[Footnote 149: For a very clear tabular view of the structure of this Sonata see d'Indy's _Cours de Composition Musicale_, Book II, p. 332.]
[Footnote 150: This is not given in the Supplement. See preceding remarks apropos of the Third Symphony. The comments are based, as usual, on the full orchestral score.]
The _Fifth Symphony in C minor_, op. 67, is deservedly popular because it is so human; a translation, in fact, of life itself into the glowing language of music. Beethoven's emotional power was so deep and true that, in expressing himself, he spoke, like every great philosopher, poet or artist, for all mankind. Which one of us in his own experience, has not felt the same protests against relentless Fate that find such uncontrollable utterance in the first movement? Who, again, is untouched by that angelic message, set before us in the second movement, of hope and aspiration, of heroic and even _warlike_[151] resolution, mingled with the resignation which only great souls know? The third movement (Allegro)--in reality a Scherzo of the most fantastic type, though not so marked--might well typify the riddle of the Universe. We indeed "see through a glass darkly," and yet there is no note of despair. Amid the sinister mutterings of the basses there ring out, on the horns and trumpets, clarion calls to action. While we are in this world we must live its life; a living death is unendurable. The Finale, Allegro maestoso, is a majestic declaration of unconquerable faith and optimism--the intense expression of Beethoven's own words, "I will grapple with Fate, it shall never pull me down"--to be compared only with Browning's "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world," and the peroration to Whitman's _Mystic Trumpeter_, "Joy, joy, over all joy!" No adequate attempt could be made to translate the music into words. The Symphony is extremely subjective; indeed, autobiographic. For all historical details as to its composition, the reader is referred to the Grove essay,[152] and for eulogistic rhapsodies nothing can surpass the essay of Berlioz, that prince of critics. We shall content ourselves with a few comments of a structural nature and then trust the student to seek a performance of the work by a good orchestra. Of the first movement (Allegro con brio)[153] the dominant characteristics, especially in comparison with the wealth of material in the _Heroic_, are conciseness and intensity. It starts at once, without prelude, with the motive--one of the tersest in music--from which is developed, polyphonically, the first theme, _e.g._