Symphony No. 3 "Eroica

Beethoven had long been aware that the French Revolution, which advocated liberty, equality and fraternity against the feudal state, had come to an end, when a Leipzig publisher made him a, shall we say, old-fashioned proposal. For an (unnamed) patron, he was to write a "revolutionary sonata" that could represent events programmatically, or at least evoke them. His refusal, on April 8, 1802, was filled with indignation: "Gentlemen, what on earth are you proposing to me? - To write such a sonata at the time of the revolution would have been imaginable, but now that everything is trying to get back on the tracks of the ancien régime, that Bonaparte has signed a concordat with the Pope - such a sonata? - a missa pro sancta maria a tre vocis or vespers, etc., it would still pass - today I'd even pick up a paintbrush - and write a credo in unum with big notes - but my God, such a sonata - in these times of Christian renewal - hoho - leave me out of it - nothing will come of it [...]".

It is not clear how Beethoven really positioned himself in relation to the politics of his time, or even whether he sympathized with republican ideas. On the occasion of the Austrian general mobilization of 1797, he composed, probably distraught at the French expansionist policy, a Farewell song to the Viennese citizen WoO 121 (for the Viennese Volunteer Corps), followed by a Austrian war song WoO 122 (1797). Only a few years later, Napoleon, as First Consul, was held in the highest esteem in Vienna: Beethoven was particularly enthusiastic about his statesmanship and the development of a society with civil rights (including a Civil Code still largely valid today). He even considered moving to Paris.

However, after news reached Vienna that Napoleon had been crowned emperor in Paris on December 2, 1804, Beethoven completely rejected these idealistic plans. It was in this context that Symphony no. 3 in E flat major Op. 55 changed its dedicatee, as Beethoven's friend Ferdinand Ries recounts in a (far from certain) anecdote: "In this symphony, Beethoven had Bonaparte in mind, but while he was still First Consul [...]. [...] I, along with several of his close friends, saw this symphony, already copied in score, spread out on his table, where, at the very top of the title page, were written the words 'Bonaparte' and, at the very bottom, 'Luigi van Beethoven', not a word more. I was the first to tell him that Bonaparte had proclaimed himself emperor, which infuriated him and made him exclaim: 'So he's no different from an ordinary man! Now he will also trample on all human rights, he will only satisfy his ambition; he will rise higher, like all the others, and become a tyrant!' Beethoven approached the table, grabbed the title page at the top, tore it out and threw it on the floor. The first page was rewritten, and only then was the symphony given the title: 'Sinfonia eroica'."

Historical events show that Beethoven was right. After Vienna had been occupied without resistance by Napoleon on November 13, 1805, the city was recaptured only after heavy artillery fire on the night of May 11 to 12, 1809. Beethoven spent these hours in the cellar of his brother Kaspar Karl (1774-1815). He even covered his ears with pillows to protect his declining hearing.
 

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