The tempo of the first movement in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is 108 half notes per minute (bpm), originally Allegro con brio.
Beyond this obvious one sentence answer there are many mysteries and interesting anecdotes concerning the Fifth Symphony, especially the first few notes, the famous fate motif!
One of the curious topics regarding the first movement is the tempo. In 1808 at the time of the premier the metronome did not exist. It was invented in 1812 by Dietrich Winkel, but made famous by Johann Maelzel, who had stolen the innovation and began manufacturing them in 1816.
Beethoven and Maelzel were friends and had more projects together. It was only natural for Maelzel to involve Beethoven early in the metronome idea. The composer, who was always very keen on precise tempo, loved the metronome! Right away with the help of his nephew Karl, processed all his compositions from the beginning and marked them with exact metronome markings. In 1817 in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung Beethoven published in a table the tempi for all his eight symphonies. Including the Fifth with the 108 bpm for the first movement.
Ever since this number is subject of debate. Anton Schindler, his last secretary, for example went as far as suggesting that Beethoven intended the first movement to be played at 63 bmp, almost half the original marking. This idea was rejected by contemporary masters such as Liszt or Mendelssohn.
There always were extremes. Some purists took the 108 as the only possibility, others took the liberty to choose a different approach. One extreme was Leopold Stokowski who conducted at 40 bmp…
In 1998 Gunther Schuller made a study on the matter and averaged sixty-six recordings of the Fifth Symphony: the average was 92 bpm.
According to one anecdote Robert Schumann once consulted a spirit and asked this supernatural entity to knock on the table the correct tempo of the first two bars. After the spirit had finished the knocking, Schumann said: The tempo is faster dear table…!
It is true that playing the opening of the Fifth at 108 results a very strange and comic music. How can this be? One possible explanation is that Beethoven simply made a mistake and his tempo is too fast. Unlikely. A more acceptable answer has something to do with the piano. Beethoven made his tempi indications sitting next to a piano, on which a faster play is still pleasing, where for a full orchestra it might be too much! The third popular explanation is based on Beethoven’s deafness. Science proved that deaf people have different feel of tempo in their minds versus the physically audible music.
