Symphony No. 3 in E♭ Major
Op. 55, “Eroica”
Few musical manuscripts have elicited so much musicological discussion as has Beethoven’s personal conductor’s copy of his Symphony No. 3. The story of its original dedication to Napoleon, the chief military defender of the French Revolution with its ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and the subsequent violent erasure of the dedication when Napoleon crowned himself emperor, has been told time and again.
Reality, however, is often more complex than history books would have it. Beethoven was clearly disgusted at Napoleon’s coronation, exclaiming: “Is he then, too, nothing more than an ordinary human being? Now he, too, will trample on all the rights of man...become a tyrant.” But his disappointment with the Emperor was tinged in no small part by self-interest. Hoping at the time to establish a foothold in the musical life of Paris, the composer had planned to travel there with his mentor, Prince Lobkowitz, using the premiere of the Symphony as a passport to the French capital and lucrative commissions. Napoleon’s coup, and the resultant political upheavals, disrupted these plans and are the probable reason why the Symphony, finished at the beginning of 1804, did not receive its premiere in Vienna until a year later.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Symphony is how Beethoven – who had surprising difficulty coming up with melodies – was able to make so much out of so little. The opening theme is nothing more than an arpeggiated E-flat major chord; the Scherzo theme is a descending E-flat major scale; and the theme for the Finale is a brief simple bass pattern that he had used three times previously – in the Piano Variations, Op. 35, in one of his Contredanses (WoO. 14, no. 7) and in the grand finale of his ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43 – repeated beneath a set of spectacular variations. Only the second movement, the Funeral March, begins with a fully formed theme.
It is hard for us today to appreciate the revolutionary impact of this symphony on Vienna’s audience. The constantly modulating keys, rhythmic shifts, large dynamic leaps and unfamiliar harmonies baffled Beethoven’s friendly but conservative public, and the reception was anything but enthusiastic. It took a few years for the Viennese to warm to this innovative work.
Although it would take many pages of in-depth musical analysis to explain what was so different and disturbing about this Symphony, here are some highlights that we now take for granted after over 200 years of development and change in Western music:
To begin with, there is the sheer length and scope of the work. The first movement alone is longer than any symphonic movement that had been written up to this time. It follows a complex and, at times, astonishing, key structure, with many different musical motives and surprise after surprise
The Andante, entitled “Funeral March for a Hero,” counters even the most poignant Mozartian second movement with a totally new depth of emotional intensity and grandeur. The Scherzo – a fast-paced dance from the peasantry – breaks with tradition in its Trio, scored as a section solo for three horns (one more than was standard for orchestras of 1803).
Instead of creating a sprightly and upbeat rondo, in the style of his predecessors, Beethoven gives a weight and importance to the Finale that would inspire both his own future symphonic writing (culminating in the Ninth Symphony) and that of his successors. The theme is nothing more than a skeleton, actually more a ground bass than a true melody. The variations that constitute this lengthy movement are also quite new in structure. Beethoven includes variations in different keys and of varying lengths and even seems to break away from the variations altogether when he introduces a lyrical melody in the middle of the movement. Whereas most sets of variations progress steadily from the simple to the complex – or, at least, the more ornamented – Beethoven was less interested in bravura than in giving each variation its own mood, for which he also employed an innovative use of orchestral solos and ensembles. The movement concludes with a joyful outburst from the full orchestra, likely the loudest music that audiences of Beethoven’s time would have ever heard.
