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Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 (1807)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

It is unclear whether Beethoven was inspired to compose his Coriolan Overture after reading the play of the same name by his friend Heinrich Joseph von Collin, or because he was more practically anticipating a new production of the drama. In any case, the composition itself is self-sufficient. Collin’s drama from 1802 had not sustained its initial success and fell from the repertory within a couple of years. Beethoven composed his Overture early in 1807 and dedicated it to Collin, with whom he frequently discussed collaborating on an opera. The Overture was performed at one of Prince Lobkowitz’s palaces in March and used for a revival of the play in April.

Like Beethoven’s other famous tragic overture, Egmont, the work deals with a heroic figure whose struggles resonated with his own. The composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who heard an early performance of Coriolan, believed that Beethoven portrayed himself in the work. The story is best known through Shakespeare’s telling in his last tragedy. (Wagner believed the Overture was meant for the English play, a work Beethoven most likely also knew.) The Roman general Coriolan is overthrown and exiled by the people. Taken in by the Volscians, the vengeful Coriolan leads these enemy forces against his native Romans, who are forced to plead for mercy. They ultimately call upon Coriolan’s mother, wife, and children to appease his anger. He yields to their entreaties and eventually commits suicide.

The Overture begins with three resolute chords suggesting Coriolan’s power and resolve. The key is C minor—the same as the Fifth Symphony as well as some of Beethoven’s other most intense works. Although the tempo is marked Allegro con brio, extended note values make the opening sound as if it were written at a slower tempo. It is a cliché of 19th-century writing about music to talk of bold, loud, “masculine” first themes and softer, lyrical, “feminine” second ones. This gendered language has recently received a lot of critical attention from musicologists, but in the case of this piece it might be just what Beethoven had in mind. Commentators have long thought Beethoven was inspired by the scene in the play in which the women ask for Coriolan to exercise restraint. The opening theme, which returns at crucial structural points in the Overture, would therefore represent the hero, and the contrasting second theme, first presented by the strings, the women’s entreaties. A final plea is heard in the coda and Coriolan’s theme returns in an altogether more subdued and resigned mood.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 (1807)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

It is unclear whether Beethoven was inspired to compose his Coriolan Overture after reading the play of the same name by his friend Heinrich Joseph von Collin, or because he was more practically anticipating a new production of the drama. In any case, the composition itself is self-sufficient. Collin’s drama from 1802 had not sustained its initial success and fell from the repertory within a couple of years. Beethoven composed his Overture early in 1807 and dedicated it to Collin, with whom he frequently discussed collaborating on an opera. The Overture was performed at one of Prince Lobkowitz’s palaces in March and used for a revival of the play in April.

Like Beethoven’s other famous tragic overture, Egmont, the work deals with a heroic figure whose struggles resonated with his own. The composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who heard an early performance of Coriolan, believed that Beethoven portrayed himself in the work. The story is best known through Shakespeare’s telling in his last tragedy. (Wagner believed the Overture was meant for the English play, a work Beethoven most likely also knew.) The Roman general Coriolan is overthrown and exiled by the people. Taken in by the Volscians, the vengeful Coriolan leads these enemy forces against his native Romans, who are forced to plead for mercy. They ultimately call upon Coriolan’s mother, wife, and children to appease his anger. He yields to their entreaties and eventually commits suicide.

The Overture begins with three resolute chords suggesting Coriolan’s power and resolve. The key is C minor—the same as the Fifth Symphony as well as some of Beethoven’s other most intense works. Although the tempo is marked Allegro con brio, extended note values make the opening sound as if it were written at a slower tempo. It is a cliché of 19th-century writing about music to talk of bold, loud, “masculine” first themes and softer, lyrical, “feminine” second ones. This gendered language has recently received a lot of critical attention from musicologists, but in the case of this piece it might be just what Beethoven had in mind. Commentators have long thought Beethoven was inspired by the scene in the play in which the women ask for Coriolan to exercise restraint. The opening theme, which returns at crucial structural points in the Overture, would therefore represent the hero, and the contrasting second theme, first presented by the strings, the women’s entreaties. A final plea is heard in the coda and Coriolan’s theme returns in an altogether more subdued and resigned mood.

—Christopher H. Gibbs