Music KS3 / GCSE: Barney Harwood on Beethoven's 5th Symphony

MUSIC: Symphony No.5 by Ludwig Van Beethoven

BARNEY:'Sound familiar? Some say these eight notes could be the most famous line of music ever written.'

BARNEY:It's not exactly a shy start, is it?

BARNEY:This is music that lets you know it's arrived. But where is it taking you?

MUSIC: Symphony No.5 by Ludwig Van Beethoven

BARNEY:'Can you hear that repeating pattern of notes? That's called a motif, and it moves all around the orchestra. The notes sound like birds escaping, flying off in all of directions. Shooting high in the air like mountains or swooping low down below your feet.'

BARNEY:But it also sounds to me like it could be two men arguing about who's the best dancer.

BARNEY:The first one goes, # Hey, look at me # The second one goes, # What is it now? # And he starts to dance.

BARNEY:Then he goes, # Well that was good # # but what about this? # Then he starts dancing.

BARNEY:And just when you're looking for somewhere to catch your breath the music starts again, driving forwards. It's like a whirlwind. Just when you think you're through the other side the music taps you on the shoulder and says, "Hey, not so fast. The ride isn't over yet."

BARNEY:For me, this music is full of fire and passion, just like the guy who wrote it, Ludwig Van Beethoven. He was born in 1770, and at the age of 22, he moved to Vienna in Austria, ready to change music forever.

BARNEY:Beethoven was a wild, angry musical storm rushing through the city.

BARNEY:So do you think when the rich people asked him to play piano at their parties he gave them the nice and pretty music they were expecting?

BARNEY:Not a chance. This was Beethoven. He gave them dramatic and exciting music.

BARNEY:Music that matched the way he was feeling while he was playing it. And anything that got in the way, whether it was candlesticks or drinks, even people, were sent flying.

BARNEY:Beethoven didn’t care, he wasn’t there to make them feel nice, he was there to make them feel alive!

MUSIC: Symphony No.5 by Ludwig Van Beethoven

BARNEY:A symphony is a big piece of music written for the whole orchestra, And Beethoven composed nine of them at his piano. But by the time he was composing his fifth symphony, the one we're hearing now, something terrible was happening to him.

BARNEY:Beethoven, a man who loved making music more than anything else in the world, was going deaf. Can you imagine that?

BARNEY:Oh that's better. But Beethoven was brave and he was determined, and every day he would sit at his piano working out his symphonies, even though he couldn’t hear them.

BARNEY:'Think about that. Beethoven had to remember the sound of the flute, he had to hear the sound of every single instrument of the orchestra in his head.'

BARNEY:That's like asking an artist to paint a picture of a landscape without showing it to them first. That's exactly what Beethoven did with music. He was a genius.

BARNEY:How amazing is that?

BARNEY:Beethoven took years to write the fifth symphony. See, he couldn’t quite finish it off, he would go away and write other pieces of music and then come back to it. So it's not just an epic piece of music, it took him an epic amount of time to write it.

BARNEY:I like Beethoven in particular, because his music is his personality. You don’t have to describe the kind of guy he is, just listen what he's created. That's Beethoven.

BARNEY:Beethoven's fifth symphony is full of twists and turns, and all the way through the musical notes, just like birds, are trying to find a place to rest together. And at the end, it's triumphant and happy. Almost like all of the instruments have finally found their way home. But what do you think? How do you feel after Beethoven's musical journey?