We now add a few last words on the quality of Beethoven’s
themes in his moments of supreme inspiration. The unshaken
hold which his music has upon the affections of mankind is due
chiefly to two striking characteristics: first, the way in which he
dramatized everything—themes, instruments, evensinglenotes,
i.e., treating them as actual factors in life itself rather than
as artistic abstractions; second, the spirituality and sublimity
in his immortal message. The first quality is exemplified in a
number of passages, notably in the first movement of the Violin
Concerto and in the Finale of the Eighth Symphony. In the
opening measures of the Concerto the use of the single note
D-sharp, and the entryppof the F natural in the following
passage—in each case, entirely disconnected from the normal
rules of musical grammar—are most dramatic,e.g.
[Music]
At the mysterious entrance of the F natural in this passage
it would seem as if some mighty spirit were suddenly looking
over our shoulder. In the Finale of the Eighth Symphony what
can be more startling than the sudden explosive entrance of
the unrelated C-sharp—before the orchestra continues its mad
career—which can be compared only to the uproarious laughter
of Rabelais himself,e.g.
[Music]
There are numerous examples in Beethoven showing his dra-
matic use of such orchestral instruments as the bassoons, horns,
kettle-drums and double basses. Possibly the most striking[170]
is the Slow Movement of the G major Pianoforte Concerto—
that inspired dialogue, as it has been eloquently called, “between
Destiny and the human soul,” in which the touching appeals of
the solo instrument are constantly interrupted by the sinister
mutterings and forebodings of the strings. Observe especially
the closing measures where the basses, alone are heardpp,e.g.
[Music]
[Footnote 170: See, however, the octave leaps of the kettle-
drums in the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony.]
A spiritual quality escapes verbal definition; but just as we can
feel it in certain characters, and just as we recognize the sublime
in nature and in such works of art as a cathedral or a Shakespear-
ian Drama, so we may find it in the following specific examples