Beethoven 9th Symphony closing movement.

This week I wanted to write on the climactic final movement of Beethoven's Symphony no. 9, movement IV. For me, this piece has been somewhat difficult to follow without clear vocal parts throughout. In this movement Beethoven decided to set Schiller's Ode to Joy to music, as a finale to the preceding three movements. However, it is the first part of this finale movement that I am going to focus on.

Initially there is what seems to be a struggle between the different themes, which are separated by the lower strings playing in a "recitative" like manner, with Beethoven hesitating before settling on his final choice of theme for the movement. The movement opens with a dissonant chord, followed by all of the winds suddenly playing together, which is described as a "wake-up call" in the walkthrough. Then, it is the lower strings that interject and play in this aforementioned "recitative" like manner. Once again, we hear the wake up call, followed by a short lower string"recitative" interjection and then interestingly we have a quote from the very beginning of the movement - with the repetition of the nebulous beginning (the part where it sounds as though the orchestra is tuning). In fact, at this point it almost seems as though Beethoven is going to start the whole symphony again.

However, at this point the memory of the first movement is interrupted by the lower strings, as it seems that Beethoven does not want to develop or continue this initial theme. Then, we have another reminiscence, this time the galloping theme from Movement II. Beethoven allows this theme to start, however, it is quickly cut off by the lower strings. Then comes the memory of the theme from the beginning of theme III, which is unsurprisingly interrupted by the lower strings. Only then is it that we have the woodwind instruments introduce a new idea for the theme, and for the first time we hear this "Joy" theme. When the lower strings interrupt this time it is only to reinforce and reaffirm this "Joy" theme.

Therefore, what makes this opening of the final movement so interesting is the searching for a theme. Beethoven throws us back to the opening themes of the first three movements, only to cut them off short with the interjection of the lower string parts until we are finally introduced to the final theme, which is found acceptable and developed into the priciple theme of this final movement.

Beethoven Symphony no. 9 opening movement ...

I was intrigued by the opening of "Allegro Ma Non Troppo, Un Poco Maestoso." The opening theme is played "pianissimo (as quietly as possible) over strings tremolos," which creates the feeling of an orchestra tuning. In fact, apparently many critics have even suggested that this was Beethoven's inspiration.

Nevertheless, the overall mood of this first movement is stormy, which creates a particularly striking effect when contrasted with these pianissimo string parts. It is from this gentle beginning that the first theme commences and then there is a steady increase in tension, creating the aforementioned stormy feeling, and quickly leading to the eruption and powerful clash of  instruments. Throughout the piece, as in the beginning, there is a strong contrast between the soft and loud parts, almost as though they are jostling for attention. There is always a soft beautiful melody or a loud, bold controlling part. I believe that it is this contrast between the two incredibly different parts that makes this piece so interesting.

"Oh Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion"

I think that "Oh Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion" is one of the most interesting pieces in that it has some of the most obvious examples of word painting of all of the movements. The obviousness of the word painting first becomes apparent with the words "up", "high", "mountains" and "arise" because the pitch increases for each of these words. In other words, when these words are sung, the pitch ascends mirroring the meaning of the words, creating this word painting. In one of the analyses that I read it pointed out that the word "mountain" is especially interesting because of the pattern of the instrumentation that follows it, which is made up of an arrangement of 16th notes that are repeated in the instrumental interruptions. In these instances the first three of these notes in the pattern are high, whereas the last three are low, thus creating some form of semblance to the ascending and then descending of a mountain. This may be something of a stretch, but nonetheless it does seem interesting that Handel chooses to use this pattern following the word "mountain."

Week 3 - Messiah

Listening through to Act 1 of Handel's "Messiah," I was particularly struck by the beauty of the chorus, "And  he shall purify," in scene 2. Initially, I was just moved by the sound of the Canto's part. I found the incredibly high vocal range of this part to be very moving and most beautiful (although I am not sure exactly how to explain this).
Then starting to listen to  the piece more carefully, it becomes apparent that there is more than one vocal part, and the vocal parts vary quite significantly. Reading through the listening guide it became apparent that this is what is called a "duet chorus," which is a type of choral music where the music appears in pairs of voices.  The initial pairing is soprano (canto) and bass, which makes for a fairly striking contrast in pitch. Furthermore, I think that the complexity of the long, drawn out "purify" which changes note fairly quickly (these are made up of long lines of sixteenth notes), really makes the texture of this piece very interesting.
Also, as the piece continues it moves away from this ensemble chorus and multiple voices join in at the same time, creating a far more complicated homophonic texture. I ultimately think that this is what makes this piece so interesting; as soon as you think you know what is going to happen next, Handel changes how he has put the different vocal parts together.