Expression: Symphony No. 5

Title: Symphony No. 5

Date: 1804-1808

Nationality: Austria

Creator: Ludwig Van Beethoven

Medium: Print; Symphony Orchestra

Symphony No. 5 represents an expression of learning both unique and remarkable.  Beethoven, both extremely popular and successful, a prodigy of his day, a master of his craft, learned at age thirty that he was going deaf.  What followed was period of deep anguish and melancholy.  Fortunately, with some help and some time, Beethoven was able to break out of his tormented state renewed: “I am resolved to rise superior to every obstacle.  With whom need I be afraid of measuring my strength?  I will take Fate by the throat.  It shall not overcome me.  O how beautiful it is to be alive—would that I could live a thousand times!” (Strong and Davis 457).  Deaf but undefeated, Beethoven went on to create some of his greatest works, including the Fifth Symphony, ushering in the Romantic period of music.  His music changed as began to break the rules that he mastered—he synthesized the art and form of classical music with the lessons born from the emotional upheaval he had undergone.  Music did not express enough and he saw what he might do to change that—not only are Beethoven’s Romantic style symphonies an expression of musical learning, but it is also an expression of his emotional development and eventual triumph.  His music expresses the certainty that emotional learning is just as viable and important as intellectual development—an aspect that must not be ignored in any healthy civilization.

Image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._5_(Beethoven)