What Was Beethoven Thinking?
Controversy Over His Tempo Markings

My wife, Maria, is principal timpanist of both Arizona Philharmonic and Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. She has been studying the score and various recordings of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, which is featured on our season opener both in Prescott, AZ and Gilbert, AZ. We have enjoyed comparing notes on the various interpretations of the symphony. It is fun to hear different choices in phrasing, voicing, and articulation. But nothing has stood out more than the variety of tempos, i.e., how fast the orchestra plays the music.

Beethoven wrote his fourth symphony in 1806. It is a gem, full of life and humor, with hints of the Romanticism he fully unleashes in his future symphonies. Like every other composer of that time, Beethoven indicated how quickly he wanted the pieces to play by using descriptive words like Adagio (slowly) or Allegro Vivace (fast and lively). As you can imagine, the interpretation of these words is highly subjective, influenced not only by the music, but also by historical traditions, personal preferences, the ambiance of the performance space, and even the amount of caffeine ingested before a performance. (Personal experience.)

In 1815, Johann Maelzel patented the metronome. It had a sliding weight along an upright pendulum with markings of where to place the weight to achieve a specific tempo, as measured in beats per minute (bpm). Beethoven immediately embraced it and added tempo marks to his already published eight symphonies. However, there is debate about these notations. Some musicians believe the markings are too fast and unmusical, while others argue that they reflect Beethoven's intended tempos. Maria and I witnessed this disagreement in the recordings, even between different releases by the same conductor.

If the markings are incorrect, how could Beethoven have made that mistake? Suggestions include copy mistakes, or inauthenticity of the markings, or that the rubato (variation in tempo) practices of the 19th century made determining tempos a futile exercise -- all dubious claims. That Beethoven did document two separate repairs of his metronome for "unsteady behavior" might suggest a malfunction causing the problem, but analysis of the construction of the metronome indicates that it would have been impossible for the device to give a wildly inaccurate tempo.

If you accept that some markings may be incorrect, then perhaps Beethoven was confused about how to read the metronome: do you read the markings indicated above the sliding weight, or below? The strongest evidence for this is in his Ninth Symphony, where Beethoven hand-writes a tempo marking of “108 or 120 Maelzel”. If the Maelzel metronome were set to a tempo of 108 bpm (as correctly read from above the weight), right below the weight would be the (incorrectly read) tempo marking of 120, as indicated in the figure to the right. Curious!

When Maestro Peter Bay sent us the tempo markings for the orchestra to prepare, I asked Peter for his opinion on the metronome marking controversy. Peter writes:

"As to Beethoven's metronome, I would assume he could tell what 60 or 120 was based on a watch or clock. And he knew the inventor of the metronome, so if it seemed broken he could pay a visit to Maelzel to get a new one!"

Peter adds, "I feel that the tempos for about 90% of all the movements for all the symphonies work (some with effort). The other 10% just aren't physically possible (last movement of the Eighth for example)."

Both Maria and I have a strong preference for the Fourth Symphony recordings that lean closer to Beethoven's markings (i.e., more brisk), yet fit well within the performing orchestra's abilities. These performances effortlessly pull you forward, and you can more clearly hear the drama, the dancing, and the contrasting elements. Below, you can listen to a fun one: Bernstein's live 1978 Vienna Philharmonic rendition of the fourth movement.

I will admit that I waited to write this article until after I saw Peter's suggested tempos for Arizona Philharmonic's upcoming performance. Personally, I am pleased with his choices (!). I can't wait to hear... and I invite you to come hear... Beethoven's Fourth Symphony in our upcoming season opener concerts: Saturday, September 9 in Gilbert, AZ and Sunday, September 10 in Prescott, AZ.

- Henry Flurry, Executive Director

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