I. Grave II. Allegretto III. Allegro marcato

“There is something cocksure about a compose who reaches this number, and calls his symphony simply No. 5” – wrote Honegger. “For long now, there has only been one authentic “Fifth,” Beethoven's. For that reason – and also to make it easier to differentiate – I added to my score, which bears this numeral, a subtitle: 'die tre re.' I am not referring to the Three Kings or anything like that, just to the note d, which as a pizzicato on the basses, and an ad lib passage for timpani – these three notes are all it has to play – closes all three movements.”

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) composed his final symphony, No. 5, in three months in 1950. Similar to Bartók's Concerto, it was written for the Natalia Koussevitzky foundation. Likewise, Charles Münch conducted its premiere in Boston in March 1952.
 Elsewhere, Honegger also had this to say about the circumstances of composition: “I suffer from dreadful insomnia and to expel my darker most thoughts, I commit them to paper … I interlinked the sketches that thus emerged and I realised that a symphony had been formed from them…” This symphony born from atrocious insomnia is not only the evocation of oppressive nights. In the central movement, we also find moments of serenity. And yet the final movement does not refute the composer's pessimistic statement, and he seems to view the future without hope.

The Grave opening movement comprises of three blocks. The first commences with a full orchestra fortissimo and then sinks first into the piano of the trumpets and trombones supplemented with basses and bassoons, and then into the pianissimo of the strings supported by the tuba. The second block is the reverse: the orchestra rising from piano to full volume, with the deafening sound of the trumpets. The third block rhymes with the first, and in the final bars of the movement, the timpani accentuates the final d heard on the lower strings.
A nine bar theme, always with a different counterpoint, provides the basis for the five part second movement (Allegretto) In this rondo form, good humoured movement, rhythmic and playful textures alternate with melodic lyricism, but apart from in a few brief passages, elements of the theme recur constantly.
The final movement, Allegro marcato begins with pulsating triads on the trumpets, joined by semi quavers on the strings. Above this stubbornly repeating rhythmic accompaniment, a melody is heard progressing in large intervals on the horns and bassoons. The momentum does not let up for a moment, a triumphant atmosphere permeates until we hear the imitative pentatonic melody and the quotation of the beginning of the movement. Then suddenly everything collapses, and only the pulsations remain, along with debris from the themes of the movement.