Mr. Peabody Says:
The “Eroica” was one of the great milestones of music, a time when Beethoven fully matured into the monster talent we all know today. It came at an incredibly painful and difficult point in his life. It is often called the 1st Romantic symphony. Beethoven at this time knew he was going deaf, but decided to keep composing.
Wilhelm Furtwängler/Wilhelm Furtwängler
- Allegro con brio (fast with brilliance), Eb major 16:43 (0:00-16:43)
- Marcia funebre: Adagio assai (quite slow) – C minor 18: 49 (16:43-35:32)
- Scherzo: Allegro vivace (fast, lively) – Trio – Eb major 6:33 (35:32-42:05)
- Finale: Allegro molto – Poco Andante – Presto – Eb major 13:00 (42:05-55:05)
Total time: 55:05
Andrés Orozco-Estrada
- Allegro con brio (fast with brilliance), Eb major 15:09 (0:19-15:28)
- Marcia funebre: Adagio assai (quite slow) – C minor 15:11(16:12-31:23)
- Scherzo: Allegro vivace (fast, lively) – Trio – Eb major 5:40 (32:00-37:40)
- Finale: Allegro molto – Poco Andante – Presto – Eb major 12:00 (37:56-49:56)
Total time: 48:00
Toscanini/NBC Symphony Orchestra
- Allegro con brio (fast with brilliance), Eb major (-)
- Marcia funebre: Adagio assai (quite slow) – C minor (-)
- Scherzo: Allegro vivace (fast, lively) – Trio – Eb major (-)
- Finale: Allegro molto – Poco Andante – Presto (10–14 min.) – Eb major (-)
Total time: 46:38
Instruments:
- 2 flutes
- 2 oboes
- 2 clarinets in Bb
- 2 bassoons
- 3 horns (the 1st in Eb, C, and F; the 2nd in E♭ and C; and the 3rd in Eb)
- 2 trumpets in E♭ and C
- timpani in Eb and Bb (in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th movements) and in C and G (in the 2nd movement)
- strings
1st movement
Rather than writing a whole bunch about what is happening, hopefully just by listening you can get the feeling of what is going on by knowing that this first movement sounds like something complete all by itself.
2nd movement
The longest performance I’ve ever heard is by Furtwängler, and it takes indescribable magic to make it this slow and work. The recording is old, so a bit hard to listen to re sound, but the performance is absolutely magnificent.
But why a “funeral march”? What does that mean? Who died? Let’s be a bit figurative for a moment and consider that this could have been about the death of Beethoven’s hearing and his willingness to go on living and composing. He had written at one point that he had considered suicide, and for certain there is agony in this.
C minor had symbolic meaning for Beethoven, and he often used this key to express very angry or dark emotions, the best example perhaps being his 5th Symphony in C minor. So many times in tragic music I think of the famous T. S. Elliot line from The Hollow Men:
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.
3rd movement
It’s about 6 minutes long, and after the depression and tragedy of the last movement the mood flips to manic energy, and the idea that the world and the universe was a bad place is gone.
The trio section features three horns, the first time this had appeared in the symphonic tradition.
4th movement: The finale is theme and variations:
There are 10 variations plus a coda in addition to the intro and theme.
Intro and Theme:
The variations:
- 39:12 – Variation: Eb major
- 39:43 – Variation: Eb major
- 40:14 – Short Bridge
- 40:23 – Fuegal – C minor , circle of 5ths, dim, G7 Bm
- 41:14 – B minor – D major
- 41:45 – G minor, very like Mozart 40th symphony
- 42:27 – C major
- 42:35 – contrapuntal, fuegal build to huge cadence on Bb9
- 43:53 – Variation: Eb major
- 45:51 – Variation: Eb major and minor: Eb major – G minor
- 48:28 – Coda: Eb major
And now for the story behind the symphony…
Beethoven began composing the third symphony soon after Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 36 and completed the composition in early 1804. The first public performance of Symphony No. 3 was on 7 April 1805 in Vienna.
This is the first of the most famous of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. It quite literally changed the course of musical history.
Back to front…
It appears that the Eroica, perhaps unlike Beethoven’s other symphonies, was constructed in reverse, starting with the last movement. Beethoven’s principal sketchbook for 1802 supposedly contains something that ended up in the 3rd. There is a huge amount of time-overlap for all the symphonies because they were not written quickly, and he often worked on more than one at the same time.
Dedication…
Beethoven originally dedicated the 3rd symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, who he believed embodied the democratic ideals of the French Revolution. In the autumn of 1804, Beethoven withdrew his dedication of the third symphony to Napoleon, but this is where it gets complicated.
How much of the change in dedication was idealism, and how much of it was practical? He was owed a fee, and Napoleon was a clear threat to the aristocracy. But Prince Lobkowitz he was paying for this symphony, so when he re-dedicated his symphony to the prince it was to be sure he would. That did not stop him from titling the work “Buonaparte”.
Change of heart…
However, when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of the French, that was the last straw for Beethoven. He broke into a rage and exclaimed:
“So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of Man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!”
He tore up his title…
Of course, he was right about Napoleon. When he found out the truth, Beethoven went to the table, seized the top of the title-page, and tore it up. There is one more quote from Beethoven that makes me smile:
“It’s a pity I do not understand the art of war as well as I do the art of music. I would conquer him!”
Change in dedication…
In 1806, the score was published this way, in Italian:
Sinfonia Eroica … composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grande Uomo (Heroic Symphony, Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.)
Performance…
The first public performance was on 7 April 1805, at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna; for which concert they announced the key for the symphony as D# major, which would have two double sharps. It was in Eb major, since the key signature of D# major would have been insane. From everything I’ve read the performance itself was ragged, under-rehearsed, which lead to confusion and a negative impression.
Anton Eberl got better reviews…
The concert also included the premiere of a Symphony in E flat major by Anton Eberl (1765–1807) that received better reviews than Beethoven’s symphony. Here is Eberl’s symphony that was on the same program, and it was fine music, but today it’s impossible to understand how it was considered better than Beethoven’s. However, Beethoven’s premieres were often near disasters because of lack of preparation, so what audiences heard was probably nothing like what we hear today. Perhaps that explains some of the weak reviews.
And now what critics said about the first performance…
I have made it one of my primary goals in life to talk about how horribly wrong critics have always been when judging new music, and the story here is astounding. Here are seven especially stupid comments:
Stupid comment number one:
Unfortunately I don’t know who said this. Apparently this “genius” thought the only thing good about Beethoven’s symphony was all the extra instruments:
“Through strange modulations and violent transitions … with abundant scratchings in the bass, with three horns and so forth, a true if not desirable originality can indeed be gained without much effort. *** becoming unbearable to the mere amateur.”
Stupid comment number two:
“this new work of B. has great and daring ideas, and … great power in the way it is worked out; but the symphony would improve immeasurably [] if B. could bring himself to shorten it, and to bring more light, clarity, and unity to the whole.”
Stupid comment number three:
“…for the most part so shrill and complicated that only those who worship the failings and merits of this composer with equal fire, which at times borders on the ridiculous, could find pleasure in it.”
Stupid comment number four:
“The finale has much value, which I am far from denying it; however, it cannot very well escape from the charge of great bizarrerie.”
Stupid comment number five:
“The finale pleased less, and that the artist often wanted only to play games with the audience without taking its enjoyment into account simply in order to unloose a strange mood and, at the same time, to let his originality sparkle thereby.”
Stupid comment number six:
“…this finale is long, very long; contrived, very contrived; indeed, several of its merits lie somewhat hidden. They presuppose a great deal if they are to be discovered and enjoyed, as they must be, in the very moment of their appearance, and not for the first time on paper afterwards.”
Stupid comment number seven:
“…[he would have] most properly ended with the funeral march, omitting the other parts, which are entirely inconsistent with the avowed design of the composition.”
Now, to be fair a great deal of this can be blamed on poor play and poor preparation. If that first audience had heard the kind of performances we now hear, they might have immediately fallen in love with the whole symphony. Regardless, the stupidity of critics is never-ending.