Page:Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Grove).djvu/21

This page has been validated.

17

The G-flat and G-natural with which the members of the passage alternately commence seem to be entirely accidental to the chords which follow them; and perhaps it is this fact that is the secret of the peculiar tender, poignant effect that they produce. The passages repose on the figure quoted in No. 9, here given in the Drum; and it will be observed that here again the phrases are hurried, as the conclusion is approached.

From here to the end of the first division of the movement, Beethoven remains almost entirely in B-flat. He closes this portion of his work with a loud passage of eight bars, in which the whole Orchestra ranges in unison up and down through the intervals of the common chord of the key, in the rhythm of No. 9:—