Beethoven's Symphony No. 2

Introduction
With a strong preference for Classical music styles, I chose Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, more specifically the first movement Adagio molto of the symphony, from the Internet sources to listen to. Performed by a skilled orchestra, the symphony impressed me and completely absorbed me into a “conversation” with the composer. In fact, in addition to acoustically enjoying the rhyme and rhythm of the music piece, I could also catch a glimpse of the emotions and motives which the genius composer Beethoven has attempted to communicate through his music masterpiece, which meanwhile offered me great satisfaction emotionally and culturally.

My Experience and Emotional Reaction to Adagio molto
In the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 2, Adagio molto, I felt that the music piece was filled with nobleness and energy, with its D major note and the very first bars that served to set the emotional tone of respect as well as a strong, touching solemnity. As the melody went on associated with modulation of notes and quick successions, I sensed the vitality of life and confidence represented always in unexpected ways in Adagio molto, just as what a person would expect to experience when going through the setbacks, hardship and achievement in life. The rhythms were growing more adventurous accompanied by the more sonorous and varied orchestral composing integrated into the movement. In general, the crescendos in the succession, modulations in notes and medium pitch depicted in Adagio molto altogether triggered my emotions featuring joy, respect, vitality and energy, which also reminded me of my own past experience in life.

In essence, my emotional experience as a listener of Adagio molto in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 derives from the resonance between music and emotions, which has been explained from the perspective of Referential Theory (Bever, 1988) and Attribution Theory. Referential Theory suggests that music forms are by nature endowed with set meanings, and tones and tempos are typically exaggerated in music forms so that listeners are always able to perceive context-specific meanings (James, 1884). To put it simply, a given music piece - in my case Adagio molto - serves to elicit specific emotions of the listener with reference to his/her personal experience in life, just as Christmas carols featuring felicitous tone, moderately high pitch and joyful tempos accompanied by drumbeats and jingles would associate the emotions of joy, happiness and festivity within people. Further, the classical Attribution Theory proposes that people respond to environment arousal and then attribute the reflexive emotions to what is appropriate to the specific arousal (James, 1884). In explaining the mechanism of music in arousing emotions, Schacter and Singer (1962) suggest that one tends to assign or label an emotional interpretation to the incidental information that is related to the arousal of emotion and specific to a local circumstance. For example, since people tend to laugh out loud, bounce and trot when they are in the emotional context such as happy, confident and energetic, fast tempos, strong vibrato and crescendos in music pieces, are thus likely to be labeled in association with these contexts and thereby be elicited from the listener. As a result, with respect to my personal experience in life, when I felt energetic and confident, I would often go for some running and workout in the gym, which corresponds with the quick successions, fast tempos and modulation of notes in Adagio molto; when I managed to endure hardship and pushed myself through seemingly unattainable miseries in life, I sensed stronger respect and solemnity in life, which are assigned to the medium pitch as well as the sonorous orchestral composition presented in the first movement.

The Compositional Context and Emotional Communication in Adagio molto
With respect to the context in which Symphony No.
2 was composed in 1801, Ludwig van Beethoven, the prolific and genius German composer, revealed his deteriorated physical condition, in particular his incremental loss in hearing that constrained his social life and more importantly, his professional situation as an outstanding artist in music (Gibbs, 2006). According to what Beethoven confessed in his unsent letter to his friend, his increasing deafness reclined him from any potential opportunity to engage in social interactions and occasions so as to avoid the embarrassing confrontation with his acquaintances and with his own jealousy towards his enemy music professionals (Berlioz, 2004). Nevertheless, despite of all the miseries and sufferings that the genius composer was going through both physically and emotionally, Beethoven created his music masterpiece Symphony No. 2 that in essence themes on energy of life, vitality, happiness and humor combined with confidence and solemnity, leaving out the melancholy component that is typical to his most works. In fact, it is these exuberant, confident, respect and energetic elements inherently incorporated in the symphony, especially in the first movement Adagio molto, that sustained Beethoven through the hardship and suffering the period of time in
life.

To communicate with listeners about his respect and resilience to difficulties and unfair destiny, as well as the energy, vitality and positive attitudes towards the hardships and sufferings in life, Beethoven employed compositional techniques featuring felicitous rhythm, richer and sonorous instrumentation based on orchestral composing, fast motive associated with crescendos and modulation of notes in the creation of the first movement Adagio molto.
To illustrate, the felicitous rhythms was bolder in contrast to the melancholy tone typically presented in Beethoven’s works, which served to communicate happiness, love and joy in life to listens. Sonorous and varied orchestral composing functioned to arouse the emotion of solemnity and respect towards life with a strong acoustic impact delivered to listeners. The fast motive performed by cellos and violas in unison and progressed in crescendo by strings revealed Beethoven’s intention to express energy and vitality a person should have to endure challenges and hardships in life. Finally, the modulation of notes served to reflect the ups and downs of life and also the emotions associated that the composer has experienced, telling listeners an engaging story in the language of compositional
techniques.

With respect to the context in which Symphony No. 2 was composed, the meanings endowed in the music piece correspond well with the compositional techniques that were employed by Beethoven. Indeed, while suffering from increasing deafness coupled with reclined social life and threatened professional situation in music composing, Beethoven managed to raise himself above melancholy emotions and focus on the fight for vitality, positive energy, love and respect to life. Beethoven communicated and encouraged his listeners with the Symphony No. 2 with his own compelling life story fighting against the unfairness of destiny and constantly seeking for joy, love, energy and vitality in life. With the knowledge in the meanings endowed by the compositional context of this music piece, I could comprehend the composer’s emotions better with empathy, which was like engaging in an emotional conversation about the life experiences of Beethoven in real person.

Conclusion
In summary, I gained great acoustic and emotional satisfaction by appreciating the Classical music piece of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. In fact, in addition to understanding how compositional techniques could be employed to arouse emotions in listeners, I felt as if I was conversing with Beethoven and experiencing his compelling life stories in real person. Indeed, besides serving the aesthetic function for people’s life, music has by nature acted as a language through which emotions are expressed and communicated across cultural and national boundaries.