Beethoven SYmphony 3 Sheet Music and Program Notes

Program Notes & Analysis

The Symphony That Changed Music Forever

According to the testimony of his student Ferdinand Ries, a completed copy of a grand new symphony lay on Ludwig van Beethoven’s table in his Vienna apartment. The title page was simple: at the very top was the word "Bonaparte," and at the very bottom, "Luigi van Beethoven. " The composer saw Napoleon Bonaparte not as a conqueror, but as a heroic embodiment of the French Revolution's ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. One day in May 1804, Ries arrived with astonishing news: Napoleon had declared himself Emperor of France. Beethoven erupted in a furious rage. "So he is no more than a common mortal!" he roared. "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!" Beethoven strode to the table, seized the title page, tore it in two, and threw it on the floor. The hero was dead. When the symphony was eventually published, the dedication was gone, replaced by a new, more universal title: "Sinfonia Eroica… composed to celebrate the memory of a great man. " This act of violent erasure is the key to understanding the "Eroica"—a work that began as a portrait of one man and became a monument to the heroic spirit of all humanity.

Breaking the Mold

Prior to the "Eroica," the symphony was largely seen as a form of sophisticated entertainment, perfected by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These works were masterpieces of elegance, balance, and wit. With the "Eroica," Beethoven transformed the symphony into a vehicle for profound personal and philosophical expression. Its sheer scale was shocking to its first audiences. At nearly an hour in length, its first movement alone was longer than many entire symphonies of the time. It demanded a new level of concentration from its listeners and a new level of virtuosity from its players. It was no longer just beautifully crafted music; it was a deeply personal narrative, an epic journey through struggle, death, and triumphant rebirth.

Movement I: Allegro con brio

The symphony begins not with a melody, but with two thunderous, explosive chords in E-flat major. They are like two gunshots, a declaration that the old world of polite, classical introductions is over. These chords seize the listener's attention and announce that a drama of epic proportions is about to unfold. The main theme, introduced immediately by the cellos, is a surprisingly simple, horn-like melody that gently rocks back and forth before hitting a strange, dissonant C-sharp. This single "wrong" note is the seed of conflict from which the entire titanic movement grows. The movement is a vast sonata form, depicting a heroic struggle of unprecedented intensity. The development section, in particular, is a battlefield of clashing dissonances and furious rhythms, culminating in the famous "early" horn entrance—a moment so strange to its first audience that Ries thought the horn player had made a mistake and was nearly boxed on the ears by Beethoven for saying so.

Movement II: Marcia funebre: Adagio assai

To place a funeral march at the heart of a symphony was a radical, almost unthinkable, act. This movement, in the tragic key of C minor, is the emotional core of the work, mourning the death of the "great man" from the symphony's title. The main theme is a melody of profound grief, presented by the strings over a somber, marching rhythm in the basses. The movement unfolds in a grand procession of sorrow, including a contrasting section in C major that offers a moment of heroic, sunlit consolation. The emotional climax is a colossal and complex double fugue, a passage of overwhelming contrapuntal intensity that builds to a shattering peak before the music collapses back into fragments of the main theme, like whispered sobs of grief.

Movement III: Scherzo: Allegro vivace

After the profound darkness of the funeral march, the Scherzo erupts with a sense of nervous, irrepressible energy. The movement begins with a prolonged passage of quiet, suspenseful whispering in the strings, like a coiled spring, before the full orchestra bursts forth with the explosive main theme. This is music of boundless, almost manic, vitality. The central trio section is justly famous for its glorious writing for three horns, a sound that evokes the heroic, celebratory calls of a hunt. After so much struggle and grief, the Scherzo represents the rediscovery of life and a gathering of strength for the final act.

Movement IV: Finale: Allegro molto

The finale is a brilliant and complex set of theme and variations, but with a dramatic twist. Beethoven took the theme from the finale of his own ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind, becoming a symbol of artistic creation and heroic defiance. Beethoven begins not with the main melody, but with its simple, almost skeletal, bass line. He presents a series of variations on this humble bass before finally allowing the glorious main Promethean theme to emerge. From this heroic theme, Beethoven builds a new world, leading the listener through a series of episodes—a military march, a complex fugue, a majestic hymn—before the theme returns in a final, transcendent apotheosis, bringing the symphony to a triumphant and exhilarating conclusion. It is a celebration of the heroic power of creation itself.