Beethoven's Eroica Symphony #3

Beethoven spanned the two eras of Classicism and Romanticism. Classicism was, on one level, a preference for balance, while Romanticism was a rage for power. Beethoven used these opposing forces to reshape the symphony as a musicoemotional form, and this was probably the single most important achievement in the development of the Romantic Symphony. Beethoven was also noted for his expansion of the piano sonata and the string quartet. Biographers often emphasize Beethoven as a wretched human being, uncouth, bad-tempered, and often unfair in his business and personal relationships. His personality brought him into constant conflict with publishers, musicians, patrons, family, and friends. His music is highly dramatic, and he was noted for his innovations and the sublimity of his musical vision (Mordden 118-119). His power can be seen in his Symphony No. 3, also known as the "Eroica." This symphony also created a new element in the structure of the symphony ever after with the addition of the Scherzo as the third movement. Beethoven would develop this musical idea in one way in this piece and in a somewhat different way in later pieces, but here is found his seminal thinking on the issue and his working out of various problems in fitting this concept into the overall thrust of the work.

The work is first of all a paean to the Emperor Napoleon, as Beethoven makes clear in various writings and statements and in titles appended to elements of the wo

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t try, though he would be much more successful in later compositions: His original intentions on this occasion were, as usual, very wide of the result. He has got the tune, but the manner of reaching it is very different to what it afterwards became (Grove 78). In this first effort, he labels his notes as a minuet. His use of three flats makes the introductory passage very much like the principal theme of the first movement, and indeed it may be that he intended this to be seen as a repetition. That idea is soon abandoned, though, as the musical sketches that follow bear no resemblance at all to the earlier theme. Beethoven had used the Scherzo before in different types of works. The Scherzo in the Sonata in A flat major, from 1801, places the Scherzo before the funeral march, serving as the third movement. This raises the question of why the order is different in the symphony and what Beethoven hoped to accomplish by the ordering of the four movements as he has done. The first movement should be seen as a different statement of the types of themes Beethoven had included in his sonatas prior to this time. The traditionally conceived sonata form has certain formal and spatial requirements that Beethoven here interprets in

Category: Arts - B