The Malta Independent on Sunday
BEETHOVEN’s heroic achievement
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Symphony, known as the Eroica, has made its mark not only for its historic and infamous link to Napoleon, but also for its revolutionary approach to music,
By the time he reached his early thirties at the beginning of the 19th century, Beethoven had already left a significant mark on music, having already composed many works which remain celebrated to this day. But he was also facing a major crisis.
The composer started noticing a buzzing in his ears at around the age of 26 and 27. As the condition persisted and deteriorated, the composer started seeking medical advice in 1899, but no treatment seemed to help.
In April 1802, on the advice of a new physician, he moved to the village of Heiligenstadt just outside Vienna, and this may have been the darkest period of his life.
In a letter – and last will and testament – addressed to his brothers but never sent, now known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, Beethoven wrote at length about the despair he felt over his increasing deafness. The letter even reveals that he had considered suicide; but the composer maintained that his art prevented him from taking that course of action.
While his hearing only continued to deteriorate over time, Beethoven did recover from this crisis. And after he returned to Vienna in October 1802, there was a noticeable change in his musical style.
His new compositions were more daring, as Beethoven started forging his own path, breaking away from his influences.
The Eroica symphony, written in 1803, is not only seen as marking the beginning of his middle, “heroic” period, but also as heralding the arrival of Romantic music.
Beethoven the revolutionary
Beethoven’s return to Vienna was also marked by another change: the composer became more overt in his political views.
The composer was known for his disdain for authority and social class, perhaps exacerbated by the fact that class issues meant that his humble origins hindered his love life on more than one occasion.
One of his most notable patrons, Archduke Rudolph of Austria, even ended up decree- ing that the usual rules of court etiquette did not apply to Beethoven.
In a period dominated by the aftermath of the French Revolution – which greatly challenged the social order of Europe – and the subsequent ascent of Napoleon, it was only natural that Beethoven would develop an admiration of the French statesman, as did many others attracted to the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment.
Consequently, Beethoven wrote his third symphony with Napoleon in mind, and originally dedicated it to him. While it was subsequently re-dedicated to his royal patron, the Prince Lobkowitz, who paid for six months’ exclusive use of the symphony, he still set out on naming the composition, which he completed in early 1804, “Buonaparte,” even though France and Austria were in a state of near-constant conflict at the time.
But in May of that year, just a month before the piece’s private première at Prince Lobkowitz’s Castle Eisenberg, Napoleon, who had been the First Consul of the French Republic – a first among equals, in the style of the Roman Republic – crowned himself Emperor of the French.
News of this coronation reached Beethoven through his friend and secretary, composer Ferdinand Ries, whose account of the composer’s reaction is one of the legends of classical music history.
Ries observed that Beethoven flew into a rage at the news, exclaiming that Napoleon was “no more than a common mortal.”
“Now, too, he will tread underfoot all the rights of Man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant,” Beethoven was quoted as saying. At this point, the composer tore the symphony’s title-page and threw it on the floor.
The symphony was subsequently retitled Sinfonia Eroica – Heroic Symphony – with the subtitle stating that it was “composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.”
When he was informed of Napoleon’s death in 1821, Beethoven remarked that he had composed music for this sad event seventeen years before, in a clear reference to the symphony, particularly its mournful second movement.
Reinventing the symphony
The first public performance of the piece took place in Vienna in April 1805, nearly a year after its private première. And as it happens, the Viennese were very much divided about the merits of the work. Some did recognise it as a masterpiece, but others felt that Beethoven tried too hard – and failed – to be original.
In fact, it wasn’t even the bestreceived work at its own public première, in which a symphony by Austrian composer Anton Eberl was also performed in public for the first time. While the composer is quite obscure nowadays, his symphony received considerably better reviews than Eroica did on their launch.
But its reputation has grown immensely since that inauspicious start. In fact, in a survey of 151 conductors from across the world carried out by BBC Music Magazine last year, the Eroica was deemed to be the greatest symphony of all time, beating Beethoven’s more well-known Ninth Symphony to the top spot.
The Eroica’s defiance of symphonic convention would not have helped win the favour of Beethoven’s contemporaries. It was composed on an epic scale, twice as long as the typical symphonies written by Mozart and Haydn in the preceding decades. It also covers a wider emotional ground in its four movements than previous symphonies did.
Its first movement, characterised by various harmonic and rhythmic tensions, is indicative of a struggle, while its second movement, a funeral march – an unprecedented practice in symphonies at the time, though com- mon to French revolutionary music of the period – is solemn and tragic. The second movement is, in fact, often used at funerals and memorials, including those of German composer Felix Mendelssohn and of the eleven Israeli athletes killed in the massacre that occurred at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
The mournful second movement is followed by a far more jovial scherzo in the third movement, rounded off by a finale which ends on a triumphant note.
Various interpretations of the work exists; popular interpretations, unsurprisingly, tie it to Napoleon, with the first movement reflecting the Frenchman’s heroic struggles, the second the sorrow of his eventual death, and the final two serving as a manifestation of his spirit and legacy.
But an alternative interpretation was put forward by the early 20th century music critic, JWN Sullivan, who argued that the work, ultimately, reflected Beethoven’s own struggles in the wake of his crisis. In his opinion, the first movement represented the composer’s courage in confronting deafness, the second reflected his ensuing despair, the scherzo highlighted the resurgence of creative energy and the finale its eventual outpour.