Topic 1 - Progress in Instrumental Symphonies After Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Beethoven was one of the dominant composers in instrumental symphonies. In his Ninth

Symphony, Beethoven not only reflected his middle period’s writing style but also inserted new

inspiration and writing techniques: The first three movements are all in traditional forms

including sonata form, scherzo, theme and variations. In the last movement, Beethoven created a

direct connection to Friedrich Schiller’s poem An die Freude by setting a chorus. Both the

inspiration of the poem and the use of voices were innovative. This approach discovered new

possibilities in the genre of instrumental symphonies, leaving later generations less space for

creating their own perspectives. Thus Wagner boldly stated that no further progress was possible

in the instrumental symphony after Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. However, composers from

later generations tried various developments such as building programmatic connections, using

advanced writing techniques, and inserting nationalist elements to make their voices heard in this

musical genre. The various styles and forms they have created thus refute Wagner’s statement.

In the genre of programmatic symphonies, composers such as Berlioz, Liszt, Strauss, and

Mahler made progress by adding stories, creating program-based structures, using various types

of inspirations, and reaching extreme levels in their instrumental symphonies. Berlioz created a

complete story based on his personal experience in his programmatic composition Symphonic

Fantastique. The composer used the idee fixe (a term he borrowed from psychology) by

applying the same motive in every movement to show the image of the main character of his

story. The motive transformed during the piece to fit in each movement’s mood. Although the

reflection of personal experiences could also be found in Beethoven’s Third Symphony “Eroica”,

Beethoven never had a complete story in the symphony he wrote. The use of idee fixe is also a

new writing technique. As another programmatic composer, Liszt invented the new genre of the
symphonic poem. According to the book: A History of the Symphony: The Grand Genre, one

distinctive feature of this genre is that the theoretical structure of the symphonic poems would

reflect the structure of the linked literature work1. In his Les preludes, there is a written

introduction within the music to put the composition and Lamartine’s poem Nouvelles

meditations poetiques together. Furthermore, the structure of this symphonic poem used thematic

transformation to link all four movements as in one sonata form. Although it does not imitate the

structure of Lamartine’s poem, the title of each movement reflects the poem by Joseph Autran

which was the original literature inspiration. Compare to the fourth movement of Beethoven’s

Ninth Symphony which mainly focuses on the content of the poem, Liszt not only linked the

content but also developed new writing techniques to imitate the structure of his program.

Strauss developed the genre of Liszt’s symphonic poem. Compare to Beethoven, Strauss had a

broader choice of his programmatic inspirations. Strauss’s tone poems have connections include

romantic stories, death and transfiguration ideas. Besides that, Strauss wrote anti-heroic tone

poems questioning and even mocking what have been Wagnerian figures. The main focus was on

the dramatic effect different from Beethoven’s approach on the heroic theme of personal

experience. As for Mahler, his progress was mainly displayed in the extreme level of

orchestrations, use of voices, and length of pieces. His Symphony No.2, No.3, and No.5 all have

more than four movements. His Symphony No.8, “Symphony of a Thousand” includes large

choruses and a great number of solo singers. The programmatic connections are also varied

include his own song cycles, Latin hymn, and literary works. This radical style expanded the

contrast in Mahler’s compositions, represented a further step of Beethoven’s writing style.

1
Jeffrey Langford, A History of The Symphony: The Grand Genre, (New York: Routledge, 2020), 132-33
 As for absolute symphonies, Brahms, Schumann, and neoclassical composers in the later

period followed the lineage of Beethoven but also made progress in fields such as unusual key

relationships, Attacca connections, special focus on certain instruments. Although Brahms is

often considered as an absolute music composer who maintains the spirit from Beethoven, his

symphonies took a further step by the unusual key relationships. Brahms did not write any

symphony until his fourteenths, his Symphony No.1 represents a big breakthrough. The

composer treated the work as the traditional four-movement structure without any programmatic

connection. However, there are still innovative romantic aspects underneath the classical surface.

For example, the key relationship between all four movements in Brahms’s Symphony No.1 is

C-E-Ab-C which represents a circle of major thirds, represents a rather romantic compositional

technique. Besides that, despite the strong similarity between the main theme in C major in the

fourth movement and the Ode to Joy in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms used no voice but

made progress by treating the Beethovenian vocal lines in purely instrumental writing. By doing

that, Brahms made progress in both maintaining the pure absolute structure and inserting the

Beethovenian chorale element. Schumann’s Fourth Symphony is another example of a classical

instrumental symphony with innovative writing because of the Attacca connections between

movements. Like what I have mentioned in Liszt’s tone poem, the whole symphony could be

considered as one sonata-form movement. Although the use of Attacca could be found in

Beethoven’s instrumental compositions, he never wrote any instrumental symphonies with

Attacca. This writing style of Schumann redefined the relationships between each movement. As

for neoclassical composers in the twentieth century, Stravinsky made progress by reconsidering

the traditional meaning of instrumental symphonies thus expanding the genre. As the book A

History of the Symphony: the Grand Genre has stated, in his Symphonies of Wind Instrument, it
only has one movement with the use of twenty-four winds2. This writing took a further step and

showed more possibilities in instrumental symphonies.

Nationalist composers developed instrumental symphonies by applying distinctive folk

elements to music. For European nationalist composers such as Smetana, Dvorak, and Sibelius

whose countries were under foreign dominations, their compositions include their responses to

their political environments. Although political changes also reflected in Beethoven’s

compositions include his “Eroica” symphony, there was no clear sign of nationalist elements.

Thus those nationalist composers were making progress in their works by inserting unique folk

elements. In Russia, Tchaikovsky included a Russian folk song in the fourth movement of his

Fourth Symphony. He also quoted a Russian orthodox requiem in the first movement of his Sixth

Symphony. Composers in the Mighty Five focus on more purely national elements in their

instrumental symphonies.

In conclusion, composers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made huge progress

after Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Within their compositions, instrumental symphonies

developed various programs, unusual structures, dramatic harmonies, radical orchestrations, and

distinctive national elements. Their innovations resulted in expansions of the concept, showing

possibilities to audiences and composers in later generations.

Bibliography

Langford, Jeffrey Alan. “Liszt and the Symphonic Avant-Garde.” Essay. In A History of the

Symphony: The Grand Genre, 132–33. New York, NY: Routledge, 2020.

2
Jeffrey Langford, A History of The Symphony: The Grand Genre, (New York: Routledge, 2020), 209-210