Welcome to Beethoven’s Third Symphony (Eroica)!

As one of the great masterpieces of all time, many musicologists point to Beethoven’s Third Symphony (subtitled Eroica) as the definitive beginning of the romantic era in music. Over the next weeks we will dig into what exactly romanticism is, Beethoven’s personal life, what makes this piece so revolutionary, and even Napoleon Bonaparte.

But first (as always), the music! For this score club, we will be focusing only on the first movement of this behemoth. The first video shows Leonard Bernstein conducting of the first movement alone, while the second video (accompanied by a full score) is the entire symphony. The first movement ends right around 13:30 in the second video.

This piece is full of surprising and unexpected twists and turns. It has great humor, sorrowful melodies, heroism and moments of contemplation. In fact, one of the reasons why the Symphony’s nickname is “Eroica” (Italian for Heroic) is for its breadth in emotion and sheer size compared to the music of Mozart and Haydn that came immediately before it.

In your listening, remember that if something stands out to you or grabs your attention in any way, It is supposed to! Make sure to take note of these moments. Beethoven made sure you would hear them in an effort to communicate the meaning behind the piece.

It’s important too, to think about what romanticism means in the artistic context. The painting shown (Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, 1818) is considered one of the best examples of German Romanticism, and was painted 15 years after Beethoven wrote his Eroica.

The work, like Beethoven’s Eroica, somewhat contradicts what mainstream media considers “romantic.” It is an encapsulation of the human experience. It can be joyous and extroverted, sorrowful and inward, and everything in-between.

It is important to note however, that in music, romanticism should not be defined only by the literal sounds a composer conjures (sweeping strings, loud trumpets etc.), but rather by the story and meaning they attempt to present to the audience. In other words, Romanticism isn’t just a sound, it’s a philosophy.

And so, while listening to this piece, think: “What story is Beethoven trying to tell? What kind of evolution is taking place, and how is he able to communicate this through his music?”

That’s it for now! Next week we will talk about Beethoven’s remarkably dramatic surroundings when we was writing this masterpiece.

Welcome to week two with Eroica! This week we look at Beethoven’s emotional state while writing his Symphony, and how that may have affected his music.

In 1803 (the same year he began his work on the Eroica), Beethoven, grappling with his increasing deafness, was in the town of Heiligenstadt on the advice of his doctor. While there, he wrote a heartfelt letter to his brothers, which become known as the “Heiligenstadt Testament.”In it, Beethoven candidly reveals his inner thoughts, from the pain of going deaf, to his depression and even his thoughts of suicide. It was his deep desire to reach artistic heights and fulfill his destiny that kept him from taking his own life. For the complete text of this remarkable letter, click here.

Another piece of the Eroica puzzle comes from the politics of the time. Beethoven considered Napoleon Bonaparte to be one of his heroes, as a man who supposedly embodied the democratic ideals of the French Revolution. He thus dedicated the piece to him, but, upon hearing that he had proclaimed himself the emperor of the French (a monarchic title that Napoleon was supposed to stand against), Beethoven became enraged and immediately tore the dedication from the manuscript (literally), shown in the picture here. Instead, he dedicated the symphony “to the memory of a great man.”

It was in this emotion state and political and personal turmoil that Beethoven composed his Third Symphony. A man, depressed to the point of contemplating suicide, persevering in order to attain new levels of artistic excellence. Perhaps it was his own struggles and hope to overcome them that made him so inspired by the grand French Revolution and its ideals of democracy and freedom. The battle within Beethoven was exemplified in the battles of the French Revolution, having ended just four years before Beethoven began writing the Symphony.

The question at hand is how did Beethoven express these sentiments through his music? How can a person show struggle, triumph, despair and hope in a symphonic work? Listen more this week with that in mind, now with a more clear idea of what Beethoven was thinking.

Next week we will examine the music itself and look for the amazing ways Beethoven accomplished this!

Welcome to week three! This week, we start diving into the music a bit more…

In many ways, Beethoven’s Third Symphony was the true beginning of the “Romantic” period of classical music. But what exactly does that mean? What makes a piece of music romantic? The answer is a lot of things! But one of the most important aspects that most agree a piece of romantic music must have, is a narrative: a kind of musical evolution in a piece that can act as a metaphor for a journey any person might take emotionally or otherwise.

This is where part of Beethoven’s genius lies: In creating this kind of humanistic narrative in his music. Let’s talk about how…

First, listen to these three spots in the music from the video here: The first minute of music, from 9:00 - 10:00, and from 17:15 to the end.

Note that the first and last clips have the same melody, but in different styles. How are they different?

Now think of any struggle that you may have journeyed through in your life, be it emotional, physical, or psychological. These travails usually break down into three broad periods like this: You before the journey begins, you encountering something you must grapple with, and you overcoming whatever the hurdle was, emerging from the endeavor as the same person, but wiser and improved.

A simplification perhaps, but this is exactly the journey that Beethoven presents in his Eroica. The three spots from the video exemplify the three important moments in any human struggle. If we think of the main melody (the first thing you hear after the two big hits at the very beginning) as a person, we can follow their plight through the music.

That is: The first moment from the video is the introduction of the main character - the second moment exemplifies the struggle that character is grappling with - and the third moment shows the main character again, now with a heroic flair, having conquered those demons.

Knowing what we do about Beethoven’s emotional state while writing this symphony, what insights can we gain from the music he wrote? Was he hopeful? Naive? And what can we ourselves gain from the music? Can we relate to it as much as the composer himself did?

In your listening this week, try to listen for more ways Beethoven accomplishes this task. Where else are there moments of tension or calmness, how does Beethoven put these moments into context, and how does that enhance the overall narrative?

Welcome to the last week with Eroica! To wrap things up, let’s give this piece some historical context.

Like most movements, be they artistic, political or social, It’s important to contextualize them in order to grasp its real significance.

One of the most significant changes in the music “industry” during the time that Beethoven was on the forefront of, was the shift to composers working strictly for their own artistic goals. With some exceptions, almost all of the music before Beethoven, written by composers like Mozart, Haydn and Bach, were written for and commissioned by either the Church, or the courts that those composers worked for.

While this was great for financial stability, it was not the most artistically free environment, as most pieces had to be written for specific occasions such as coronations, masses, balls etc.

We can now giveWanderer above the Sea of Fog (Caspar David Friedrich, 1818), some more meaning. As composers, led in large part by Beethoven, began breaking away from these institutions, restrictive conditions were stripped away with them, giving them an artistic freedom rarely seen before. They were able to turn inward in order to find ways to express their own voice and in turn, expressing the voices of many.

This painting can be seen as a stunning example of that shift. A turn away from courtly and religious music, and towards the individual. If we think of the man standing on the rock as Beethoven himself, we can see a trailblazing person with the vastness of a new kind of artistic expression at his fingertips. Thus began the Romantic Era in classical music.

Thus began the Romantic Era in classical music. Beethoven and his Eroica Symphony inspired generations of composers to push the boundaries of music technically, creatively and philosophically. Without him, it’s not too far fetched to imagine that beloved composers like Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov or Mahler would never have written the music they did.

That’s it for Eroica! Stayed tuned for a new piece next week!