Beethoven\'s Fifth Symphony in C

¶ … Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in C Minor, the musical voice, theme and variation are defined by the integration of the classical symphony style with Beethoven's style of contrasting musical dissonance and harmony. These elements can be compared to the dissonant yet harmonious style of Virginia Woolf's writing, where she uses colons and dashes to create dissonance which eventually flows into harmony and, consequently, illustrates the desire for balance in the life of female writer. Woolf's writing style can be compared to Beethoven's distinctive four note "short-short-short-long" motif by the insistent use of colons to lengthen the presence of her sentences and set a distinctive dissonance contrasted with the harmony of her words. The insistent use of this common motive separates Woolf from other writers, much like Beethoven's insistent use of dissonance and harmony to demonstrate the balance of themes, variations and voices present in his music. Both evoke the sense of angry energy of a genius, how this dissonance allows for the "freeing of the whole and entire of the work that is in him" which allows for the "incandescent" nature of the creative process.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in C Minor is famous for the use of dissonant chords used in combination with melodious notes throughout the thirty minute piece. While Beethoven relies heavily on the classical structure of symphonies as defined by Haydn and Mozart, he defies this structure by achieving a balance between dissonance and harmony through the variety of voices in instrumentation. A consistent theme present throughout the symphony is the insistent concentration on one motive, which commands the attention of the listener and demonstrates the contrast between the dynamics of loudness and softness throughout the voices of the instruments involved. The musical voices of the symphony are found in the combination of instruments used in each movement and brought out in different themes. The instruments normally used in combination define the dissonant and harmonious aspects of the symphony itself. The instruments present in the symphony are the flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets and strings. These instruments are used in different dynamics of sounds, usually alternating between loudness and softness which suggests the desire of harmonious balance between them.

The presence of the strings instigates the loudness of chords, which is more dissonant to the listener in comparison to the harmonious softness of the horns and violins. The voice of the trumpets and woodwinds in rest of the movements are often dissonant, and which flow classically into harmony as the strings and flutes take over to balance out each movement. The first movement sets a template for the following three movements, where the composer uses variations upon the combination of instruments. One of the most striking characteristics of these movements is the balance between the dissonant and harmonious voices of the instruments. The lyrical work inscribed in the combination of these instruments demonstrates Beethoven's desire for balance in the tenuous unraveling of genius, represented in the seeming life and death struggle between dissonance and harmony. The finale of each movement defines this particular character of the musical voices, which often tumble over together in rhythmic regularity and seem to be a single flowing melody. The dissonant aspects of the chords assert the overarching theme of the movements and provide a space for the harmonious sections to take over each movement for a matter of seconds. The last movement provides an explosive desire to culminate the tension present in the entirety of the work.

The presence of dissonance and harmony in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is also reflected in Virginia Woolf's motif alluding to the fictive creation of "Shakespeare's sister" in the essay, "A Room of One's Own." While Woolf's voice creates a reality that is both dissonant and harmonious to her own life as a writer, the struggle for the female to be taken seriously as a writer in a male-dominated world becomes the main premise of the chapter. Woolf relates her research into women's lives during Shakespeare's times and creates a fictional character called Judith, who is Shakespeare's imaginary sister. Woolf argues that Judith would have been gifted as Shakespeare, but, "thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty." The story of Judith is tragic because she is not given the opportunity to express herself as an artistic genius, on par with her own brother's talent. The desire to express this genius becomes increasingly violent, as Judith ends up being beaten by her father for refusing to marry and runs away to become an actress. Finally, she ends up pregnant by the theatre's manager and killing herself. Woolf's voice throughout the chapter is angry yet contemplative of the state of mind of the artist, which demonstrates Woolf's dissonant and harmonious tone throughout the essay. The act of creation, of writing, she observes, is met with much indifference from the world. As Woolf states, the world "does not ask people to write poems and novels and histories; it does not need them." In fact, the act of creation harmonizes the artistic mind, frees the genius to be expressed, and energizes the fury of artistic expression in the face of dissonantly harsh world. While women were epitomized by men, they were thought not to be capable of being artists, musicians or writers in men's eyes. This hostility towards women which Woolf describes in her essay seems contradictory to the actual representation of women during Shakespeare's times. Yet Woolf attempts to harmonize this idealism of women to her actual dissonant view of women as catalysts for genuine artist creation that could be described as "genius."