by Listen to Beethoven’s 1st movement of his 6th Symphony. Beethoven indicated in the score that his Pastoral Symphony was “More the Expression of Feeling than Tone Painting.” In other words, this symphony is not “merely a programmatic representation of the experience of being in nature,” (Lockwood, Beethoven’s Symphonies, 125) but it also expresses Beethoven’s personal and emotional connection to Nature. Beethoven’s love of nature is evident in many letters he wrote to his friends and acquaintances. In a letter to Teresa Malfatti dated May 1810, Beethoven stated, “How delighted I shall be to ramble for a while through bushes, woods, under trees, over grass and rocks. No one can love the country as much as I do.” (Lockwood, Beethoven’s Symphonies, 124.) Nature did not only mean beautiful scenes and fresh air; its most importantly quality for Beethoven was the promise of the power of healing his suffering from deafness and loneliness.
