Fantastic Metropolis

The second subject is a great contrast. Perhaps the almost light-hearted nature of the long string tune is due to the fact that at this time Pauline von Birnitz was visiting at the hospital. Certainly this section is the most cheerful thing Beethoven wrote and, at the same time, it demonstrates a remarkably developed melodic gift. There is a fairly short development section, at the end of which the brass blazes forth in a triumphant march, and at its climax the organ enters with a repetition of the double bass motif at the opening of the work.

Then there is silence. The woodwind plays a brief, but hauntingly beautiful chorale (Ex. 4), the bridge from one movement to the next (and perhaps, symbolically, the bridge from one world to the next).

Example 4

It is at this point, at the emotional climax of the work, that Beethoven’s music goes beyond the bounds of purely orchestral sound, and he finds it necessary to introduce the human voice. The symphony moves into a new sphere of experience. The vocal entry is surely one of the most transcendental moments of all music. It is unfortunate that there should be a certain disagreement about which soloist should actually sing this part. Beethoven always showed a distressing carelessness in the preparation of his scores, and his absentmindedness has here caused a great deal of confusion. The part of the Soul is marked in the score to be sung by the contralto soloist. But this part rises at times to b’‘, and is clearly beyond normal contralto tessitura, as those performances in which the score has been faithfully followed, painfully testify. Usually a soprano is given this difficult part to sing. However, there is a school of thought which maintains that the part should actually be sung by a bass, b’‘ then becoming d (actual pitch). There is some evidence that makes this claim less preposterous. Beethoven, at the time he wrote this symphony, had help from Pauline von Birnitz in preparing the orchestral staves. One can see how easy it might have been for a double mistake to have occurred—for Fraulein von Birnitz to have written “contralto” instead of “bass” and to have then written in the “correct” treble clef; it is also easy to see how Beethoven, in the white heat of his inspiration, could have missed this error.

Having a bass sing this part, and consequently transposing the intervals by major and minor sixths, certainly changes the character of the music. It removes the grinding dissonance of this solo part, which shocks the mind like a bolt of electricity, and expresses the total alienation of the disembodied soul, and reduces the effect to the banal. On this recording the part is taken by a soprano. It is this writer’s opinion that this is the only version that can be taken seriously.

Beethoven followed faithfully the mood of Totenfreund’s text (taken from Canticles and Dramatic Fragments [now out of print]). Certainly the Sixth Symphony has its faults. Some people maintain that the work’s weaknesses outweigh its moments of inspiration: that is for the listener to decide.

Beethoven was to make one more attempt to end his life. On leaving hospital he swiftly arranged a performance of this symphony, the work he believed to be his masterpiece. At great expense he travelled to Vienna, and spent his remaining money on hiring the Konzerthaus for five evenings. Beethoven was sure now that he would find the public acceptance for which he had craved for so long.

The first performance of the Tragic Symphony dashed his hopes to the ground. Beethoven writes: “The hall was unheated, the chorus under-rehearsed, the orchestra hostile, and my great symphony inaudible.”

From contemporary accounts it appears that the performance occasioned a full-scale riot from which Beethoven was lucky to escape with his life. The performances scheduled for the remain four nights were cancelled.

Standing in the rain outside the empty Konzerthaus the next evening, perhaps hearing in his mind the sounds of the closing bars of his symphony and the rapturous applause for which he longed, Beethoven was met by an old colleague from Mannheim. It was then that he learned of the engagement of Pauline von Birnitz to a young rival composer.