Listening Journal No. 1

With its relatively large orchestral forces, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, “Die 4 Weltalter” (The 4 Ages of Man) is programmatic. Scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, harpsichord, timpani, and full string sections, the symphony was constructed in four movements and reflected back upon the ancient Roman poet, Ovid, and his Metamorphoses. Each movement of the symphony related to one of the four ages of man: the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.
In the first movement, Dittersdorf depicted the Golden Age. According to Ovid, this was a time characterized by justice, peace, and faithful devotion to the gods without force. In this movement, Dittersdorf created a stately march-like character capturing the characteristics of Ovid’s Golden Age. Marked “Larghetto,” the first movement begins with a noble theme announced by the strings and then by the tutti ensemble. Dittersdorf utilized what seems to resemble a sonata form, with a repeated exposition, for the basis of this movement. Curiously, in the middle “development” section, Dittersdorf only used the upper strings and bassoons saving the tutti ensemble for the recapitulation of the first theme at the end of the movement.
Ovid describes Man proceeding to the Silver Age following the Golden Age. During this time, Zeus, created the seasons and thus man discovered and cultivated the arts of agriculture and architecture. Given the nature of the programmatic facet of this movement, it is interesting that Dittersdorf once again opted for the sonata form with a repeated exposition. The use of the sonata form was characteristic of the Classical era and was, for all intents and purposes, the perfect form for compositional expression. The sonata form has inherent balance of sections and the developmental section allowed the composer to explore their compositional techniques. With the second age of man dealing with architecture, it makes sense that Dittersdorf constructed a second movement using one of the most commonplace formal designs upon which to lay his music.
The third movement is related to the Bronze Age. Ovid claimed that within the Bronze Age, warfare and impiety replaced the justice and peace of the Golden Age. Dittersdorf’s third movement is the first (and only movement) in this symphony that is in minor and in the style of a minuet. Dittersdorf made almost exclusive use of the dotted-eighth note followed by a sixteenth note figure throughout the entirety of this movement. The primary material is carried mainly in the strings and harpsichord while the winds interject a few long notes above the string texture.
Of all four movements, the fourth movement is the most unique in terms of style, orchestration, and depiction of the programmatic aspects of the work. Modeled after Ovid’s Iron Age, Dittersdorf captures the poet’s impious, war-like and materialistic in quite a different way than the other movements. The opening rhythmic accelerando followed by the only occurrence of the heralding trumpet motive introduces this rhythmically driven movement. The soft strings coupled with the forceful timpani attacks push to a powerful climax. Softer and not-so-rhythmically-driven material follow in the development almost alluding to the first movement character.
Taken at face value this piece seems like a typical Classical symphony with balance and symmetry controlling much of the compositional aspects of the piece. Yet while all of that is true, Dittersdorf, in 1783, was paving the road for programmatic composers, like Richard Strauss, Berlioz, and Debussy, nearly fifty years prior to Berlioz’s highly-programmatic Symphonie fantastique. While most Classical composers of the day were writing most absolute music, Dittersdorf was attempting to depict episodes or events within his music. He was, at least in his first six symphonies, already trying to break through the conventionalities of absolute music that were infamous by the composers in the Classical era.
That all being said, without prior knowledge of Ovid and his Metamorphoses, any attempt to understand the first symphony beyond face value is hindered greatly. Each movement has a particular character and without any prior knowledge, the listener would probably miss the subtle shifts from one movement to another.
In all honesty, the last movement and its relationship with the other three movements is the most intriguing, and without it, the piece would have lost all of its connection with its point of inspiration. The heralding trumpet and the fast, rhythmically driven material all allude to a march-like or battle-like atmosphere that Ovid assigned to this fourth age of man.
Interestingly enough, even though the primary source of inspiration was that of an ancient Roman poet, the same essential model could be juxtaposed upon the era(s) before and during Dittersdorf’s lifetime as well. Prior to the Enlightenment, religion was, basically, uncontested and adhered to by all: the Golden Age. Then the revolutions began, and the individual sought personal self-worth: the Silver Age. Revolutions continued and borders changed, yet the Church still had influence over the masses: the Bronze Age. When the debris cleared, borders became more fixed and moral codes for self replaced the morals codes established by the Church, and thus a focus on the “self” as oppose to the “group” began leading to greed and impiety: the Iron Age. Granted some of it is a stretch – Dittersdorf, like so many composers, was using an allegorical and ancient theme as a commentary on the situation of life in his time.
Dittersdorf’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, “Die 4 Weltalter” (The 4 Ages of Man) definitely has the potential to be placed in the “Canon of Western Musical History.” It has catchy themes and easily understandable forms. It has interesting orchestrational choices, for the time it was written. Yet the main reason this piece - and the other five symphonies under the subtitle “after Ovid‘s Metamorphoses” - is for Dittersdorf’s attempt at programmatic music in an era saturated in absolute music nearly fifty years before programmatic works became commonplace.