THE 5TH — MOVEMENT I, A Battle Brewing

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You know Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. You’ve heard it in films, advertisements, parodied in Saturday morning cartoons and disco-ized in Saturday Night Fever. The Fifth Symphony is a given, so much so that it blends into the background. You know this piece, but how well? Of all the symphonies of the bewigged classical "greats," why is this one still stuck in our heads over two centuries later? To answer these questions, we’re giving Beethoven’s famous symphony the same treatment we give to pop songs. And we’re doing so with the help of an orchestra that’s been performing this piece since 1842, the New York Philharmonic. In Movement I, we hear how the famous opening notes of the symphony aren't just melody: they’re the main character in a drama that will unfold over four movements. Featuring: Frank Huang, Violin Anthony McGill, Clarinet Sherry Sylar, Oboe Recording of The New York Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Jaap van Zweden used by permission from Decca Gold. New episodes of our four-part miniseries The 5th drop every Tuesday and Friday starting September 8th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you drive a Chevy electric vehicle, you're getting more than a way to get from point A to point B.
0:06.0	You're saying goodbye to gas stations and how low to open roads.
0:09.0	With the growing network of public charging stations, you'll be able to charge your EV while you shop, work, or do whatever you want to be doing with your time.
0:17.0	Chevy is making EVs for everyone, everywhere. Go to chevrelay.com slash electric to learn more.
0:55.0	We're on a date.
0:56.0	That's me, I'm James.
0:57.0	She must be staring at my stain.
1:01.0	I totally am.
1:04.0	Charlie, what do all of these ads have in common?
1:07.0	They're utterly ridiculous and they've bastardized Beethoven's fifth symphony.
1:16.0	Yes, they all make use of the iconic opening four notes of Beethoven's fifth from Japanese noodles to Newton's.
1:23.0	To Nike sneakers, to Italian cleaning products, to tide detergent, this symphony is still part of popular culture over 200 years later.
1:34.0	Yeah, I feel like it's become the commercial soundtrack of overwhelming frustration.
1:39.0	You gotta buy this thing to solve your problems.
1:42.0	And it's in the public domain, which never hurts.
1:45.0	But it makes me ask a question, why?
1:48.0	Why do we know this four note theme?
1:51.0	Why are we so intimately familiar with the four movement symphony written many centuries ago?
1:57.0	Why can't we get this melody out of our heads?
2:01.0	Over the next four episodes, we're going to try and answer this question with the help of an orchestra that's been playing this piece since 1842, the New York Philharmonic.
2:12.0	Because this year would be Beethoven's 250th birthday.
2:16.0	And for someone so old and so dead, he still manages to stir up controversy in 2020.
	...

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