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dedicatee of his Third Symphony, but his insatiable lust for conquest and power was so disillusioning that Beethoven rescinded the dedication and harbored a lifelong grudge.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"), celebrating another Napoleonic defeat, the Eighth Symphony and numerous smaller works. Beethoven – although profoundly deaf – directed an orchestra made up 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 Seventh Symphony is dominated by a persistent rhythmic motive that – especially in the second movement – is equal in importance to the melodic content of the themes. Richard Wagner described 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 Allegro, which follows in lively 6/8 meter. The opening movement actually consists of a single complex theme held together by an underlying dotted rhythm in the accompaniment. The pulse extends throughout the entire movement and is only occasionally interrupted.

The theme of the second movement is minimal, a 4/4 ostinato consisting primarily of repeated pitches over which Beethoven adds counter-melodies and a buildup of the orchestration to create emotional tension. Beethoven’s innovative use of the rhythmic pulse in this movement influenced the Romantic composers who followed and served as a model for Schubert in his Symphony No. 9 in C major, “the Great.”

The Scherzo, in 3/4, is defined by driving quarter notes, dynamic contrasts and shifting rhythms. The trio, with its legato melody for the winds, provides the expected contrast, breaking away from the rhythmic pulse of the Scherzo.

The nineteenth-century 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 – admittedly refined for the occasion.