Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Overture to the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus Op. 43

The music to the “heroic-allegorical” ballet Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, that, apart from the overture, consists of a separate introduction and sixteen other pieces, was written by in 1800-01, between his First and Second Symphonies. Of the entire ballet, only the overture has retained its place in the repertoire. It has been placed – as chronologically his first – among Beethoven’s concert overtures, although it has nothing in common with the genre.
The form is suited to the modest idea: a simple combination of a sonata-type exposition with a recapitulation, quite frequent in Italian opera overtures of the time. In the case of Beethoven, the absence of a development is very telling. A slow introduction opens in a cadence formula begun – as in Symphony No. 1 – with a seventh chord. It then goes on to a short, hymnic melody of a kind that abounds in Beethoven’s entire oeuvre as late as Die Weihe des Hauses overture (1822).
Allegro is based on a driving, spinning theme in strings, their energy revved up further by syncopated accents in the accompaniment. From then on, syncopes permeate the entire course of music, with no exception for the second theme, light in character, introduced by the flutes. Contrast is achieved through a short episode more serious in form, an oscillating melody of the violins, interrupted by accents tutti, followed in turn by the spinning figure of the main theme and its associated syncopated epilogue. The recapitulation runs in a similar way, although Beethoven used the necessity of choosing a different modulation to bring a part of the main theme into the minor key in a momentary suggestion of a development. The whole is crowned, in an atmosphere of general elation, by an impressive coda ending with a prolonged unison of brass.
This final, prolonged note of the overture, often deleted in performance, links this piece with the remaining scenes of Beethoven’s forgotten Prometheus, usually at all mentioned only because of its containing the famous final theme of Eroica. In reality, it contains much more than this. Its Introduction alone is a prototype of Storm in Pastoral Symphony, while other fragments abound in ideas of melody, rhythm and texture, the development of which can be found throughout Beethoven’s oeuvre all the way to his Eighth Symphony.

Maciej Negrey