Adventures with Beethoven

Scene Four

Beethoven’s First Symphony

Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21

Written between 1795-1800
First performed 1800 in Vienna
Published April 1801 in Leipzig
Instrumentation:  2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 timpani, violins, violas, cellos, and basses
Four movements
Duration 22-29 minutes

Beethoven went to Vienna in 1792 intending to study with Haydn, however they only worked together for about a year. Although the two composers remained friends, Beethoven wasn’t always the most dedicated student and had his own ideas he wanted to explore (for more on this see Adventure 2 “Franz Joseph Haydn”).

Beethoven began to establish himself as a talented pianist and composer. He performed frequently and played many new pieces that he had written to further his reputation. In his first eight years in Vienna, he completed twelve piano sonatas, two piano concertos, and a lot of chamber music, most featuring keyboard. With all the music he had written, there were two noticeable genres missing; Beethoven had yet to write a string quartet or a symphony. There is no clear consensus as to why Beethoven delayed writing in these styles for so long. Perhaps he was waiting until he felt more firmly established in the Vienna musical scene or he might have been a little intimidated by comparisons to Haydn, who was the established master of the forms (by 1795 Haydn had already written 104 symphonies and over 60 string quartets!). 

Although Beethoven began sketching ideas for his first symphony as early as 1795, the work was not fully completed until 1800. The symphony is in a traditional classical style and form and is influenced by Mozart and Haydn. Beethoven’s first symphony featured four movements and each was in a standard form. The instrumentation was also typical for the day. But Beethoven did put his own unique style on his first symphony, with unexpected harmonic shifts and more prominent roles for the woodwinds and percussion. Although to our ears, over 200 years later, the symphony sounds standard, to audiences at the premiere it was a revelation, filled with new and intriguing ideas.

The first movement starts with a slow introduction followed by a quick first theme, which was not a new idea. What made this introduction different was that Beethoven took a long time to get to the home key. Typically, the opening chords of an introduction would have established the tonal center quickly and cemented it in the listeners’ ear. Instead, Beethoven takes a while and moves through several unexpected keys before finally landing on his intended key at the very end of the introduction. Beethoven also chose to use the winds to play the opening chords, with the strings acting as the accompaniment. Normally the strings would have been at the forefront. When the fast theme takes over after the introduction, Beethoven then uses the home chord over and over to emphasize that we have finally ended up in the right key. 

The slow, second movement features the woodwinds throughout. In fact, the woodwinds were used so much that a review at the time stated, “except that the winds were overused, so that it was music for band rather than for the whole orchestra.” The winds play the second theme in the movement in a lovely contrast to the string melody that opens the section. Interestingly, Beethoven also used trumpets and timpani in this lyrical movement, an unexpected choice as well.

The third movement is listed as a minuet, a standard form for symphonies. But Beethoven expected the section to be played at a rapid tempo, making it more like a scherzo, a faster triple-meter composition which is often lighthearted (scherzo is the Italian word for “joke”), which he used in most of his later symphonies. Rather than a stately dance, Beethoven wrote animated and energetic music which leads into the finale.

The final movement again starts with a slow introduction. Here, instead of chords, Beethoven uses bits of a scale, adding a note each time, which he then uses to make up the main theme. When the movement begins in earnest, Beethoven fills the finale with changes in tempo and dynamics to create an exciting conclusion. Following some unexpected long-held chords the symphony ends with a burst of notes and a joyful ending.

Beethoven’s first symphony clearly owes a debt to Mozart and Haydn. But Beethoven put his own stamp on the form in his very first attempt. The work has unexpected moments and lovely music that give hints of the new ideas that will fill Beethoven’s later symphonies. Although this first symphony isn’t revolutionary in the ways that his later works were, this first attempt laid the foundation for Beethoven’s abilities and the new ideas that would be presented in Vienna’s music halls and theaters.

Premiere and Publication

The symphony premiered in April 1800 at the Hoftheater, one of the most important theaters in Vienna. Beethoven rented the theater himself to promote his own music. Accounts generally agree that the rest of the concert included Beethoven’s Septet and a symphony by Mozart. Some sources report that the concert also included sections from a Haydn oratorio and perhaps Beethoven’s Piano Concertos No. 1 or No. 2, but here is no clear consensus. Whatever else was on the program, this concert announced that Beethoven was a mature and talented composer. The Holy Roman Emperor Francis II was said to have been in the audience and said, “There is something revolutionary in that music.”

Beethoven published the symphony in 1801. He dedicated the work to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a diplomat and government official for the Holy Roman Empire who was an enthusiastic patron of the arts. Van Swieten wrote his own music, including three comic operas and ten symphonies, a few of which survive. Over his lifetime, van Swieten contributed financially to Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and Beethoven. None of these composers worked for van Swieten, rather he paid them from time to time and sometimes helped arrange commissions from other wealthy patrons. Van Swieten had an extensive collection of manuscripts by J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel which he shared with Mozart and Beethoven. Van Swieten helped with funeral arrangements and supported Mozart’s family financially after his death. Beethoven met van Swieten soon after settling in Vienna. Van Swieten held regular musical soirées in his home, which Beethoven attended and where he often performed. Van Swieten’s financial support, extensive musical library, and friendship were very important to Beethoven as he settled into life in Vienna.