The Dramatization of Hypermetric Conflicts in the Scherzo of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

Author(s): Richard L. Cohn

Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Spring, 1992), pp. 188-206
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746424
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The Dramatization of
Conflicts in the Scherzo
Ninth Symphony
RICHARD L. COHN
Dramatic qualities are frequently attributed to
Beethoven's instrumental music, yet there
seems to be little consensus about the identity
of the protagonists and what issues they are
playing out. Some writers, such as Charles
Rosen and Leo Treitler, have located drama in
such pitch-based polarities as tonic and domi-
nant, flat-side and sharp-side, or major and mi-
nor.' Others, including Robert Hatten and V.
Kofi Agawu, have suggested that dramatic situ-
ations are created through the interaction of
competing genres, styles, topics, gestures, or
formal prototypes.2 More abstractly, drama
19th-Century Music XV/3 (Spring 1992). ? by The Regents
of the University of California.
'Charles Rosen, The Classical Style (New York, 1972), pp.
41-51 and passim; Leo Treitler, Music and the Historical
Imagination (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), pp. 60-65.
2Robert Hatten, "Aspects of Dramatic Closure in Beet-
hoven: A Semiotic Perspective on Music Analysis via
Strategies of Dramatic Conflict," Semiotica 66 (1987),
188
Hypermetric
of Beethoven's
might be discovered in the relation between
structure and design, or clarity and unclarity.3
Rhythm and meter play supporting roles in
these dramatic schemes, insofar as they shape
the interpretations of tonal event, gesture, or
topic, but rarely are they claimed as principal
players. Until relatively recently, the study of
rhythm and meter has been concerned prima-
rily with taxonomic questions, such as the
proper assignment of verse-foot, topic, the po-
sition of the accent in the group, or (at higher
levels) formal archetype. Although taxonomies
can lead to identification of binary oppositions,
they do not necessarily establish the nuanced
dynamic relations of which successful dra-
matic narratives are woven.
197-210; V. Kofi Agawu, Playing with Signs: A Semiotic
Interpretation of Classic Music (Princeton, 1991).
3Agawu, Semiotic Interpretation, pp. 113, 117; also Fred
Maus, "Music as Drama," Music Theory Spectrum 10
(1988), 56-73.

But this situation is changing rapidly. Since
the mid-1970s, when work by Maury Yeston,
Carl Schachter, and the team of Fred Lerdahl
and Ray Jackendoff began to appear in print, the
most significant work in tonal theory has fo-
cused on fundamental questions concerning
rhythm and meter, especially beyond the
boundaries of the bar line.4 This activity has
been fueled in great part by the ascendance of
Schenkerian models of pitch. There are two
independent reasons for this, which are fre-
quently confused with each other. First,
because Schenker recognized the deep inter-
activity between rhythm and pitch, the unique-
ness of his conception of pitch structure was
bound to have direct consequences for concep-
tions of rhythm. Schenker was unable to ex-
plore fully these consequences in his lifetime,
however, and the task of picking up the dan-
gling thread was inherited by more recent
generations of Schenkerians. Second, the
hierarchical, stratified nature of Schenker's
pitch models suggested a strong analogy with
4Important precursors to this work include Grosvenor
Cooper and Leonard B. Meyer, The Rhythmic Structure of
Music (Chicago, 1960); Edward T. Cone, Musical Form and
Musical Performance (New York, 1968); Arthur Komar,
Theory of Suspensions (Princeton, 1971); and Andrew Im-
brie, "'Extra' Measures and Metrical Ambiguity in
Beethoven," in Beethoven Studies, ed. Alan Tyson (New
York, 1973), pp. 45-66. The mid-1970s saw the appearance
of Maury Yeston, The Stratification of Musical Rhythm
(New Haven, 1976); Carl Schachter, "Rhythm and Linear
Analysis: A Preliminary Study," Music Forum 4 (1976),
281-334; the first article of Lerdahl and Jackendoff, whose
work appears in its definitive form in A Generative Theory
of Tonal Music (Cambridge, Mass., 1983); and Robert P.
Morgan, "The Theory and Analysis of Tonal Rhythm,"
Musical Quarterly 64 (1978), 435-73. The early 1980s
brought Schachter, "Rhythm and Linear Analysis: Dura-
tional Reductions," Music Forum 5 (1980), 197-232;
William Rothstein, Rhythm and the Theory of Structural
Levels (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1981); and William
Benjamin, "A Theory of Musical Meter," Music Perception
1 (1984), 355-413. Since 1986, important work has
emerged at a furious pace, including Joel Lester, The
Rhythms of Tonal Music (Carbondale, Ill., 1986);
Schachter, "Rhythm and Linear Analysis: Aspects of
Meter," Music Forum 6/1 (1987), 1-59; Harald Krebs,
"Some Extensions of the Concepts of Metrical Consonance
and Dissonance," Journal of Music Theory 31 (1987), 99-
120; Jonathan Kramer, The Time of Music (New York,
1988); William Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music
(New York, 1989); and David H. Smyth, "Large-Scale
Rhythm and Classical Form," Music Theory Spectrum 12
(1990), 236-46.
RICHARD L.
rhythm, whose hierarchical nature has been COHN
recognized since at least the early nineteenth Hypermetric
Conflicts in
century,5 but whose models have traditionally the Ninth
lacked the precision and exhaustiveness of
Schenker's models of pitch. This analogy cre-
ated an opportunity for the wealth of insight
possessed by the pitch aristocracy to trickle
down to its poorer rhythmic cousin.
A second, independent catalyst for the reex-
amination of rhythm and meter was the emer-
gence of cognitive science in the 1970s, which
legitimated the role of the expert listener as
witness. Because meter and grouping beyond
the bar line are not normally explicitly encoded
into musical scores, rarely do they attain the
status of "objective facts." Hypermeter is de-
clared neither by bar lines nor by meter signa-
tures, and phrasing slurs are unreliable as indi-
cators of grouping structure.6 With authority
lacking either from the composer or from dead
latter-day theorist-prophets, and the day thank-
fully past when living theorists could success-
fully anoint themselves with exclusive knowl-
edge of wie es eigentlich ist, cognitive science
provided an epistemological framework for
studying rhythm and meter, by making it
intellectually viable to claim that, under cer-
tain circumstances, individual perception can
represent the intersubjective consensus of a
community. The work of Lerdahl and Jack-
endoff is crucial here, since it explicitly merged
a cognitive paradigm with the concerns of
5Morgan discusses the origin of metric hierarchies in
"Theory and Analysis," pp. 436-37. Grouping hierarchies
are older, originating in the use of punctuation to describe
musical structure, as found not only in Beethoven's con-
temporaries Reicha, Momigny, and Koch but also in Guido
of Arezzo. In "The Pastness of the Present and the Pres-
ence of the Past," Richard Taruskin misleadingly implies
that the first musical hierarchies were concocted in New
Jersey (Authenticity and Early Music, ed. Nicholas Kenyon
[Oxford, 1988], p. 168). Taruskin's diatribe brims with in-
sinuated false syllogisms: because both Cone and logical
positivism inhabited Princeton in the 1950s and 60s, Cone
must be a logical positivist; Cone writes about metric hi-
erarchy, which thereby is a positivist concept; Cone cre-
ated the term "hypermeter," and hence dreamed up the
concept which it labels. The "anti-historical" brush can
stain the hand that grasps it.
6This latter point is convincingly argued in Schenker's
essay "Weg mit dem Phrasierungsbogen," in Das Meister-
werk in der Musik (Munich, 1925-30), I, 41-60. For dis-
cussion, see Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm, pp. 11-12.
189
 19TH music theorists, and also significantly contrib-
CENTURY
MUSIC uted to an understandingof the factors that un-
derlie the way a listener construes groupingand
meter.
We are now in a good position to step back
from the broadtheoretical questions addressed
in the studies cited in note 4 and to ask deeper
analytic questions about how these issues are
engagedby the compositions that we most care
about, and how they interact with broader
values we ascribe to this music, including its
capacity to narrate,dramatize,polarize, and re-
solve. There are several reasons why Beet-
hoven's Ninth Symphony, and its Scherzo in
particular, is an appropriateplace to initiate
such an inquiry. The symphony's dramatic
qualities have been universally recognized, no-
tably by Richard Wagner,7and recently in a
study by Treitler, who attributes the expressive
force of the Ninth Symphony in largepart to its
"long-sustained power struggles,"8 which he
locates in tonality (D vs. Bb),modality (D major
vs. minor), and formal schemes (variation vs.
sonata vs. concerto). At the same time, the
Scherzo serves as a locus classicus for hyper-
meter, a rareinstance where it emerges from its
apparently fragile ontological status. Beet-
hoven's famous directions appear at the
opening of the development proper- "ritmo di
tre battute"-and at the opening of the retran-
sition-"ritmo di quattro battute"-presum-
ably addressedto the conductor and concerning
the groupingof the tactus, which is the notated
downbeat, into three- and four-measuremetric
units. Furthermore,the autographof the sym-
phony presents evidence that Beethoven was
equally concerned with a yet higher level of hy-
permetric regularity.Example 1 transcribesthe
opening of the tre battute passage with the
numeral markings from the autograph. By
counting three-measure units and collecting
them into larger spans of nine measures, or
twenty-seven beats, Beethoven was apparently
7"The Artwork of the Future" (1849), in Richard Wagner's
Prose Works, ed. and trans. William Ashton Ellis (London,
1892-99), I, 121-26; and "Beethoven's Choral Symphony
at Dresden 1846," Prose Works, VII, 247-55.
8Treitler, Music and the Historical Imagination, p. 56.
190
concerned with the recursive nature of triple
meter in this passage.9
The three different levels of triple meter in
ex. 1 led Schenker, in his early Ninth Sym-
phony monograph, to comment that this pas-
sage "stands . .. under the sign of the number
3."10 For similar reasons, although not quite to
the same extent, the second half of the move-
ment's exposition (mm. 77-142) can be said to
stand under the sign of 4, as do most of the re-
capitulation and coda (mm. 296-412). Each of
these sections maintains a regular ritmo di
quattro battute, with the exception of several
two-measure phrase expansions (at mm.
121-22, 306-07, and 358-59). Furthermore,
the four-measure hypermeasures are them-
selves collated by fours, resulting in a series of
sixteen-measure spans (eighteen where phrase
expansions occur). Once the phrase expansions
are reduced out, the second half of the exposi-
tion consists of four sixteen-measure spans,"
while the analogous section in the recapitula-
tion plus coda consists of seven such spans.
(Only the triple meter at the level of the no-
tated beat prevents quadruple meter from in-
habiting all levels.) Thus, the motion from
four-unit spans to three-unit spans and then
back to four is present not only where the unit
is the notated measure but at a higher level as
well.
9Beethoven,SymphonyNo. 9, facsimile of the composer's
manuscript in the StaatsbibliothekPreuB3ischer
Kulturbe-
sitz, Berlin (Leipzig, 1924).
'OHeinrich Schenker, Beethoven, Neunte Sinfonie (Vienna,
1912; rpt. 1969), p. 165. It would be a mistake to interpret
this remarkonly in light of Schenker'snumerological ob-
sessions, which have been prematurelydismissed as idle
mysticism even by scholars otherwise sympathetic to
Schenker'swork. Although integers have no perceptually
relevant propertiesapartfrom their interpretations,the in-
terpretationof three in the domain of meter reflects a basic
and vital perceptual state, as suggested below. Similarly,
Schenker'sinfamous privileging of the number five takes
on new credencewhen viewed in light of empiricalstudies
of limitations on human cognitive capacities to store dis-
crete items, the most famous of which is George Miller's
"The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some
Limitations on Our Capacityfor ProcessingInformation,"
Psychological Review 63 (1956), 81-97.
"One might be tempted to claim that the "sign of 4"
therefore governs the entire sixty-four-measurespan, as
well as its individual sixteen-measure constituents. But I
think that there is reason for caution here, as discussed
below.
 I 2 3 RICHARD L.
-& la -& & _ - _ COHN
+5i - - -
* '
r r r r r f r r r r r - - Hypermetric
Conflicts in
the Ninth

r u
n
jf f! f r$f f s fr r r D e-fr rr
1 2 3

^1F 5 ; =

r: Xff !t t f f r *

, i if -0-
't tt ^ rt -10
r f r C r *F *fi -dP-
-

Example 1: Measures 177-94, with notations from the autograph.

The analysis which is the core of this paper groundwork must be laid by way of preparation
views these multileveled hypermetric shifts in for the analysis. A major claim of this study is
the context of a drama whose principal protag- that the duple/triple conflict reduces to a more
onists are the duple and triple modes of metric basic perceptual paradox, and the first part of
organization. (I consider the quadruple meter the study is devoted to exploring this problem
discussed above to represent duple meter, for abstractly. It will also be necessary to develop a
reasons that will become clear as the discus- set of terms and concepts adequate to the task
sion proceeds.) Both protagonists have a proper of characterizing conflicts at higher levels of
home at the local levels of meter: triple at the hypermeter. These preparatory discussions are
level of the notated beat, duple/quadruple at confined to what is necessary for the task at
the level of the conducted tactus. Their conflict hand, but both have broader implications and
originates at the more elusive higher levels of applications that I intend to develop elsewhere.
hypermeter and eventually migrates down to
the well-established lower levels. In the THE PERCEPTUAL PARADOX
Scherzo proper (as distinct from the Trio), duple
meter twice gains control of all levels of When we return to a after a motion to b, we
hypermeter-during the second half of the ex- have an Odyssean sense of a journey com-
position, and during the greater part of the reca- pleted, but also a Sindbadian reflex to repeat the
pitulation and coda. In the interim, triple meter journey, trajecting us back toward b. The se-
enjoys a brief hegemony in the center of the de- quence aba at once represents a circle whose
velopment, in the passage marked ritmo di tre circumnavigation generates a momentum to-
battute. Linking these three periods of hyper- ward reprisal, and a linear path whose retro-
metric stability are two sets of metric modula- grading truncates further motion. Victor Zuck-
tions which display Beethoven's art at its most erkandl has written that an aba structure at
refined, and which are all the more stunning for once fulfills "the desire for symmetrical com-
being so different from each other. The Trio and pletion" and is vulnerable to being "seized
the final cadence following the reprise of the upon by the stream of 'yet again'."12 Zucker-
Scherzo continue the multileveled duple hy- kandl particularly identifies this tension with
permeter of the end of the Scherzo and echo it Beethoven's treatment of large-scale forms, es-
at sub-tactus levels.
This narrative is recounted in great detail
'2Victor Zuckerkandl, Sound and Symbol: Music and the
below, with special attention devoted to pe- External World, trans. Willard Trask (New York, 1956), pp.
riods of instability and transition. Two types of 238, 240.

191
1N9TH pecially his tendency to append "second devel-
MUSIC opments" after the recapitulation of sonata-
form movements.'3 Even closer to the topic at
hand, Leo Treitler has noted this tension in the
first movement of the Ninth Symphony: the
frequent return of the opening material implies
both "that the piece would fall eternally back
to the beginning, like the stone of Sisyphus"-
avoidance of closure requires energy-and that
it "would go round and round forever"-
achievement of closure requires energy.'4 For
Zuckerkandl these forces are framed in terms
of Goethe's tension between "polarity" and
"intensification," but the less metaphysically
minded modernist is more likely to identify
them with Gestalt principles of closure and
parallelism.15
(default) response, ceteris paribus, which is to
ascribe a duple meter, following the principle
that groups that can be construed as parallel
should receive parallel metric interpreta-
tions.16 But a number of other factors might
motivate a listener to relinquish this interpre-
tation in spite of its apparent stability. Every
third event might be accented by some means.
The span might be preceded by a passage in
triple meter, in which case our tendency to
maintain an existing meter once established
would override our desire for local (duple) par-
allelism. (The Eroica Scherzo testifies to the
formidability of this tendency: from mm. 61 to
83, and again from 127 to 143, local cues unan-
imously point toward a duple meter; nonethe-
less, we refuse to abandon the triple meter to

a. Uninterpreted string ......a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b......

b. Parallel scheme ......a b a b a b >ba ba b a b a b a b......

c. Switchback scheme ......a b a b a b aab b a b a b a b a b a b......

d. Second level A B A B A B
uninterpreted string ..... !a b a lb a bal la b lb a bl a b al lb a bl......

e. Second level A B A B A B
parallel scheme ..... !a b al lb a b b aI b a bl a b a' lb a b!.....

f. Second level A B A B A B
switchback scheme ...... la b a lb a bl la b a lb a bl la b al lb a bl......

Figure 1: Oscillations.

Consider a span of indeterminate length con-
sisting of a periodic oscillation, of indetermi-
nate frequency, between two values of some pa-
rameter, such as pitch, timbre, or register.
Figure la gives a symbolic representation of
such a span; it is assumed that all adjacencies
in the string are separated by a constant dura-
tional interval. Figure lb shows a listener's first
13Zuckerkandl, The Sense of Music (Princeton, 1959), p.
88.
14Treitler, Music and the Historical Imagination, pp. 59,
62.
5See Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago,
1956);and Lerdahland Jackendoff,Generative Theory,pp.
303-07.
which the preceding measures have condi-
tioned us.) The span might even be followed by
a triple span, motivating a listener retrospec-
tively to assign a triple meter to what one
might have previously assumed as duple. (This
is the case with the opening four measures of
the Eroica Scherzo.) In each of these cases, we
willingly organize the span into triple meter, as
represented by figure Ic, even though it "cuts
against the grain" of the duple parallelism.
Several factors might underlie a listener's
willingness to abandon the stable duple inter-
16Lerdahl and Jackendoff, Generative Theory, p. 75.

192
 RICHARD L.
COHN
pp~~~i i 15
~~ha
r ~~ ~~r1 oI 'J- I I | Hypermetric
r~~~a 1 br--
I J-- Conflicts in
? r
I
ii
I
#
11- I Ninth
Hetfthe

Pp
NNW 6- or 1
9: Ct
I
t k-

n I I
20, . : K
0- r F. t_
26 6 I f i
U w
I i _- I
I ..

I I I I I
:f t L - r---f
I rt
I
p hF
9::b
'F,

25 - 30 + -_ -
b I I I +v +l- - -?-_+ ? --

.I -
O-)
i
I I II II I I I I
W.l - T , I I I I I i I I I I I I I I

f=r rr fr r
35
40 i
n -- - -- t--+ + - - -ft

I I I I I
I I 7 I~ -Ik OL# -w I
I I ~I .

J J I J I
-
!Y ~ --
-
i- ap

A
.Y i; ~ii
or-at -.
l k I45
4
i
I
I
I
j
I
4 I
I I I
I
I
dj a
I1 I

1 Rj I;

Vi I I 'I Jr I cresc.

LL
lor
J --ii
I I I i I -M
i - 1I J J I I
q C

~
7 7 r r7r r7f r7r rr 7 7r

Example 2: Measures 9-57.

pretation for the more complex triple interpre- metric unit, because it is bounded on both ends
tation. First, there is an inversional relation- by a single value, is prolongationally stable and
ship between adjacent units: aba is balanced by responds to our basic desire for closure. Third, a
bab. This relationship has suggested the label switchback scheme produces an alternation at
for the triple interpretation: a "switchback a higher level between two types of triple
scheme" (in contrast to the "parallel scheme" grouping, aba and bab, and two prolonged enti-
of the duple interpretation). Second, each ties, A and B, so that the oscillation, rather than

193
 19TH
CENTURY disappearing, is promoted to a higher level (fig.
MUSIC Id). This causes the listener's conundrum to be
recapitulated at the higher level as well: is this
fresh alternation to be heard according to a par-
allel scheme (fig. le) or a switchback scheme
(fig. If)? The choice of a switchback scheme at
this level promotes the issue to a yet higher
court, and so forth.
The opening of the fugato (see ex. 2) provides
examples of both switchback and parallel
schemes. Throughout this passage, there is a
strict beat-level oscillation between tonic and
nontonic chords, sometimes in reference to a
D-minor tonic, sometimes in reference to A
minor.17 (It can be most readily inspected once
all the voices have entered, e.g., mm. 25-28.)
Because of the accumulated momentum of the
triple meter at the beat level, this oscillation is
heard in a switchback context. The result is a
measure-level oscillation between dominant
and tonic prolongations, recapitulating the
problem at a higher level. Here the entry of
fugal voices every four measures causes the os-
cillation of measure-long prolongations to be
interpreted in the context of a parallel scheme.
This discussion suggests how intimately the
switchback/triple and parallel/duple alliances
are worked into the most basic material of the
Scherzo.
CONCEPTS AND TERMS
The central concept governing my treatment of
meter in the Scherzo is the "metric complex,"
a finite span of music bearing Yeston's "funda-
mental logical requirement for meter ... that
there be a constant rate [of recurrence] within a
constant rate-at least two rates of events of
which one is faster and another is slower."'8 A
metric complex has four important characteris-
tics: a length; a set of prime factors; a number
of levels; and an interpretation. The length of a
complex is characterized by an integer, always
nonprime, which equals the total number of
units that recur at the lowest constant rate con-
sidered relevant to the analysis. In the Scherzo,
17"Chord" is used here to denote relatively uninterpreted
collectional state rather than harmonic function.
18Yeston, Stratification, p. 66.
194
length is normally gauged in downbeats (i.e.,
measures), but elsewhere it could be gauged in
beats, hyperdownbeats, or any other constant
unit. The length of a "pure" metric complex is
a power of some prime integer. "Pure duple" in-
cludes complexes of 4, 8, 16, etc., while "pure
triple" includes 9, 27, 81, etc. (Pure lengths gen-
erated from higher primes are theoretically pos-
sible and occur from time to time in the liter-
ature, but are not of concern to the analysis at
hand.) The length of a "mixed" complex is a
multiple of two or more distinct primes. Since
relevant primes in the Scherzo are limited to 2
and 3, all mixed complexes are multiples of 6.
Although all metric complexes have non-
prime lengths, some spans of nonprime length
are realized asymmetrically and thus might not
be heard as metric complexes. Consider a single
span of eight units that divides 3 + 3 + 2. For
a Balkan listener, who would recognize a con-
stant rate only at the unit level, this is not a
metric complex.19 Depending on context, lis-
teners acculturated to Classical music might
infer a constant rate of two- or four-unit sub-
spans, against which the asymmetrical division
is syncopated.20 Rothstein notes that this ten-
dency is most acute across spans of brief dura-
tion, such as notated measures, and is attenu-
ated at the level of phrases and periods.21
"Factors" and "levels" are a property of the
length of the complex rather than of its realiza-
tion in an actual passage of music. "Factor" is
used as in number theory and refers only to
nontrivial prime factors. Pure complexes have
only one "distinct" factor (here either 2 or 3),
while mixed complexes in the Scherzo have
two distinct factors (both 2 and 3). The number
of "occurrent" factors (i.e., the number of levels
at which each distinct factor occurs) is speci-
fied by exponents: pure complexes always take
the form of 2n or 3n, and mixed spans are 2n x
3n. "Levels" refer to the distinct constant rates
of motion within the complex. The number of
levels equals the total number of occurrent fac-
tors, i.e., the sum of the exponents.
19See, e.g., Alice Singer, "The Metrical Structure of Mace-
donian Dance," Ethnomusicology 18 (1974), 379-404.
20Yeston, Stratification, pp. 140-41; Schachter, "Aspects
of Meter," p. 14.
2'Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm, p. 36.
 The "interpretation" of a complex refers to RICHARD L.
2: < COHN
the matching of factors to levels and is specified Hypermetric
2: < < c < Conflicts in
by an ordered set of integers enclosed in
a. [2 2 3] 3: x x x _ x x x x x x x x the Ninth
brackets, indicating the metric relations, begin-
ning with the highest metric level and pro-
gressing downward.22 A pure metric complex 2: '
has only one possible interpretation, since it 3: - < < c < <
has only one distinct factor. For example, an b. [232] 2: x x x x x x x x x x x
eight-unit span is factored 23, so its only metric
interpretation is [2 2 2]. Mixed metric com-
plexes have two or more possible interpreta- 3: <
tions. To take the most common example, a 2:< < x< xx xc
six-unit span could be interpreted as [2 3], as in c. [3 2 2] 2: x x x x x x x x XXXx x x

a "compound" 6 meter, or as [3 2], as in a "sim-

ple" 3 meter.23 The most common mixed com-
plex that we shall encounter in the Scherzo is a
twelve-unit span. The three possible interpre-
tations of such a span-which, assuming the
eighth note as the basic unit, would be equiva-
lent to 12,
, and 3 meter respectively-are
shown in figure 2.
The distinction between pure and mixed
complexes is crucial to the understanding of
meter, because, when it comes to the number
of available interpretations, the conceptual gap
between one and two is infinitely vast. Pure
complexes are safe, stable, and hermetic. Mixed
complexes invite conflict, instability, confu-
sion. Two is plural, and, as all monists fear, plu-
ralism is an evenly graded, almost invisible, ex-
hilaratingly slippery slope to chaos. This is not
to say that all mixed complexes are inherently
ambiguous -there is no doubt that the twelve-
beat spans of the fugato (ex. 2, discussed above)
are organized [2 2 3] - but rather that such com-
22This notation is adapted from Willi Apel, The Notation
of Polyphonic Music, 900-1600 (5th edn. Cambridge,
Mass., 1961), p. 97, where it is used to classify relations
among modus, tempus, and prolation. Apel himself sug-
gests its possible adaptation to Beethoven (p. 100). A ver-
sion of this notation also appears in work of the psy-
chologists H. C. Longuet-Higgins and C. S. Lee, "The
Rhythmic Interpretation of Monophonic Music," Music
Perception 1 (1984), 428.
23The terms "simple" and "compound" traditionally used
to distinguish these interpretations, and assiduously
learned by music students, have little theoretical value,
since they overrely on the often arbitrary choice of the
level at which downbeat and tactus are notated. A measure
of "compound" 6, two measures of "simple" 3, and a mea-
sure of "simple" tripleted 2 all manifest a [2 3] relation
and, more importantly, are indistinguishable to percep-
tion.
Figure 2
Three interpretations of a twelve-unit span.
plexes have an inherent potential to host ambi-
guity and conflict. The prototype for such inter-
pretational conflicts is the hemiola, where the
two available interpretations of a six-unit span,
[3 2] and [2 3], come into conflict, and the as-
signment of factors to levels is permuted.24 In
essence, any interpretational conflict in a
mixed span represents a generalization of the
concept of hemiola.25
GENERAL SYNOPSIS OF THE DRAMA
Figure 3 presents a synopsis of the narrative
plot of the Scherzo according to the three basic
categories introduced above. Hypermetric com-
plexes are classified as pure duple, pure triple,
and mixed. A jagged line indicates that the
metric complex is ambiguous or weakly articu-
lated. The larger numbers running along the
bottom of each row represent measure num-
bers, while the smaller numbers in parentheses
measure the length of spans in measures, after
phrase expansions have been reduced out.
In assigning events to categories in figure 3,
I have purposely ignored the triple meter of the
notated beat, which persists throughout the
Scherzo proper. It is exactly the invariability of
24Compare Apel, Notation, p. 131.
25Generalized hemiolas, in general limited to only two
levels, are referred to as "rhythmic dissonances" by
Yeston, Stratification, and as "Type-A metric disso-
nances" in Krebs, "Some Extensions."

195
 C19TH EXPOSITION
CENTURY
MUSIC pure duple ,'''''
mixed meters

pure triple
(8) (48) (12) (8) (16) (16) ("16") (16)
1-----9-------------- 57------69------- 77---------93--- 109----- 127----143
Intro. First theme Counterstatement Transition Second theme

DEVELOPMENT

mixed meters

pure triple
(16) (18) ("27") (27) ("16") (24)
143-------159-------177----------207---------234--- 248 -272
Transition Development proper Retransition

RECAPITULATION+ CODA
pure duple
.
pure triple
(24) ("32") (16) ("16") (16) (32)
272------------296------- 330 346 --364- 380---------412
First theme Transition Second theme Coda

Figure 3: Map of Hypermetric complexes.

this meter that allows us to put it temporarily
to the side. But it should at the same time be
clear that the "pure duple" spans are not really
pure, in the sense that they always contain a
triple division at the sub-tactus level. Only
when the 3 notated meter gives way to at the
arrival of the Trio, and then again at the end of
the movement, does duple meter actually dom-
inate at all levels of metric structure.
A more problematic set of judgements also
entered into the construction of figure 3: what
is the appropriate length of each hypermetric
complex? That is, how many hypermetric
levels is it appropriate to include? If four-
measure units clearly group into sixteen-
measure spans, why can't the sixteen-measure
units group into sixty-four measure spans, and
so forth? The problem is that music theorists
disagree about how deeply recursive hyper-
meter is. Some theorists, retracing the induc-
tive process that led Schenker to discover the
Ursatz, have projected metric principles back
to the deepest levels of even quite extended
compositions.26 Joel Lester, arguing for a more
cautious approach, asserts that metric regu-
larity beyond the level of the notated measure
is relatively rare and never very deep.27 Yet
26These include Cooper and Meyer, Rhythmic Structure;
Komar, Theory of Suspensions; Kramer, The Time of
Music, pp. 98-122.
27Lester, Rhythms, pp. 157-94.

196

4q 1
f'
11
I
- '
k I
a -
2 + 3 +
Example 3: Measures 1-10.
others have adopted more context-sensitive in-
termediate positions.28 While I find the notion
of an infinite regress of hypermetric strata to be
abstractly attractive, my personal inclination is
to push hypermeter only as high up the met-
rical ladder as my own hearing wants to take it.
In general, although more sympathetic to hy-
permeter than Lester, I share his reluctance to
hear hypermetric regularity beyond the bound-
aries provided by strong cadences, and his view
that such regularities are most likely to appear
in the context of continuous processes whose
surface motion is relatively consistent. In the
Scherzo, these conditions vary greatly from sec-
tion to section, so that the spans that I hear as
hypermetric may be as small as the eight-
measure call-to-attention that opens the move-
ment, or as large as the forty-eight-measure fu-
gato that immediately follows it. Others less
prone to vertigo at the upper echelons of hyper-
meter may be able to extend the findings pre-
sented here.
Establishment of mixed meters and high-level
metric conflicts (mm. 1-76); Emergence of pure
duple (mm. 77-142). The movement opens with an
eight-measure call-to-attention, a pure duple span
well suited to establish the four-measure hyper-
meter that pervades the exposition. These particular
eight measures, however, make a messy job of it.
The movement opens with a strong attack at m. 1
(tonic), followed by a weaker attack at m. 3 (domi-
nant), so far, a good start toward duple hypermeter.
Problems begin at m. 5, with its isolated register and
bizarre timbre: a solo timpani not only lobbed into
an otherwise continuous gesture, but tuned to an
unorthodox scale-degree. The event is a phenomenal
28Lerdahl and Jackendoff(Generative Theory, pp. 17-25)
hold that hypermeteris inherent but not deep; Rothstein
(PhraseRhythm, p. 13) holds that hypermetercan be deep
but is not inherent. See also the three articles by Schachter
cited in n. 4.
RICHARDL.
L.
' rk I I -,
IF
. I COHN
Hypermetric
Conflicts in
the Ninth
3
accent par excellence, but as a proper continuation
of the motion initiated in m. 1, it lacks credentials.
The expected continuation is rather deferreduntil
m. 6, which matches the attacks of mm. 1 and 3 reg-
istrally and timbrally, and which draws accentual
weight by virtue of being tonic. The dynamic, tonal,
and registralaccent of m. 6 leads us to hear it not as
the weak second measure of a two-measure group,
but as a strong measure which completes a three-
measure span from the downbeat of m. 3 to that of
m. 6, and initiates a second three-measurespan that
leads to the opening of the fugato at the downbeat of
m. 9. Thus the fundamental division of the eight
measures is as 2 + 3 + 3, on first hearing more
triple than duple, although ultimately understoodas
a pure duple with some intermediate levels poorly
articulated (see ex. 3).
Other analysts have focused on the outlining of
triadic space in this opening gesture, an interpreta-
tion that yields a more duple reading.29By devaluing
the timpani strokes at m. 5, the readingofferedhere
emphasizes fifth-space, associating the gesture both
with the precedingfirst movement, with its famous
open fifths, and with the subsequent fugato, which
articulates fifth-space both in the character of its
subject and the plan of its entries. But the most di-
rect motivation for hearing A2-D2 as an uninter-
rupted gesture in the Scherzo is that the same ges-
ture is already in the listener's ear at the opening of
the Scherzo, having just served as the final cadence
of the previous movement, with a nearly identical
registral distribution and orchestration.
The following forty-eight-measure fugato consti-
tutes an unusually lengthy hypermetric complex,
punctuated neither by cadences nor by strong shifts
in surface design (see ex. 2). Factored as 24 x 3, 48 is
a mixed span with five levels of hypermeter, and
thus five potential interpretations, which differ only
in the assignment of the triple level. The lower hy-
permetriclevels are easily determinedby the spacing
29RudolphReti, The Thematic Process in Music (New
York, 1951),p. 12; Cooperand Meyer, Rhythmic Structure,
pp. 78-79. Cooperand Meyer note that the three-measure
span of mm. 6-9 serves as a harbingerof the tre battute.
197
 19TH of the fugal entries at four-measure intervals.30
CENTURY
MUSIC Eachentry brings a new diatonic collection, with the
subject always in D minor, and the answer always
moving quickly into A minor. The four-measure al-
ternation between D-minor and A-minor collections
continues even after the final voice enters at m. 25
and persists until the onset of a V7 prolongation at m.
41. At m. 45, with the four-measure hypermeasures
now strongly established, Beethoven withdraws all
surface cues for quattro battute and begins intro-
ducing interfering cues: the final twelve measures of
the section suggest a division into two groups of six,
creating an indirect dissonance with the previous
four-measure hypermeasures.31
How do these four-measure units create meter at
the next level of the metric hierarchy? The constant
fluctuation between D-minor and A-minor collec-
tions every four measures suggests yet another duple
level, with eight as the fundamental unit. This inter-
pretation dictates hypermetric accents as follows:
m. 9: initial entry;
m. 17: return of subject in original form;
m. 25: final entry in contrabass;
m. 33: arrival of bass pedal; addition of D horns
(one measure early);
30There is, however, some ambiguity as to the precise
placement of the hypermetricdownbeatwithin each group
of four. Odd-numberedmeasures initiate each group, but
the even-numbered measures are usually more tonally
stable, at least throughm. 41; furthermore,changes in har-
monic roots tend to occur at the second downbeat of each
group.The temptation to hear anacrusticallyis most acute
in the counterstatement, starting at m. 57, where the
trumpet consistently oscillates between 5 on the odd
downbeat and 1 on the even, and the cadential 6 at m. 62
attracts particular metric weight. The extent that odd-
numbered measures continue to carry considerable weight
as downbeats in spite of these factors is evidence of the
strength of our preference for placing metric accents at the
beginnings of groups (Lerdahl and Jackendoff, p. 76). Once
the orbit of C major is securely entered, the location of the
strong beat becomes clarified by a suspension at m. 79,
confirmed by an odd-measure cadential 6 four measures
later. For further discussion of Beethoven's tendency to
confuse the location of metric accents in two-measure
groups, see Imbrie, "'Extra' Measures."
31"Indirect dissonance" is Krebs's term for conflicting in-
terpretations that are juxtaposed rather than superimposed
(see Krebs, "Some Extensions," pp. 105-06). The metaphor
of "dissonance" is particularly appropriate here, since the
resolution to four-measure hypermeters coincides with the
resolution back to tonic at m. 57.
198
m. 41: arrival of V7; addition of trumpets; off-beat
events in flutes and Bb horns; inversion of coun-
tersubject in highest register as a strongly marked
melodic event.
Only m. 49 lacks credentials at the eight-measure
level, a consequence of its deficiency at the four-
measure level.
Despite the apparent stability of this reading,
there is one important respect in which it is unsatis-
factory: it fails to account for the strongly accented
entry at m. 21 high in the violins. The feeling of ac-
cent here is due not only to the high register but also
to its position in the overall pattern of entries. Like
the opening call-to-attention, the first three fugal en-
tries constitute a three-event descent through fifth-
space; the fourth entry climbs into the upper register
as if to initiate a new descent and simultaneously re-
claims the D3 prolonged through the opening eight
measures. Note especially how the treatment of
fifth-space in the fugato corresponds to the opening
of the symphony and similar passages in the first
movement. Example 4 compares the spaces outlined
by the fugato entries of the Scherzo to the recapitu-
lation of the first movement, where the correspon-
dence is particularly intimate. The point is not only
that the associations exist (the taxonomic "there it is
again" rut that so frequently passes for analysis), but
that the clarity of grouping of the earlier material
helps clarify the material in its later presentation,
once the kinship of the two events is recognized.32
If m. 21 is thereby the most accented event since
m. 9, we need to test the feasibility of hearing the en-
tire forty-eight-measure span in terms of twelve-
measure units, thereby imposing a triple hypermeter
on the four-measure hypermeasures. This reading
demands that we hear "against the grain" of the four-
measure oscillation between D-minor and A-minor
collections, i.e., that we hear this section in terms of
a switchback scheme. Beethoven has been training
us to hear in this way by his treatment of meter at
the beat level. Indeed, if we hear this section as a set
of twelve-measure units, then there is a large ana-
lytic payoff: the [2 2 3] scheme that unambiguously
organizes the twelve-beat span of the fugato subject
would also govern the forty-eight-measure span of
the fugato itself. But such inductions remain hypo-
theses until confirmed empirically: do we hear
twelve-measure units throughout this forty-eight-
320ther connections between these two movements have
been pointed out in Philip Friedheim, "On the Structural
Integrityof Beethoven'sNinth Symphony,"Music Review
46 (1985), 93-117.
 Mvt. 1, mm. 302-07
Fl.
V. b ~~
O -v-4, I I
r I.t
1 a. 1
Trpt.
.
fb7b
_I
?_ O ?
I0
no
9 13 17
Mvt. 2, fugato
Example 4: Fugato entries, compared to first movement.
measure span, with chief hypermetric accents occur-
ring at mm. 33 and 45? Measure 33 poses no problem
in this regard, as it marks the arrival of the twenty-
four-measure bass pedal and the entry of the horns,
but m. 45 is slightly awkward as an accented mo-
ment, since it is the first hyperdownbeat (at the four-
measure level) not linked to a change of harmonic
root. Its main claim for attention is realized only ret-
rospectively: it is the moment where the four-mea-
sure grouping gives way to six-measure grouping.
Just as the entry at m. 21 is the Achilles heel of
the eight-measure reading, so also the arrival of the
V7 prolongation at m. 41 is the thorn in the balloon
of the twelve-measure reading. It is difficult to hear
the hypermetric shift at m. 45 as bearing more
metric weight than the entry of the trumpets, the
onset of off-beat accents, and the ear-catching inver-
sion of the countersubject in the first violins, all of
which occur at m. 41. Ultimately, we are left with
two equally convincing yet equally flawed hyper-
metric readings at this level. And that is exactly the
point: rather than clearly favoring one interpretation
of this twelve-unit span over the other, Beethoven
encourages us to balance our hearing between the
two interpretations.
We have yet to ascend the highest rung of the hy-
permetric ladder. Insofar as we hear the four-
measure units group into twelve-measure spans, we
are committed to a reading of [2 2 3 2 2]. Insofar as we
hear eight-measure spans, there are still two possible
readings: three sixteen-measure spans [3 2 2 2 2] and
two twenty-four-measure spans [2 3 2 2 2]. The
former reading responds to the contrabass entry at
m. 25 and the intensification at m. 41 brought on by
the onset of the dominant seventh and reinforced by
textural events. The latter reading is cued by the in-
stallation of the dominant pedal at m. 33, the
halfway mark of the forty-eight-measure span.
What I have suggested so far is that there are im-
plicit duple/triple conflicts throughout this forty-
eight-measure section, at the highest level (sixteen-
RICHARDL.
Fl. COHN
~. -G Hypermetric
Conflicts in
_ II 1 I1 2
o I1 the Ninth
- Trpt.
SP-Q
-o
9
l
"1 1
II
21 25 57?
measure vs. twenty-four-measure spans) and at the
next level down (eight-measure vs. twelve-measure
spans). In the final twelve measures of the section,
beginning at m. 45, this conflict migrates one more
level down the metric hierarchy. As figure 2 shows,
a twelve-unit metric complex has three possible in-
terpretations. Each of these three possibilities makes
for a plausible reading of these measures.
The [3 2 2] reading of mm. 45-56 is clearly contra-
dicted by the surface grouping by six. What recom-
mends this first reading is only the accumulated
momentum of the previous four-measure hypermea-
sures, and our tendency to resist radical metric shifts
for spans of brief duration. (Conductors normally
continue beating 4 through these measures.) The [2 3
2] responds to parallelisms at two different levels:
the top-level binary division is based on the pitch-
shift at m. 51, and the ternary division is based on in-
ternal parallelisms within each span of six. This
reading is probably the most intuitively satisfactory
one. The [2 2 3] is at first glance a peculiar choice,
since it violates those two-measure parallelisms. But
we have been in this situation before and have seen
that under certain circumstances these oscillations
may be overridden by a switchback scheme, which
here involves reading the measure-by-measure alter-
nations according to the model given in ex. 5a. There
are three aspects of this reading that I find attractive:
the structure of each three-measure group mirrors
the structure of each individual measure; a stepwise
ascent from Cf to A is composed out (ex. 5b), mir-
roring surface ascents in the previous measures (e.g.,
Vn. II at m. 33; Vn. I at m. 37);33 and finally, it re-
flects at a twelve-measure span the [2 2 3] structure
33I am indebted to GregoryJohnston of the University of
Victoria for this observation.
199
 19TH a. Measures 45-57: [2 2 3] reading.
CENTURY
MUSIC 45 48 51
( I I I I I I I I I I I I I I >

Li I IJ j I I I~ j I
I I
( I
(
I
I
1
I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;!n
- I
I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4
I
I II 1 II, I , 1 , I
p
AF Af A
I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ifAR

54 57
A

. &-O- -
L~? iI f

b.Durational reduction, 1:9.

b. Durational reduction, 1:9.
45 48 51 54 57
_----- 3
a I I - - -0

'9b^X- -Sf f a--

Example 5

of the fugato subject, and one of the readings of the The antecedent matches the alleged twelve-measure
forty-eight-measure span.34 spans of the fugato, but the consequent marks the
The twelve-measure span beginning at m. 45 rep- moment when triple batching is eradicated at all
resents the peak of hypermetricconflict in the expo- levels above the beat, making way for the pure duple
sition. Once the tonal resolution arrivesat m. 57, the to follow. Thus the 3 + 2 counterstatement palpably
hypermetricconflicts subside as well. Unambiguous embodies the motion from triple to duple hyper-
metric regularity is immediately established at the meter at the level where triple is most strongly
four-measurelevel and continues unimpeded until represented.
the end of the exposition (exceptfor the single phrase
expansion noted above). Metric regularity at the The modulation from pure duple to pure triple (mm.
eight- and sixteen-measurelevels is deferreduntil m. 143-76). In the thirty-four measures that link the ex-
77. The twenty-measure period of mm. 57-76 con- position to the development proper, the monolithic
sists of a three-unit (twelve-measure)antecedent fol- control of duple meter is broken, and elements of
lowed by a two-unit (eight-measure) consequent. triple meter infiltrate at both the level of the conduc-
tor's beat and the adjacent higher level of hyper-
meter, the two levels that most clearly take on a
34Ihave never heard the piece performedthis way, and I triple aspect in the development. Example 6 presents
discovered this hearing deductively, not empirically, yet a set of linked durational reductions for these mea-
have found it easy and rewardingto train myself to hear
the passage in this way. If, as Taruskin has suggested in a sures, with each measure represented by a quarter
different context, there is "inestimable and indispensable note. The first sixteen measures and final six mea-
heuristic value ... in freeing minds and hands to experi- sures are given a single interpretation, but for the
ence old music newly," then analysis, like the use of early twelve-measure span beginning at m. 159, three dif-
instruments and the readingof eighteenth-centuryperfor- ferent interpretations are presented.
mance treatises, has a role to play in burrowing through
the layers of performance tradition that have encrusted Although the pure duple of the exposition con-
over the years (Taruskin, "The Pastness of the Present," tinues during the opening sixteen measures of the
pp. 203-04). transition, it immediately begins to erode by failing

200
 159 162 165 168 RICHARD L.
COHN
a b. , _
b I _ Hypermetric
Conflicts in
the Ninth

i b
t:- Jr7 j ,r ,r, b
J b-

147 151 155 159 163 167

143

b. _ - , =
x -
-- =n,. . ,i

9Ir I r jjI I - r f r r j
3:M i j-1
f=i-+ JJ ^r^f- J
L'' iJ r ? i bJ br Ji b? *r IJ-
171
159 16
c. ,
A I h , _ .
Rw
b I = ff = 4i =
.I "
g *-v? -?, r- #T ,, to 9

'

!):~~~~~~~
, 3:b bIi i. ,
9hb J r r
. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
; j -' rr ~~~~~~~~~~r
if~~~~~~~~,,
j#J 1 is9

Example 6: Measures 159-76: Durational reduction, 1:3.

to articulate clearly two- and four-measure divi-
sions. In this sense these measures resemble the
opening eight measures of the movement-a resem-
blance that is not surprising in light of the fact that
mm. 143-50 initially lead back to m. 9 and thus lit-
erally substitute for the opening. As in mm. 1-8, the
failure occurs at the downbeat of the fifth measure,
which receives only an after-bounce from the har-
mony of the previous measure. The accentual
weight proper to the fifth measure is here anticipated
by a measure, at the point where the temporarily
stagnant upper voice becomes reactivated. The me-
lodic motion suggests a 3 + 5 division of the phrase,
and it is here that the switch to tre battute is first
suggested.35 At the same time, duple meter con-
tinues to be suggested by a set of oscillations.
Throughout this passage, odd-numbered measures
are scored for strings and horns, while even-
numbered measures are played by woodwinds. Fur-
thermore, the flute is consistently an octave higher
than the first violin, so that it peeks out at two-
35It is even tempting to hear these opening measures as a
set of three-measureunits separatedby composed-in fer-
matas. This hearing could be reinforced by a conductor
willing to hold the fermataat m. 176 for exactly two extra
measures.
measure intervals. Finally, there is a consistent
alternation between major and minor triads
throughout the passage. Taken by themselves, these
oscillations strongly suggest a continuation of the
duple momentum accumulated throughout the ex-
position; yet the melodically generated accents at
mm. 146 and 154 suggest that this alternation could
be interpreted in the context of a switchback struc-
ture.
That possibility comes more to the fore in the
mixed twelve-measure span beginning at m. 159,
where both the triple periodicity of melodic motion
and the duple periodicity of registral, timbral, and
sonority-type oscillations accumulate a considerable
momentum. Of the three readings in ex. 6, only 6a
responds to the melodic periodicity. This [2 2 3]
reading is also consistent with the treatment of
twelve-unit spans elsewhere in the movement, espe-
cially the twelve-beat spans of the principal subject
and the forty-eight-measure (12 x 4) span of the fu-
gato. Example 6b and c readings both respond to the
low-level duple parallelisms, while hearing them re-
spectively as continuing the momentum of the prior
four-measure hypermeasures [3 2 2] and preparing
the six-measure concluding span [2 3 2].
The triple/duple conflict at the lowest hyper-
metric level of mm. 143-71 is intimately related to

201
 19TH the tonal design of the passage, which consists of a
CENTURY
MUSIC long chain of descending diatonic thirds. This pro-
cess results in the alternation of major and minor
triads, since diatonic third-relationsbetween conso-
nant triads always involve a modal switch. Thus, a
duple periodicity is inherent in such a chain. At the
same time, each adjacent pair of chords maintains
two common tones, while the third voice moves by
step. The moving-voice function rotates strictly
through the three upper voices; in the present in-
stance the orderis alto-tenor-soprano.Thus a triple
periodicity is also inherent in such a chain.36The in-
creasing sense of metric conflict in the passage par-
allels our sense of tonal disorientation as Beethoven
pursues his obsessive course through the heart of
chromatic darkness. Further,the sense of recupera-
tion in mm. 171-76 (figurativelypulling the listener
up by the bootstraps) occurs in both the tonal and
metric realms. So also does the sense of having rap-
idly traveled great distances: we have traversednot
only the enharmonic seam but also the territory
from pure duple to pure triple, at whose doorstepwe
now stand waiting.37
Pure triple, and the return to duple (mm. 177-237).
Unlike the modulation from duple to triple, whose
bordersare clearly framed,the return to the quattro
battute is not marked for the listener and comes
amid the most metrically disorientingpassagein the
entire movement. Indeed, the entire development
and retransition have an unbounded, seamless
quality that complicates decisions about grouping
structure, and hence metric structure at higher
levels.
Example 7 gives a durationalreduction of the de-
velopment proper,overlappinginto the beginning of
the retransition. At the lower level (ex. 7a), each
measure in the reduction is equivalent to three mea-
sures of the notated score, except for the two mea-
sures notated as 4. The second of these 4 measures
responds to Beethoven's quattro battute indication.
My motivation for the earlier one will become
36Note also that each upper voice strictly alternates half
steps and whole steps, resulting in an octatonic collection.
For further discussion of this passage from this point of
view, see my "Propertiesand Generability of Transposi-
tionally InvariantSets," Journalof Music Theory35 (1991),
7-8. The bass also reflects symmetric divisions: depending
on which metric readingone chooses, the tritone from El
(m. 159) to A (m. 171) is composed out either by (a)an oc-
tatonic fragment, continuing the motion up from C (m.
143), or (b)a descendingwhole-tone fragment,or (c) an as-
cending minor-thirdcycle, again initiated from C.
37My analysis of this section relates closely to Krebs'sre-
marks concerning preparation of metric dissonances
(Krebs,"Some Extensions," p. 110).
202
clearer as the analysis proceeds; for now, it suffices
to note that this single four-measurehypermeasure
does not disturb the regularity of the tre battute,
since its final "beat"doubles as the downbeat of the
following hypermeasure.
The next hypermetric level is problematic, as re-
flected by the two conflicting durationalreductions
given for that level. Although the first eighteen mea-
sures proceed easily in two nine-measure spans,
metric regularity at this level is interruptedin the
third span, which is extended to twelve measures
through the addition of a fourth three-measureunit.
The first reduction (ex. 7b) reads this twelve-
measure span as an aberration that only momen-
tarily interrupts the flow of nine-measure groups.
The second reduction (ex. 7c) interprets it as pro-
voking a permanent abandonment of nine-measure
spans. Analysts who have commented on this pas-
sage have differed on exactly this point. Schenker
essentially arrives at the solution given in ex. 7b
when he recommends bisecting the eighteen-
measure span of mm. 207-24 into nine-measure
spans.38 Rothstein claims, without further com-
ment, that at m. 195 the nine-measure spans are re-
placed by twelve-measure spans.39It is difficult to
understand Rothstein's motivation here, since this
readingplaces a chief accent on the neighboring6 at
m. 219, but not on the return of the head motive at
m. 225. Still, the six-measurereadinggiven in ex. 7c
is implicit in Rothstein's twelve-measure claim and
is consistent with his observationthat the extension
at mm. 204-06 triggersan abandonmentof the nine-
measure spans.
As is so often the case in the development section
of this Scherzo, the conflict between the two dura-
tional reductions hinges on how we hear the oscilla-
tions that occur every three measures.In the opening
of the development, these oscillations (here played
out throughregistraloppositions in the entries of the
head-motive) are clearly absorbedinto a switchback
scheme controlled by harmonic prolongations.(The
three-measureregistral shifts can be read as an aug-
mentation of the one-measure shifts of the transi-
tion, retrospectively supporting the switchback in-
terpretation of that earlier passage.) The span
beginning at m. 195 is initially heard in terms of a
switchback scheme as well (now alternating be-
tween two types of melodic material),but the exten-
sion at mm. 204-06 ultimately forces us to abandon
this interpretation in favor of the parallel (abab)
38Schenker, Neunte Sinfonie, p. 171.
39Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm, p. 39.
a. Measures 177-237, durational reduction, 1:3. RICHARDL.
COHN
177 180 183 186 189 192 195 198 201 204 Hypermetric
ni . 11 I I I , i I198I i* Conflicts in
the Ninth
Bsn. Ob./Cl. Bsn. Fl./Ob. Bsn. Fl./Ob. Ww.- . - . . .

Timp.-

207 210 213 216 219 222 225 228 231 234

b W St. i #i. w
i w[1 gtr TO B # r Sr
Ww. Str. Ww. Str. Ww. Str. Ob./Cl. Bsn. Fl./Ob. Str.

w" r __
__

b. Durational reduction, 1:9, first reading.

177 186 195 207 216 225

c. Durational reduction, 1:9, second reading.

177 186 195 201 207 213 219 225

xl
9rbfr r Jfr `__
"" ----->
r r " 9 9

Example 7

scheme.40 Beginning at m. 207, the oscillations find cation of 35-6- prolongations with triple spans
a new venue in the opposition of winds and arco throughout the composition, both at the three-beat
strings. Do we hear these as a reversion to the level (e.g., mm. 25, 33, 35, etc.) and at the three-
switchback scheme of mm. 177-94, or as a continu- measure level (see mm. 45-47, 50-52, and 177-79).
ation of the parallel scheme initiated at m. 195? Note also that the arrival of a dominant pedal at the
Internal evidence can be invoked in support of ei- exact midpoint of a span occurs elsewhere in the
ther reading. Speaking for the six-measure reading of Scherzo and always exerts a tension toward a duple
ex. 7c is the tonal structure at the opening of the reading at the highest level: at m. 33, which bisects
span: mm. 213-18 is a transposition (in diatonic a forty-eight-measure span; at m. 260, which bisects
space) of mm. 207-12. Speaking against this reading a twenty-four-measure span; and at m. 290, which
is the nine-measure dominant prolongation begin- bisects a twelve-measure span. All of these factors
ning at m. 216, particularly in light of the identifi- favor the first reading at ex. 7b.
The strongest motivation for preferring ex. 7b,
however, is that it makes for an overall structure
40Thecorrespondenceof mm. 204-06 to mm. 198-200 is that is both more internally coherent and more con-
somewhat masked by timbral and registral exchanges: sistent with the rest of the movement. The reading
flutes map to oboe 1, bassoon 2 maps to flute 1, etc. given at ex. 7b suggests that the development divides

203
 19TH into two parallel halves.41 These parallels are easiest
CENTURY to see in ex. 7a, which is arranged on the page so that
CEMUSC
parallel functions are vertically aligned. Each half
begins with two nine-measure aba (switchback
spans), followed by what is initially heard in terms of
a third nine-measure aba span. This third span is ex-
tended by the addition of a fourth hypermeasure, cre-
ating a twelve-measure abab (parallel) span through
an unanticipated repetition of b.
Furthermore, as is suggested by the two 4 mea-
sures terminating each line of ex. 7a, just as both pas-
sages extend the final nine measures to twelve by the
addition of a fourth three-measure hypermeasure, so
also they extend the final nine beats to twelve by the
addition of a fourth three-beat measure. This point is
uncontroversial in mm. 234-37, with its quattro
battute indication, but in the case of mm. 204-07 re-
quires some justification, especially since m. 207 is
simultaneously being claimed as the chief hyper-
metric downbeat of the second half of the entire pas-
sage. My reading is based on hearing m. 207 as a long-
awaited completion of the melodic motion which,
ever since m. 192, has been incessantly interrupted
by the timpani, always after two measures, and al-
ways in a dissonant configuration. At m. 207, the
timpani strokes are deferred by a measure, and the
melodic motion is allowed to come to completion, in
such a way as to satisfy not only the global norms of
dissonance resolution but also the motivic norms
specific to the piece. This is especially apparent in
the second bassoon (which, except for its first note,
quotes the entire fugato subject) and the first flute
(which has an inverted version of the same subject).
These factors cause us provisionally to hear mm.
204-07 as a four-measure group, a hypothesis that is
apparently confirmed by the weight conferred upon
the downbeat of m. 208 by the appearance of the de-
ferred timpani strokes, and by the contrabass, which
plays the lowest note in the entire development.
Subsequent events ultimately force the abandon-
ment of this hypothesis, and we come to understand
the accent on m. 208 in the context of a syncopation.
But the ultimately illusory extension to four mea-
sures seems real for just long enough to suggest the
possibility that the triple hypermeter at the three-
measure level is vulnerable, just as the aberrant ex-
tension to four hypermeasures in which it is nested
causes us to doubt the security of the triple hyper-
meter at the larger nine-measure level. These sug-
gestions turn out be heraldic, for when we come to
41Measure 207 bisects not only the development proper
but also the entire 412-measure Scherzo, a point which
may be significant in light of similar findings presented in
Smyth, "Large-Scale Rhythm."
204
the parallel positions in the second half of the devel-
opment, Beethoven gives us the same sets of exten-
sions, first nine measures to twelve, then three mea-
sures to four. (The melody-completing functions of
mm. 207 and 237 are particularly similar, as can be
seen by a comparison of the lowest moving voices in
each passage.) This time the lower-level extension
"catches hold," with the result that the music
moves immediately back into quadruple hyper-
meter.42
Recapitulation, coda, trio: Triumph of pure duple.
Had the upper-level extension, from three to four hy-
permeasures, caught hold at this point as well, the
modulation to pure duple would have been consum-
mated all at once. This does not quite yet happen, as
Beethoven opts for a more phased transition. Mea-
sure 234 inaugurates a span that includes three four-
measure units, and begins a fourth such unit, but
snuffs it out just two measures short of completion,
resulting in a fourteen-measure span. The headlong
motion toward pure duple is now decelerated
through a pair of twenty-four-measure metric com-
plexes, which maintain some of the ambiguity that
mixed spans possess throughout the piece. A dura-
tional reduction of these measures is given in ex. 8.
The first metric complex, mm. 248-71, prepares the
recapitulation of the first theme, which appears in
the second complex, mm. 272-95. (The location of
the recapitulation has discouraged me from pro-
posing a single forty-eight-measure metric complex
here.)
On the basis of tonal motion alone, mm. 248-71
are unambiguously bisected into twelve-measure
units (24 = [2 3 2 2]), the first of which prolongs V7
through a neighboring 6, a figure used throughout
the piece to compose out three-unit spans. But there
are strong gestural forces that motivate a contradic-
tory reading of 24 = [3 2 2 2], articulating spans of
eight rather than twelve measures. The status of m.
256 is ambiguous: it not only closes the prolongation
initiated at m. 248, but is also "seized by the stream
of yet again," initiating an eight-measure crescendo,
whose peak is marked at m. 264 by a shift from sos-
tenuto to martellato.
42Thereis a strong analogy here with the common tonal
procedureof innocently infiltrating a chromatic tone into
a diatonic context-"just a little passing tone, didn't really
mean anything by it"-which then metastasizes and ex-
pands to dominate largercompositional spans. For discus-
sion of a particularlyelegant example, see Schachter,"Mo-
tive and Text in Four Schubert Songs," in Aspects of
Schenkerian Theory, ed. David Beach (New Haven, 1983),
pp. 71-76.

248 252 256 260 264 268
1p cresc. f ff
' IL- L -L -
1ExmI8kv-|
b- I D0
0 kVo l0s/0248-9,
I0
Example 8: Measures 248-96, durational reduction, 1:4.
In mm. 272-95, although the bisection into two
twelve-measure units is clear, some vestigial ambi-
guity occurs at the lower level. The twelve-measure
antecedent divides into four-measure units, but its
twelve-measure consequent manifests a familiar
problem. Gesturally it clearly divides, like its ante-
cedent, into three four-measure phrases. But again
there is a conflict between gestural and prolonga-
tional designs, as the principal tonal event, the ar-
rival of the dominant pedal in the timpani, divides
the span into two six-measure units. The structure
of the twelve-measure span from m. 284 to m. 295
might be seen as a diminution of the structure of the
twenty-four-measure span from m. 248 to m. 271, as
the numbers above ex. 8 attempt to show.
As in the exposition, from the moment that the
"second theme" material arrives at m. 296, pure
duple reigns. The first sixteen-measure period of the
exposition is expanded to thirty-four measures-
'thirty-two plus a two-measure "written-out fer-
mata" at mm. 304-05-while the following fifty
measures are proportioned into three sixteen-
measure periods (with a two-measure extension on
the internal one) as they were in the exposition. The
sixteen-measure periods continue into the thirty-
two-measure coda, which leads up to the beginning
of the Presto at m. 412. At this point, we are re-
minded that no matter how consistently duple the
hypermetric structure, there is always one level that
holds to a persistent triple throughout the Scherzo:
the notated beat. At m. 412, the duple force comes
crashingthrough this final frontier,grabsthe level of
the notated beat by the throat, and throttles its in-
cessant triple into a duple shape.
About the Trio itself there is little to say, ex-
cept that it manifests unambiguous duple from
its lowest level, the quarter-measure unit, to its
highest level, the sixteen-measure unit, and at
all five intermediate levels as well. It is worth
observing, however, that the Trio is as purely
major as it is purely duple: it contains few
minor triads, never hints at their tonicization,
and only twice borrows degrees from the par-
allel minor (one of these moments marks the
RICHARD
L.
272 276 280 284 288 290 292 296 COHN
Hypermetric
I" 1I - -^ sa. ~r^nflinrtc
( in
o the Ninth
0 d o o -!1: 3
retransition to the Scherzo). The degree to
which duple meter and major mode are allied in
the Trio suggests a similar link in the Scherzo,
a hypothesis worth pursuing. Consider the ev-
idence: the beginning of unambiguous eight-
measure units, at m. 69, coincides with the be-
ginning of the modulation from D minor to C
major. Pure duple begins at the sixteen-
measure level once the dominant of C major is
secured at m. 77. The moment when C major is
relinquished, in the phrase beginning at m. 143,
is the moment when pure duple begins to
erode. The development section is minor
throughout, except for the prolongation of F
major beginning at m. 195; it is the extension of
this prolongation from nine to twelve measures
that initiates the process by which pure triple is
eventually abandoned. Pure duple returns in
the recapitulation when Bb major is tonicized,
at m. 296, and continues through the subse-
quent tonicization of D major during mm.
306-38. To summarize: all prolongations of
major triads are either in pure duple meter or
move toward duple at some metric level. The
converse is true up to a point: until m. 338, all
pure duple passages are in major. It is only
when D minor displaces its parallel major,
forty-two measures before the close of the reca-
pitulation, that duple first becomes associated
with minor.
The approach adopted in this essay also
sheds light on the end of the movement.
Beethoven's scherzo movements frequently in-
clude extra repeats of both the trio and scherzo
proper, for example, in the Seventh Symphony
and the second Rasumovsky Quartet. The
Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony prankishly
feints in this direction, then withdraws the sug-
gestion and proceeds directly to a final cadence.
Although Beethoven is clearly playing with
general stylistic norms, he is also manipulating
issues idiosyncratic to the piece at hand, in two
205
 19TH different ways. By ending with a brief excerpt
CENTURY
MUSIC from the Trio, Beethoven is conclusively
knocking the triple meter out of its last
stronghold and announcing the conquest of
duple meter at all levels of metric activity.
At the same time, by threatening to extend
the movement's ABA structure through a re-
peat of the Trio, Beethoven is once again
implicating, at the grossest structural level,
the issue that I claim has motivated the
duple/triple conflict throughout the move-
206
ment: the tendency of the forces of closure and
symmetry, identified with triple meter and
switchback schemes, to be overcome by the
"stream of yet again," identified with duple/
quadruple meter and parallel schemes. That
Beethoven only hints at this plan but does
not actually fulfill it can best be attributed
to pragmatic reasons: 1,432 measures are
enough for a scherzo, and seventy-five
minutes enough for
a symphony. '..