Bar 48: A3+B4 and B3+A4 - ODE TO JOY Symphony no. 9, opus 125 Extract from a piano transcription by Franz Liszt

Question

In Bar 48 of the fourth movement - "Ode to Joy", Symphony no. 9, opus 125, in this extract from the piano transcription by Franz Liszt, there are three counterpoint melodies, marked in the blue box.

I am puzzled by the motivation of the arrangement in the middle of the red box?

What logic/reasons explain:

• the chord progression?

• this particular contrary motion in counterpoint (the red box melody somehow has a tension with the remained melodies.)

• More precisely, how A3(red) and B4, then B3(red) and A4, have the whole-tone AB and AB, go back to back. Why does Beethoven mean to do with this arrangement?

Answer 1

The three voices correspond to the orchestral original as follows:

• m. 48 (Liszt) = m. 139 (Beethoven) (IMSLP, CCARH edition, PDF page 9, system 2 [see image below])
• Top voice = Violin 2
• Middle voice = Bassoon 1 & 2
• Bottom voice = Double bass

The voice leading here is melodic rather than harmonic. Beethoven is moving from a first inversion D major chord that ends the previous phrase to a root position D major chord that begins the next. To do this, he uses a scalar pattern in each voice according to where that voice ended and where it's headed.

The strings are in parallel (compound) thirds, which is run-of-the-mill, and the bassoon moves in contrary motion, giving texture to the passage.

This sort of contrapuntal, non-chordal movement, can be found commonly in Bach, for example. Consider his Fugue in C major from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (BWV 846). Here is measure 4.

Bach is heading toward C major (the final notes of the excerpt shown), but getting there is a linear process in which not all of the vertical moment comprise analytically meaningful chords.

Answer 2

If I was interpreting those three 8th notes as chords, I might say the first one is a IVsus2. Regarding the outer voices, the second one might be heard as a I chord without the root or, less likely, a iii chord. The B is like a resolution of the sus2 from the previous chord. Going far out there, someone might call it a Bm7 with no 3rd, but I probably wouldn't say that. The third chord is a vii*6. Overall, the voice leading is what is creating this "progression". Each of the three voices is a common cadential line leading to a Dominant function. The function is basically IV-(I)-V. The notes that seem "wrong" add more dissonance and tension to the cadence, but they're legitimized because they're smooth, familiar melodies which lead to the more familiar vii*6 chord. The counterpoint creates these chords, and that's often how composers have done things.