Crossing Out Napoleon in Beethoven's Symphony No 3 "Eroica"
The Backstory
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55
I'm Ludwig van Beethoven, and this is the backstory of my Symphony No 3 "Eroica". You'll find out how a symphony I first meant for Napoleon ended up with a different dedication, and why that change matters to the story behind the music. If you'd like to recognize our pieces the moment they start playing, which my fellow composers and I teach you on this site, take the Trainer for a spin .
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A Letter I Never Sent
In October 1802 I sat in a village called Heiligenstadt and wrote a long letter to my brothers Carl and Johann. I told them how badly my hearing was failing, and how dark that made me feel, even to the point of thinking about ending it all. But the letter also says that my art held me back, because I couldn't leave the world until I had written what was inside me. The Eroica grew out of that stubborn decision to carry on, and I think you can hear it in the music.Slow Cooking, Large Portions
I made the first sketches that same autumn, but most of the real work happened in 1803 and 1804. I was still making final changes in early 1804, so this was no quick job. The result was roughly twice as long as a typical symphony by Haydn or Mozart. Audiences of the day were used to something much shorter, so I was asking them to sit down for a very large meal.The Hero Who Changed His Mind
At the time I admired Napoleon Bonaparte, who was then First Consul, and I meant to dedicate the symphony to him. To me he looked like a man who stood for a better and fairer world. Then in 1804 he declared himself Emperor, and I withdrew the dedication. A hero who crowns himself was not the hero I had been writing about.Did I Really Tear It Up?
My student Ferdinand Ries later told a dramatic story in which I tore up the title page the moment I heard the news. Nobody can be sure, because Ries was telling it secondhand, and the surviving manuscript looks torn and recopied rather than destroyed. The story goes that I also called Napoleon a tyrant who would trample on human rights, but that is only an anecdote. Still, the tale about the dedication is the one people find most believable, and it has outlived all the others.A Name Added Afterwards
The symphony went to Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz instead, who had supported me and who had the money and the orchestra to match. When the music was printed in Vienna in October 1806, the title page named him as the dedicatee. That edition was also the first to carry the title Sinfonia eroica, plus an Italian line saying the work celebrated the memory of a "grande Uomo", a great man. So the famous nickname was not a tribute to Napoleon from me, because it only appeared after the dedication had changed.The Prince Throws a Private Party
The very first performance was not a public one at all, but a private run-through on 9 June 1804 at Prince Lobkowitz's palace in Vienna. His own orchestra played it, and he hired 22 extra musicians to fill it out, including the third horn that my score needed. That third horn mattered to me, because I had plans for it that no symphony had tried before. More private performances followed that summer on the prince's estates in Bohemia, so the symphony was well rehearsed before the public ever heard it.The Public Is Not Sure
The public premiere came on 7 April 1805 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and I conducted it myself. The reviews were mixed, with critics calling the piece long, complex and strikingly original. One of them even suggested it would be better if it were shortened. The same concert also introduced a symphony in E-flat by Anton Eberl, and it received the better reviews, which I try not to dwell on.Four Courses, No Skipping Dessert
A symphony is split into movements, which are like the courses of a long dinner: each has its own flavor, and together they make one meal. My first course is the Allegro con brio, big and full of energy, and it's followed by the Marcia funebre, marked Adagio assai, a slow and solemn funeral march. Then comes the Scherzo, marked Allegro vivace, which is quick and restless, with a middle section called the Trio where my three horns finally get their moment. The last course is the Finale, marked Allegro molto, a set of variations that includes a fugue, a slow Poco andante stretch and a fast ending.Recycling, Beethoven Style
The tune at the heart of the finale was not new when I put it into the symphony. I had already used it in a contredanse, then in my ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, and again in a set of piano variations, Op. 35. The scholar Lewis Lockwood suggests that I may have thought of the symphony partly back to front, with that tune underlying the first three movements. That is only a scholarly guess, but I like the idea that the end of the journey was in my mind from early on.Still Standing After All These Years
In 2016 a BBC Music Magazine survey asked 151 conductors to name the greatest symphony, and they chose this one. People often describe it as a step from the Classical style of Haydn and Mozart toward the more personal Romantic style that followed. The funeral march has been played in memory of many people since, including Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 and John F. Kennedy in 1963. I wrote it with one great man in mind, yet it has ended up speaking for many people at times of loss.---
I hope you enjoyed learning about the backstory of my Symphony No 3 "Eroica". Looking back, it began with a dark moment in 1802 and grew into a work that asked more of music, and of listeners, than a symphony had asked before. I'm still fond of the thought that something so large came from a decision simply to carry on. There's a lot more to discover in the Eroica, from the way the finale reshapes a tune I had used before to the many ways people have played and heard the music since. If you're curious, please click on the links on this page and keep exploring the symphony at your own pace. I'd love for you to listen again with all of this in mind.