Beethoven’s 7th symphony is written in A major and composed in 4 movements in 1812. The piece was premiered in the spring of 1812 and was performed for the first time as a charity concert for wounded Austrian soldiers in the War of the Sixth Coalition.

The first movement, Vivace, is noted for the number of ascending and descending scale patterns. In measure six, an ascending A major scale immediately starts and is taken over by the wind section. The pattern is then passed around the entire orchestra, with the upper strings taking over followed by the lower strings. The movement finishes with a long coda, which starts similarly as the development section. The coda contains a famous twenty-bar passage consisting of a two-bar motif repeated ten times to the background a grinding four-octave pedal point of an E.

The second movement, Allegretto, is an extensively popular movement. The fast, fun and brisk melodies set an immediate attraction with the audience. Currently, the movement is often played as an encore piece, separate from the entire four movements as a whole. The movement is also noted for being particularly strings heavy, with a lot of emphases placed on the string sections. The winds in this movement predominantly show their parts by playing and holding long tones while most of the movement comes from the strings. An example of this can be seen in measure 56 as the violins begin an incredibly difficult technical passage that sees them running up and down the fingerboard.

The third movement, Presto, is even faster than the second. The movement begins in F major then follows into a trio section of D major. Like many of his other works, this movement is written in the ternary form, with an introduction, a development, and recapitulation.

The final movement is a fiery end to a fantastic symphony. A majority of the movement is written in loud volumes. The piece ends on loud A major chords, rounding up all thematic materials into one simple weave.

Critics and listeners have often felt stirred or inspired by the Seventh Symphony. For instance, one program-note author writes:

… the final movement zips along at an irrepressible pace that threatens to sweep the entire orchestra off its feet and around the theater, caught up in the sheer joy of performing one of the most perfect symphonies ever written.

As the semester comes to a close and we start running out of Beethoven symphonies to write, I think that it is important to reflect on how Beethoven’s writing style has changed throughout his short life. The 7th symphony is one of the first examples of his writing style changes. His music becomes less square and more free to interpretation and movement. When we investigate his 8th next week, we will see for sure how his music has drastically changed.