104: Beethoven 9 and the German Sixth

  Today, we’ll finish up the 3 widely recognized “nationalities” of sixth chords with the German. Like the French and Italian before it, it too must, by definition, feature an augmented sixth and is built formulaically. The formula once again (recall the Italian only had 3) has four unique notes. You start from the root, then move up a major third, then a minor third (to this point, then triad you’ve build is a major triad rooted at the bass), and finally an augmented second above the third note in the chord. 

Resolution here is fairly simple: all three lower voices move down by a half step, while the soprano moves up by the same amount. This cleanly gets us from the German sixth to the place where it wants to resolve to—the dominant. Notice how similar the German and Italian are. If an Italian is spelled Ab-C-C-F#, then to transform it into a German, you need only to raise the C in the alto voice to a D, giving Ab-C-D-F#. 

I have many, many more pages of thoughts on it than one post could possibly ever allow me to communicate, so let’s start small. (I have, over my lifetime, written at least a quarter of a million words about it, and I’m still actively writing and editing my first book, about the Ninth, after 10 years of work.) The example passage I’ll give is in the recapitulation of the first movement of Beethoven 9. Recall, for context, that the exposition began with pianissimo (or even softer) sextuplets played over a horn drone in such a way that there was no way to tell minor from major, before we finally moved to a new chord, got a third, found out we were in minor, and established D minor that way with nothing short of an explosion of energy. The movement carries on with that weight all through the rest of the exposition and development, until it reaches its peak at the beginning of the recapitulation.

As you approach measure 301 and the beginning of the recapitulation, in 297-300, you hear thirty-two of perhaps the most imposing sixteenth notes in all the symphonic oeuvre. Perhaps, if John Williams had not written the Imperial March for Darth Vader, he would have borrowed these four bars. I won’t get much into articulation or tempo choices or the like—I’ll save that for the book—but I will say this. 301 is nothing at all like 16, when we first hear clear evidence of a key. 


Here are some recordings, just to get you situated, of what the leadup to 301, and the first few bars after it, sound like:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDTn10XeCmU&list=RDLDTn10XeCmU&start_radio=1 from 8:22

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B75mpVipLPg&list=RDB75mpVipLPg&start_radio=1 from 8:39

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKxX2EJozxo&list=RDVKxX2EJozxo&start_radio=1 from 8:54

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAUi8kbt260&list=RDHAUi8kbt260&start_radio=1 from 8:29  

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h7e_UI24BU&list=RD3h7e_UI24BU&start_radio=1 from 7:45 arriving at Rehearsal K

I’ve given you this context of the arrival of the recap because, if you listen until 301, you’ll notice something very strange: the chord that arrives, unlike the exposition is easily identifiable as major, but there’s a twist—the note at the bottom of the chord is not a D, but rather an F#, so in fact, the most powerful chord in the whole symphony to this point is an inverted chord, I6 to be precise.

Keep listening for a few more seconds—I’ll give you the timings again, from the same recordings as in the first list—and you’ll notice an even stranger chord. That chord, which, again, sticks out so much that you can’t miss it, is the German sixth. (If you’re following with the score in the last recording, look for the triple-f fortississimo A-flat; that’s the chord.)


• Jukka-Pekka gets there right around 8:50

• Karajan gets there right around 9:06

• Jarvi at right about 9:20

• Gustavo at right about 8:56

• Katsaris at about 8:08


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