Beethoven’s constructive genius. In place of the former naïve
Minuet, so characteristic of the formal manners of its time,
he substituted a movement with a characteristic name—the
Scherzo, which opened up entirely new possibilities. No mere
literary distinction between wit and humor[135] can explain the
power of Beethoven’s Scherzos; only through his own experience
of life can the hearer fathom their secrets. The expression of real
humor, akin to that spirit which is found in Cervantes, Swift,
Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln, was a genuine contribution
of Beethoven. Deep thinkers alone are capable of humor which,
to quote a recent writer, is “that faculty of imagination so hu-
mane and sympathetic in its nature that it can perceive at the
same time serious and jocose things. It can feel the pathos of a
scene on life’s stage and yet have an eye for the incongruities of
the actors. It is imagination, the feel of kinship with the univer-
sal human soul.” Beethoven’s Scherzos are as varied as life itself.
Who can forget the boisterous vitality of this movement in the
Eroica, which quite sweeps us off our feet, the haunting mys-
tery of the Scherzo of the Fifth Symphony, or listen unmoved to
the grim seriousness, alternating with touching pathos, in the
Scherzo of the Ninth? Secondly, his conception of the Air and
Variations was so different from anything previously known that
he may fairly be called its creator. With him variations became
poetic transformations, and the notable works in this form of
Brahms, Tchaikowsky, Franck and d’Indy are only freer manifes-
tations of Beethoven’s method. Upon two last features, his use
of titles and his individualizing of the orchestral instruments,
we cannot dwell in detail. Although program music in its literal
sense dates back several centuries, Beethoven—far more than
was customary before—used external suggestions or incidents,
often intimate subjective experiences, as the quickening impulse
to his imagination. We know from his own words that, while
composing, he generally had some mental picture before him.
Very often we are not given the clue to his thoughts, but the ti-
tles, familiar to every one, which he did use, such as theHeroic
andPastoralSymphonies, theCoriolanusandEgmont Over-
tures, those to several of the Sonatas, are full of import and
show clearly that he was engaged in no mere abstract music
making for its own sake. These works are the point of depar-
ture for the significant development of modern music along this
path. With Beethoven the orchestra began to assume its present
importance, and the instruments are no longer treated as mere
ann
(Ann)
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