[Music]
—preserves the customary emphasis on the main tonality of
E-flat major, ending in measures 549-550 with the same disso-
nances which closed the Exposition. Then are declaimed by the
full orchestra those two dramatic outbursts which usher in the
Coda and which may be likened to “Stop! Listen! the best is
yet to come.” The blunt, intentional disjunction of the harmony
adds weight to the assertion,e.g.
[Music]
Here we have a convincing illustration of Beethoven’s individual
conception that the Coda should be a second and final devel-
opment; special points of interest and treatment being held in
store, so that it becomes a truly crowning piece of eloquence.
Observe how the reappearance of the interpolated theme bal-
ances the Coda with the Development proper and how the vari-
ous rhythms of the Exposition are concentrated in the last page.
Finally a series of bold, vibrato leaps in the first violins—based
on the dominant chord—brings this impassioned movement to
a close.
A lack of space prevents the inclusion in the Supplement of the
rest of the Symphony, but the student is urged to make him-
self familiar with the three remaining movements: the Marcia
Funèbre, the Scherzo and the Finale. The Funeral March is
justly ranked with that of Chopin in his B-flat minor Sonata
and that of Wagner in the last act of theGötterdämmerungas
one of the most eloquent in existence, and contains melodies so
touching that they could have come only from the very soul of
Beethoven. Especially noteworthy is the aspiring melody of the
middle, contrasting portion (Maggiore) where the spirit, freed
from earthly dross, seems to mount to the skies in a chariot of
fire. The third part, where the minor mode is resumed, abounds
in dramatic touches; especially that fugal passage, where the ec-
clesiastical tone, combined with pealing trumpets, brings before
us some funeral pageant in a vast, medieval cathedral. The
Coda, beginning in A-flat major, with an impressive mood of
resignation, illustrates at its close a psychological use of pro-
grammistic effect; for the first theme, treated as a real person,
disintegrates before our very eyes—becoming, as it were, a dis-
embodied spirit. Nothing can show more clearly than this pas-
sage the widening of the expressive powers of music which we