We're excited to kickstart our walk throughs of our favourite uses of classical music with Beethoven and The King's Speech.
Here we go!
What is happening in this scene sequence?
King George VI suffered from a stammer that he found debilitating when speaking publicly, feeling humiliated on more than one occasion.
As a result of King Edward VIII’s abdication of the throne, 'Bertie' (King George VI) finds himself having to speak to the entire nation via a new medium – radio – with a very important message: the outbreak of World War II. With this newfangled technology and bearing a weight of responsibility, he was tasked with reaching British families’ front rooms with a sense of command and authority.
The film traces King George VI's journey to overcome his fear of public speaking with the help of Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist who later became a close friend.
This scene zooms in on when the King – played brilliantly here by Colin Firth – goes to address the nation in his 1939 declaration of war on Nazi Germany.
His family and friends are on the edge of their seats, listening in on the 'King’s speech', hoping and praying that it will go well and he doesn’t lose his nerve.
Why does the music work?
This is a brilliant use of an orchestral piece, which has been moderately adapted to great impact.
The poise of the opening chord with the woodwind and brass is expectant, waiting. Repeating this opening chord (which Beethoven did not, in fact write in) superbly heightens the sense of anticipation.
The lower strings – viola, cello, double bass – soon take over like a pulsing heartbeat, driving forward as the speech progresses.
The simple dactylic rhythm – daaah, dah, dah – of the pulsating chords, combined with the change of articulation – staccato (detached) and legato (smooth) alternation – builds with the cello melody.
Soon the second violins take over the chords, the pitch rises and the texture becomes busier. Together, these features communicate the King's rising bravery and steadfastness in delivering his message. We also, no doubt, hear the thumping heartbeats of the nation, both those at home and those about to die on the front line, as they take in and digest the gravity of what they are being told.
The rhythmic ostinato (the repeated figure or, in other words, a feature that “keeps going”) is the driving force here.
This device, together with the minor key, portrays a sense of hard grind.
The story behind the music
The use of this piece is riddled with irony, not only because it is written by a German but also given Beethoven wrote this in 1813 for a charity concert in aid of the soldiers who were wounded in the Battle of Hanau. As he lifted his conductor baton, Beethoven addressed the players with these words: "We are moved by nothing but pure patriotism and the joyful sacrifice of our powers for those who have sacrificed so much for us."
It is also important that, at this point in his life, Beethoven was having to come to terms with his deteriorating hearing. Having decided against suicide a few years earlier, he decided to change his focus and voice his frustrations through his music. This trajectory gives us a reoccurring narrative in his compositions of this period: an opening sense of struggle against adversity, often beginning with the serious and challenging, but resolving in great expressions of positivity. For example, Symphonies No. 5 and No. 9 both start in the minor key and sound menacing. However, as they progress, the music emerges triumphant, almost as if the struggle has been worth it.
The second movement of Symphony No. 7 was so successful at its premier that cries of 'encore' resounded immediately after the concert finished.
© Tom Worley, Emma Pauncefort
CREDITS:
Film: The King’s Speech. 2010 [Film]. Tom Hooper. Dir. UK/Australis. Momentum Pictures/Paramount Pictures/Transmission Films
Music Supervisor: Maggie Rodford
Music: Version of Ludwig van Beethoven 1770 – 1827. Symphony no.7; Allegretto Op.92 (1811 - 1812)
Performed by Terry Davies and the London Symphony Orchestra
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