of the stazas, only a trio of instruments is used to present one of the themes, and this theme is also developed in the following piece. But the troi is also used to present the main theme, this time at half tempo so you can really get the nuances:
In the rest of the movement, these two themes are the primary material. The movement ends with the theme from the trio:
The fourth and final movement is almost as fast as the third, but the mood is different and there is more material. It consists of four themes:
These four themes make up all the material in this movement and are played in roughly the same order every time - the fourth theme is the only one that is sometimes omitted.