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PROGRAM NOTE Symphony No. 5 in c minor, Op. 67 'Fate' Beethoven started planning this piece in 1803 while he was completing his Third Symphony. It is known that he even started a detailed Sketch of this piece in 1804. From this period until 1808 when the Fifth Symphony was completed, a reputation of Beethoven grew solid and his financial security was settled strongly as well. Several notable masterpieces were born, including the first edition of Fidelio the opera, Piano Concerto No. 4, and Rasumovsky String Quartets, but unfortunately Bee thoven was struggling with his ears that having conversations with others became unnatural to him. In the meantime, possibly because of his love for Josephine von Deym who was his Student and Count Deym's widow, we could catch some romance and elegance in Beethoven's music like the Fourth Symphony written in 1806. However, as the love affair had reached the point wherethey could no longer stay together, the Fifth Symphony began to be rewritten and finished in 1808, and it was premiered on December 22 that year under the baton of the composer himself at Theater an der Wien. This legendary event included the first public performance of the Fourth Piano Concerto (the composer was soloist), several movements from the Mass, the concert aria Ah! Perfido, and the 'Choral' Fantasy. Reports indicate that it was not a good concert. The concert day was terribly cold and the reaction from the audience was not very nice either because of the poor performance. All we could guess is that the innovativeness of the Symphony No. 5 and the performance time of the Sixth Symphony would have been the demanding issues. The Symphony No. 5 is probably more familiär with the nickname as the 'Symphony of Fate', but it is not given from the composer himself. The fact that this Symphony bears this epithet is above all dueto Beethoven's Student and assistant, Anton Schindler. When Schindler asked Beethoven about the opening motif of the Fifth Symphony, the composer is said to have replied: “This is the sound of fate knocking at the door.“ However, not only just fate but Beethoven's feelings of deep anguish, sorrow and conflict that he might have feit in his youth are well described the whole time, and these emotions establish joys of success in overcoming this 'fate' through the piece. It should also be noted that this Symphony is in C Major, which was maybe Beethoven's preferred key when creating a violent and stormy atmosphere in music. In particular, the mood of the Symphony changes drasti- cally as the latter half of the piece goes on. As the gloomy and dark c minor changes to the powerful C Major all of sudden. Maybe Beethoven made it clear with the key changes that his personal situa- tions as well as his critical feelings toward general issues were actively expressed. The most important part in understanding the Fifth is the first four notes, the 'fate motif', which appears several times in different variations through the entire Symphony, consistently weaves the movements with tension, and creates a unity in balance. Beethoven's composition technique, which builds up from short motivations to a huge piece of work, allows us to figure out why he is much respected by later composers as an absolute norm. Beethoven weighs on the victory he had won after agonizing and failing over his Problems. Accordingly, the fate motif of the first movement ap pears repeatedly in the third movement and last movement, and unite the movements together firmly as a whole. In addition, it makes a unique attempt to connect the third movement's Scherzo to the last movement without a break (attacca), and this transition is widely considered one of the greatest musical transitions of all time. Also, we see a lot more variety in Orchestration in the last movement as well. One piccolo, one contrabassoon and three trombones, which is the very first time that the trombone and the piccolo join a symphony, create a bold finale through a wide ränge ofcolor and volume. To sum up, the Fifth Symphony overwhelms the audience overall and expresses the feelings of human such as joy and sorrow more than the pure beauty of music in a through männer. The per- fection of composition and development of music, the organic unity of each movements, series of