Beethoven Symphony 6Tempo. Beethoven's tempo marking from 1817 (9 years after the first performance) is of minim = 66.
Although almost all performances are slower than this the latitude is not nearly as great
as often with Beethoven's symphonies.
Like the 5th symphony the 6th has a pause before it's had a chance to get started!
But what a different effect there is here! Some small rit is implied by the pause, but just a small
one. The pedal note in the violas and cellos also anounces the many drone like pedals that
occur in this piece.
 2. 1st Movement: Bars 54-6
Wedges in Beethoven's music tend to be played as short, separated notes, often with
a bouncy feel. I would suggest that they often are simply there to show that there is not
a slur, as in the following passage. They certainly need some separation and shortness, but
I can do without the 'bounce'!
 3. 1st Movement: Bars 67-72
What the ear is often drawn to here is the violin arpeggiation. But this is just
figuration around the actual melody which is in the cellos. Some balancing needs doing
here to bring this out.
 4. 1st Movement: Bars 378-381
What do the dynamics mean here? Is the forte marking on the final chord
just to remind the player of the dynamic? Surely not! It is an example of Beethoven
using the forte marking to mean an accented note. It is the same a few bars later, when
the same passage is repeated but with ff as the general dynamic but still with an f on
the final note. The final note is not softer than the ff but louder!
 Here is a place where Beethoven's tempo works so well. Certainly the tempo
of dotted crotchet = 50 can feel fast to the inner string parts, but it makes good
sense of the somewhat fragmented melody. In fact it also makes the long slurs required
in the inner string parts (whole bars of semiquavers) much more manageable.
Additionally it should be noted that
careful balancing needs to be done here in order for the 2 solo muted cellos balance
the viola and 2nd violin sections. Finally, the lower strings need to phrase their
parts, giving lightly more volume at the begining of each slur and the tiniest of
gaps before the following slur - but this must not be at the expense of the overall line
which must keep flowing on (we're listening to a brook flow past after all!).
 The tune in the clarinet here has slurs with dots. The clear 18th century
meaning of this was akin to portato - i.e. longish, slightly separated notes.
 Another example of wedge marks used to clarify where the slurring stops. Only
one group of semiquavers receives the wedges - the point has been made.
 I seem to have got wedges on the brain (or maybe it's Beethoven's fault ...)
but here again there is no need for these notes to be 'bouncy'. Anyhow, the bouncing
of the bow tends to produce extra sound and so make it harder to play pp.
 9. 3rd Movement: Bars 165-9
Certainly every 4 bars in this section need a breath. In the violins quite proably
every two, and in the woodwind really every bar so as to really hear the sforzandi.
An alternative would be to treat it in a more hurdy-gurdy manner, although I don't think
this produces the dance-like feeling which I suspect is demanded by a 'Happy Gathering
of Country Folk' (the movement's title).
 It is amazing to note that this is the only movement where Beethoven
emplys his timpanist - but to what effect! The trombones come in for the
first time as well, to give the very loudest moment in the storm.
In a sense this movement could be seen more as a bridge than a movement in its own right - certainly there is no break before or after it. 10. 4th Movement: Bars 21-2
At the speed Beethoven suggests it is nigh-on impossible for the cellos and
basses to play accurately what is written. This is a wonderful example of writing
for effect, and long before most composers tried anything so radical.
 11. 4th Movement: Bars 154-5
Nothing before the final 2 bars of the movement needs to slow, but a slight pulling
back here just prepares the way for sunshine of the final movement.
 Notice that Beethoven marks this movement at 60, which is not that fast.
Which shows that Beethoven's metronome can't have been going slow all the time!
12. 5th Movement: Bars 14-6
The crescendo at the end of the first statement of the theme needs to be delayed.
It is just the begining of a 9 bar crescendo and should be thought of as
implying pianissimo. And it is also a resolution from the revious bar, implying it should
be fractionally weaker.
 12. 5th Movement: Bars 34-5
Here the tenuto mark counters the phrasing of the slur which would suggest
a dying away on the F. The implication is to repeat the tenuto mark twice.
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