# Create the Ultimate Beethoven Symphony by Combining Movements



## Bevo (Feb 22, 2015)

If you were able to take movements from different Beethoven Symphonies and combine them into one (regardless of key), which would you do to make the ultimate Symphony? HOWEVER, each movement has to correlate with it's spot in the original Symphony. In other words, you can't have multiple first movements. You have to take only one opening fast movement, one slow movement, one either minuetto and trio or Scherzo, and one Finale. You can't have both Finales of the Third and Seventh in the same symphony. The placement has to correlate. So what's your ultimate Symphony?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Bevo said:


> If you were able to take movements from different Beethoven Symphonies and combine them into one (regardless of key), which would you do to make the ultimate Symphony?


I don't know about "ultimate", it would be more like Symphony No. 10 "The Incoherent"


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I would have to spend a lot of time listening to the various symphonies movements in order to answer this. In the end it will be something like Frankenstein's monster, though maybe not a monster. It would never really be a "symphony" so much as it would be like one of those ubiquitous CDs claiming to contain the best of Beethoven. But I'll give it some thought and post back with my selected hybrid "symphony."


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I'd chose the first movement of the Third, the second movement of the Third, the scherzo of the Third, and the finale of the Third.


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

I: 3rd
II: 6th
III: 7th
IV: 9th


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Stavrogin said:


> I: 3rd
> II: 6th
> III: 7th
> IV: 9th


I like this one. The only change I'd make is to go with the 1st movement of Sym. 5.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Any movement of especially Symphony No. 5 taken out of context is lessened. The same could be said of many others of them too. 

There is already an ultimate Beethoven symphony for me, literally and emotionally:

I: 9th
II: 9th
III: 9th
IV: 9th


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## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

Symphony No. 1 - 1.
Symphony No. 2 - 2.
Symphony No. 3 - 3.
Symphony No. 4 - 4.

Symphony No. 5 - 1.
Symphony No. 6 - 2.
Symphony No. 7 - 3.
Symphony No. 8 - 4.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

I'm with Weston on this one.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

I'll play along. 

I. 6th
II. 6th
III. 9th
IV. 5th

I cheated there to get two masterful slow movements. We're breaking all the rules anyway.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I'm with Aramis, MarkW, and Weston on this one. All of the symphonies are just as they should be and none would be improved by slicing and dicing. Isn't that an essential part of Beethoven's achievement?; creating fully integrated cycles wherein each movement is part of an indecomposable whole?


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

No, the way to make it 'ultimate' is to play each symphony on top of the other to get 9 times the Beethoven goodness in one symphony.

Here's how it sounds when done for Shostakovitch.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

quack said:


> No, the way to make it 'ultimate' is to play each symphony on top of the other to get 9 times the Beethoven goodness in one symphony.
> 
> Here's how it sounds when done for Shostakovitch.


That might even be an improvement, but would not work for Beethoven.


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2015)

Impossible. My brain cannot deal with the fight between the 2nd movements of the 7th and 9th, even if I could settle on the first of the 8th, the 3rd of the 3rd and the 4th of the 9th.

But a good question.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

It's a silly exercise because these things don't go together, but if I were to make a symphony comprised of my favorite of each movement it'd look something like:

I. Eroica
II. 7th
III. 2nd
IV. 9th


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

quack said:


> No, the way to make it 'ultimate' is to play each symphony on top of the other to get 9 times the Beethoven goodness in one symphony.
> 
> Here's how it sounds when done for Shostakovitch.


That reminds me of Zaireeka, an album by The Flaming Lips.
Not exactly the same thing (actually, the opposite) but the spirit is similar.
It comes in 4 CDs and you only get the actual music if you somehow play the 4 CDs together.


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## johankillen (Sep 20, 2015)

Eroica - I
Symphony no. 4 - II
Symphony no. 7 - II
Symphony no. 9 - III
Pastoral - V

No rules!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

It doesn't work, but nothing works except the way Beethoven exactly laid it out, but for kicks:

Movement / Symphony

1 / Third
2 / Ninth
3 / Fifth
4 / Sixth


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I - 3rd
II - 7th
III - 9th 
IV - 1st


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## MJongo (Aug 6, 2011)

To quote the Beatles:
Number 9
Number 9
Number 9
Number 9


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