There is little information about Beethoven’s activities during 1812, the year of the composition of the Seventh Symphony. He was in poor health and while he produced little else that year, the Symphony makes up for in quality what was lacking in quantity. The year itself was momentous; the Russian winter had finally halted Napoleon in his eastward march of conquest, a fact that must have lightened Beethoven’s heart. Napoleon had been the composer’s hero, the intended dedicatee of his Third Symphony, but his insatiable lust for conquest and power was so disillusioning that Beethoven rescinded the dedication and harbored a lifelong grudge. The hardship resulting from Napoleon’s occupation of Vienna in 1809-10 added to his bitterness. The Seventh Symphony premiered on December 8, 1813 at a gala benefit concert of primarily Beethoven’s own works to aid the wounded of the latest battles against Napoleon.

Also on the program were Wellington's Victory (the "Battle Symphony"), also celebrating a Napoleonic defeat, and numerous smaller works. Beethoven – although nearly completely deaf – directed an orchestra consisting of a collection of Vienna’s most important musical celebrities: Louis Spohr, Domenico Dragonetti, Mauro Giuliani and Ignaz Schuppanzigh played in the strings; Giacomo Meyerbeer and Johann Nepomuk Hummel played timpani; Ignaz Moscheles played the cymbals, and even old Antonio Salieri was there, heading the percussion section.*

Each movement of the Symphony is dominated by a persistent rhythmic motive which led Richard Wagner to describe the Seventh Symphony as "the apotheosis of dance in its loftiest aspects." The story goes that he once attempted to demonstrate this dance to the accompaniment of Liszt's piano playing.

The lengthy slow introduction, featuring some of the repertory’s loveliest oboe solos, contrasts in mood with the lively Allegro. The opening movement is held together by an underlying dotted rhythm. The pulse extends throughout the entire movement and is only occasionally interrupted by a special musical articulation. 

The famous second movement is a set of variations on an ostinato over which Beethoven adds counter-melodies and increases the orchestration to build emotional tension. A contrasting second section relaxes the tension but continues the pulse. Beethoven’s innovative use of the rhythmic pulse in this movement influenced the Romantic composers that followed, serving as a model for Schubert in his Symphony No. 9 in C major, "The Great."

The third movement scherzo is defined by driving energy, dynamic contrasts and tricky, shifting rhythms. The trio, with its legato wind melody, provides the expected contrast, breaking away briefly from the rhythmic pulse of the scherzo.  The movement features a wonderful trick. Beethoven follows the traditional scherzo-trio-scherzo form, then surprises by repeating the trio and scherzo again. That’s unusual, but not unheard of. But after the third time through the scherzo, he returns to the trio for a third time. And just as the audience starts to think, “Oh no! Not again!”, Beethoven brings the third movement to a sudden end. This trick was so successful that Beethoven reprised it in the scherzo movement of the Ninth Symphony.

Musicologist Sir Donald Tovey described the finale as “A triumph of Bacchic fury.” The rondo theme, with its emphatic timpani part, resembles a stomping peasant dance. But this movement is built on variety and contrast, as each episode contrasts sharply with the rondo theme by setting up its own defining rhythms.

______________

*Louis Spohr (1784-1859) was one of Paris’s most noted opera composers.

Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846) was a virtuoso double bass player and composer.

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) was a famous Italian guitar virtuoso and composer.

Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830) was an Austrian violinist, who headed a string quartet for whom Beethoven wrote the three Op.59 quartets.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1776-1837) was a composer and pianist remembered mostly for his clarinet compositions.

Pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) was a famous interpreter and editor of Beethoven’s music. And former court composer to the Hapsburg emperors.

Composer Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) is familiar to music lovers for the fictional account of his rivalry with Mozart in the film Amadeus.