Notes for: July 31, 2007
Probably no other work of Beethoven was as great a source of irritation to the composer as the Septet, Opus 20. The problem was audience response – not too little but too much. The septet achieved so much popularity during Beethoven’s lifetime that it overshadowed works that, in his judgment, were of greater merit or importance.
The first public performance of the septet took place at the Imperial National Court Theater in Vienna in April, 1800, at the first of several concerts sponsored by Beethoven mainly to show off his own music. Concerts were long in those days, the program in this instance also including the first performance of the First Symphony, a Beethoven piano concerto, a Mozart symphony, excerpts from Haydn’s The Creation, and improvisations by Beethoven at the piano. According to a newspaper review, the orchestral playing in the symphony was slipshod, but the septet, calling for only seven musicians, was neater and immediately won the audience. Within a year, the septet was being performed throughout Europe.
At first, Beethoven recognized the septet’s commercial value and encouraged his publisher to issue it not only in its original instrumentation – clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass – but in other arrangements as well. Thus, he suggested that the winds be replaced by a second violin, second viola and second cello. He also suggested that it be arranged as a work for flute “perhaps as a quintet.” “This,” he explained, “would help the amateur flautists, who have already approached me on the subject, and they would swarm around and feed on it like hungry insects.” (Emphasis in the original).
Later he himself transcribed the septet as a trio for piano, violin and clarinet for his physician, Dr. Johann Schmidt – the doctor played the violin and his daughter, the piano. Beethoven published the work in this form as Opus 38.
Soon, however, Beethoven grew tired of the work and became fed up with its repeated performance. His friend, Carl Czerny, recorded: “He could not endure his septet and grew angry because of the universal applause that it received.” Several years later, an English visitor told Beethoven how much his septet was admired in London. “That damned thing!” the composer responded with some vehemence. “I wish it were burned!”
The reason for the septet’s popularity – and for Beethoven’s impatience – was that it was in one respect an old-fashioned piece of music. In effect, the septet was a throwback to the “divertimento” style of the middle 18th century, the style prevailing before Haydn’s development of the symphony and string quartet. Instead of four movements designed for serious playing and listening, the septet was a six-movement work of lighter musical weight. It thus made fewer demands on audiences, and was welcomed by them mainly as musical entertainment – like a serenade.
But, notwithstanding Beethoven’s low opinion of the music, the septet was in another respect one of the more forward-looking works of Beethoven’s early years. In it, Beethoven broke important new ground in the use of wind instruments in chamber music. Previous composers had combined one featured wind instrument with a string group – Mozart, for example, in his Clarinet Quintet. The septet, however, was the first successful effort to combine three featured winds with strings, each instrument with its own independent musical line. While Beethoven himself was to go no further in that direction, the septet paved the way for chamber music by other composers for or with wind instruments.
In the septet, Beethoven combines the winds and strings in two ways. In some sections, he divides the ensemble into two groups, each with a leader. Thus, the strings are led by the violin and the winds by the clarinet. As a result, the septet often sounds like a chamber concerto for two instruments. In other sections, Beethoven allows each of the instruments, with one exception, to express its characteristic tone quality through solo passages. The exception is the double bass, which is used throughout to provide a harmonic foundation.
The first movement opens with a slow, dignified introduction in which the wind and string groups offset one another. This is followed by the main section in sonata form with the main theme presented first by the violin and then by the clarinet. The second theme is played first by the strings and then by the winds, with each wind adding tonal seasoning. The horn comes into its own in the development and the coda.
The second movement, andante cantabile, is in an undulating 9/8 rhythm. The main theme is stated by the clarinet and then the bassoon. The cello and horn have short solos in the development.
Beethoven borrowed the theme for the third movement, a minuet, from a piano sonata, Opus 49, No. 2, which despite its opus number was written in 1796, but the treatment here is completely different. The trio features a tricky passage in triplets for the horn.
The fourth movement is a theme with five variations and a coda. According to Beethoven’s friend Czerny, the theme was based on a Rhenish folksong, “Ach Schiffer, lieber Schiffer”. Strings dominate the theme and the first two sections. The winds become prominent in the remaining variations and coda. This is followed by a scherzo, propelled by a downward phrase for the horn. The trio features a long cello solo.
The most serious music in the septet is the introduction to the finale, in slow march time and a funereal minor. The main section, presto reverts to the major but with occasional minor shadows. The violin presents the main theme, with an unusual tonal coloring resulting from the composer’s instruction that it be played entirely on the instrument’s lowest string. The movement is again in sonata form, but with a cadenza for the violin to usher in the restatement of the main theme.
Notes for: July 15, 2014
No other work of Beethoven was as great a source of irritation to the composer as the Septet, Opus 20. The problem was audience response – not too little but too much. The septet achieved so much popularity during Beethoven’s lifetime that it overshadowed works that, in his judgment, were of greater merit or importance.
The first public performance of the septet took place at the Imperial National Court Theater in Vienna in April 1800, at the first of several concerts sponsored by Beethoven mainly to show off his own music. Concerts were long in those days. This program also included the first performance of the First Symphony, a Beethoven piano concerto, a Mozart symphony, excerpts from Haydn’s The Creation, and improvisations by Beethoven at the piano.
According to a newspaper review, the orchestral playing in the symphony was slipshod, but the septet, calling for only seven musicians, was neater and immediately won the audience. Within a year, the septet was being performed throughout Europe.
At first, Beethoven recognized the septet’s commercial value and encouraged his publisher to issue it not only in its original instrumentation – clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass – but in other arrangements as well. Thus, he suggested that the winds be replaced by a second violin, second viola and second cello. He also suggested that it be arranged as a work for flute “perhaps as a quintet.” “This,” he explained, “would help the amateur flautists, who have already approached me on the subject, and they would swarm around and feed on it like hungry insects.”
Later he himself transcribed the septet as a trio for piano, violin and clarinet for his physician, Dr. Johann Schmidt. The doctor played the violin and his daughter, the piano. Beethoven published the work in this form as Opus 38.
Soon, however, Beethoven grew tired of the work and became fed up with its repeated performance. His friend, Carl Czerny, recorded: “He could not endure his septet and grew angry because of the universal applause that it received.” Several years later, an English visitor told Beethoven how much his septet was admired in London. “That damned thing!” the composer responded with some vehemence. “I wish it were burned!”
The reason for the septet’s popularity – and for Beethoven’s impatience – was that it was in one respect an old-fashioned piece of music. In effect, the septet was a throwback to the “divertimento” style of the middle 18th century, the style prevailing before Haydn’s development of the symphony and string quartet. Instead of four movements designed for serious playing and listening, the septet was a six-movement work of lighter musical weight. It thus made fewer demands on audiences, and was welcomed mainly as musical entertainment – like a serenade.
But, notwithstanding Beethoven’s low opinion of the music, the septet was one of the more forward-looking works of Beethoven’s early years. In it, Beethoven broke important new ground in the use of wind instruments in chamber music. Previous composers had combined one wind instrument with a string group – Mozart, for example, in his Clarinet Quintet. The septet, however, was the first successful effort to combine three winds with strings, each instrument with its own musical line. While Beethoven himself was to go no further in that direction, the septet paved the way for chamber music with wind instruments by other composers.
In the septet, Beethoven combines the winds and strings in two ways. In some sections, he divides the ensemble into two groups, each with a leader. Thus, the strings are led by the violin and the winds by the clarinet. As a result, the septet often sounds like a chamber concerto for two instruments. In other sections, Beethoven allows each of the instruments, with one exception, to express its characteristic tone quality through solo passages. The exception is the double bass, which is used throughout to provide a harmonic foundation.
The first movement opens with a slow, dignified introduction in which the wind and string groups offset one another. This is followed by the main section in sonata form with the main theme presented first by the violin and then by the clarinet. The second theme is played first by the strings and then by the winds, with each wind adding tonal seasoning. The horn comes into its own in the development and the coda.
The second movement, andante cantabile, is in an undulating 9/8 rhythm. The main theme is stated by the clarinet and then the bassoon. The cello and horn have short solos in the development.
Beethoven borrowed the theme for the third movement, a minuet, from a piano sonata, Opus 49, No. 2, which, despite its opus number, was written in 1796, but the treatment here is completely different. The trio features a tricky passage in triplets for the horn.
The fourth movement is a theme with five variations and a coda. According to Beethoven’s friend Czerny, the theme was based on a Rhenish folksong, “Ach Schiffer, lieber Schiffer.” Strings dominate the theme and the first two sections. The winds become prominent in the remaining variations and coda.
This is followed by a scherzo, propelled by a downward phrase for the horn. The trio features a long cello solo.
The most serious music in the septet is the introduction to the finale, in slow march time and a funereal minor. The main section, presto, reverts to the major but with occasional minor shadows. The violin presents the main theme, with an unusual tonal coloring resulting from the composer’s instruction that it be played entirely on the instrument’s lowest string. The movement is again in sonata form, but with a cadenza for the violin to usher in the restatement of the main theme.
Notes for: July 12, 2022
Beethoven presented his E-Flat Major Septet to the Viennese public at his first concert for his own benefit in 1800, a colossally long event that also included his first concerto, first symphony, some piano improvisations, a Mozart symphony, and a few arias from Haydn’s “Creation.” The concert was a resounding success, and the Septet was a sensation. It was such an immediate hit that Beethoven, fearing it would be pirated, urged his Leipzig publisher to bring it out quickly. For years it was Beethoven’s most popular composition, overshadowing his more revolutionary works.
There is good reason for the Septet’s popularity. Like the divertimenti and serenades of Mozart and Haydn, it is Classically graceful, with each of its six movements having an easy freshness and geniality. Yet there are also some striking breaks with tradition, beginning with the Septet’s instrumentation. In the traditional divertimento, instruments often are paired. Here, each of the seven winds and strings is assigned its own role, which gives Beethoven greater flexibility and allows for colorful interactions among the winds and strings. In the richly themed first movement – which begins with a stately Adagio that leads into an energetic Allegro con brio – and again in the second-movement Adagio cantabile, the violin and the clarinet take the lead. As the movements unfold, the spotlight continually shifts.
For the Menuetto, Beethoven borrowed a melody from his piano sonata Op. 49 No. 2, adding a bouncy rhythm and a playful trio for the horn and the clarinet. Then comes an engaging set of variations that are another example of Beethoven’s evolving vision. He already had written many ornamental variations, like the set in the Op. 8 Serenade. But in the fourth movement he moves beyond this external approach, instead creating five complex and imaginative variations that exploit the textures and colors of different combinations of instruments. Next, the horn leads a breezy Scherzo that features a soaring cello solo in the lyrical trio. The Septet ends with a rollicking Presto, prefaced, as in the first movement, by a solemn introduction. Unusually for a divertimento, this finale features a virtuosic violin cadenza, probably included because the Septet was to be played at its premiere by Beethoven’s friend Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Vienna’s leading violinist. It’s a brilliant ending for a work whose scoring inspired other composers, including Schubert, who modeled his Octet on Beethoven’s instrumental combination.