Beethoven Pastoral Symphony

Beethoven was one of the pivotal composers that helped music evolve from the Classical period into the age of Romanticism. When discussing Beethoven’s success in classical compositions, his symphonies are at the forefront of most if not every conversation. However, even within the topic of his symphonies, some are naturally highlighted more than others. For example, one could reproduce the melody from either the opening movement of the Fifth or the finale of the Ninth and a majority of people would be able to recognize them. While these two works were revolutionary in the progression of symphonic music, they were not the only ones to have played important roles in this sense. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is a pivotal work in the expansion of music with programmatic characteristics. However, this symphony is one that sways between the realms of absolute and program music, for it can be identified with both categories of symphonic music. While it is highly unlikely that Beethoven viewed this composition as a truly programmatic piece, the Sixth Symphony has played an important role in the development of the symphony as a genre and influenced future composers of program music as well. In order to discuss the significance of the Pastoral Symphony, one must first shed light on the difference of program music from that of absolute music. Author R. W. S. Mendl describes absolute music as being “that which gives us pleasure by the sheer delight in sound patterns without having any emotional, pictorial, or literary references” and claims that music with programmatic content “attempt[s] to represent scenes, objects, or events which exist apart from music.” It is hard to gauge the amount of programmatic works prior to the Pastoral Symphony, simply due to the fact that the term “program music” was not used as a defining category of music at the time of their release. An estimated eighth of all symphonic works that were presented before Beethoven’s Sixth