How A Symphony Changed the World
Beethoven’s Struggle with Deafness Sparks a Musical Revolution
“A symphony must be like the world — It must embrace everything.” — Gustav Mahler
The quote above is often cited as one of the characteristic statements defining the musical style of the late 19th and early 20th century —it depicts the grand scope and ambition of music of the era. While Mahler’s symphonies are now regarded as some of the most pioneering works ever composed, they would have been impossible without the influence and legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony, nicknamed the ‘Eroica.’
Many audiences familiar with classical music today will recognize the work as a warhorse of the standard repertoire; however, to the audience at the work’s premier in 1805, it seemed lengthy, poorly proportioned, harmonically extreme, and radical beyond easy acceptance. The performance was followed by a tepid applause, and public perception of the symphony was lukewarm at best. Critics had little idea what to make of it — some appreciated its innovative and radical approach to form and harmony, while others found it fatiguing and uninteresting. Through the composition of the ‘Eroica,’ Beethoven had taken a leap of faith, embracing the unknown.
The music itself is vital and vivacious, muscular and dynamic, by turns tragic and heroic, elevated beyond the greatest aspirations of Beethoven’s contemporaries. Its scale is unprecedented, its harmonies brazen, evocative, sweeping; the music is tattooed with Beethoven’s signature buffness.
Why the mixed reaction? And how did the ‘Eroica’ become the well-known concert staple that it is today, given such a lackluster premier?
The longevity and gravity of the symphony can be attributed to a single fundamental quality of Beethoven’s music — Universal message.
The ‘Eroica’ was written at a time of international crisis in Europe. The world Beethoven was living in was one torn by conflict between traditional and revolutionary ideals, between the ancient rites and hierarchies of Europe and the total equality proposed by the French Revolution. The avatar of the revolution: Napoleon.
The ‘Eroica’ was originally labelled the ‘Bonaparte’ by Beethoven, himself a fervent advocate of revolutionary principles. However, the name was dropped after Napoleon declared himself Emperor in December 1804, a move which Beethoven regarded as a betrayal of the republican ideals which had propelled the icon to power. Nevertheless, the nickname gives the listener some insight into Beethoven’s intentions and inspiration when writing the symphony. This was not a piece intended to divert or amuse — Beethoven had clearly committed to producing a work of epic and revolutionary proportions. The composer replaced the work’s original nickname and titled the new symphony the ‘Eroica,’ appealing to a universal heroic ideal.
Amidst the political chaos unfolding across Europe, Beethoven struggled with his own internal crisis. In 1798, Beethoven was gripped by the onset of a pervasive deafness, an extreme form of tinnitus. The young artist was 27, a rising star in Vienna’s music scene. Beethoven worked to hide his worsening condition from his employers, publishers, and the public at large; the risk and shame were too great. He began to withdraw from public life and adopted an irascible and ill-tempered disposition. He withdrew into his thoughts and his music, his sanctuary from the chaos unfolding around him. Beethoven’s once superb perception of music and sound began to muddy, agitating and frustrating the despondent genius.
The turmoil of Beethoven’s private life and his worsening condition are reflected in his music. The ‘Eroica’ is a milestone in Beethoven’s output in that it represents a major shift in compositional style; this is the beginning of what many musicologists call his “heroic” or middle period of composition. Throughout this middle period, lasting from 1803 to 1814, Beethoven drew from his own personal experiences to reinvent the music of his era and lay the foundations for the future. Beethoven’s musical language became increasingly personal and intense, emphasizing the full scope of human emotion. In short, Beethoven’s music began to express externally the internal conflict of his private life.
Beethoven’s private struggle is documented in his “Heiligenstadt Testament,” in which some of the artist’s most personal and intense emotions are recorded. The unsent 1802 letter written to his brothers Karl and Johann expresses the despair which Beethoven felt during his struggle with deafness, going so far as to mention Beethoven’s contemplation of suicide. Beethoven’s struggle highlights the incongruity of him as an actor and his setting — Beethoven writes,
“…how could I possibly admit such an infirmity in the one sense which should have been more perfect in me than in others, a sense which I once possessed in highest perfection, a perfection such as few surely in my profession enjoy or have enjoyed…”
It is one of the most revealing documents on the life of Beethoven, describing the untold struggle of one of the greatest musical geniuses of the era. Most crucially to Beethoven’s dramatic arc, the Testament sets the stage for a contest between fate and a universal protagonist, casting the artist as hero.
As Beethoven’s musical idiom evolved, his music grew beyond an expression of his struggle and became the tonic for his inner turmoil. By choosing to represent his story in music, Beethoven was able to expand the scope of music in general, moving attention away from the transient and towards the immortal. The abstract nature of music made it an ideal medium to express Beethoven’s heroic journey. Music gives religious meaning to an otherwise absurd existence, provides an anchor amidst the inscrutable waters of the unknown; music entails a renunciation of the self in favor of a larger whole, a departure from attachment to the ephemeral towards a communion with the eternal. This is Beethoven’s most radical and long-lasting contribution to music: a paradigm shift, a revaluation of all music.
Beethoven’s contemporaries and successors took ample note of his musical innovations. His contributions to music had advanced the style of the era beyond the Classicism which had predominated before him. Contemporaries and future musicologists describe this new era of music as the Romantic Era, a movement which was defined by an increased emphasis and deference to emotion as a primary musical value and the expansion of orchestras and compositional scale. Composers such as Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz, and eventually Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner spearheaded this new musical movement, building on a foundation laid by Beethoven. In a sense, the birth of musical Romanticism is Beethoven’s ultimate triumph over his condition and represents his conquest of fate and mortality through artistic achievement.
The story of the ‘Eroica’ takes place at the intersection of international, musical, and personal cataclysms transforming the world Beethoven lived in. Beethoven’s genius lay in his mastery and synthesis of these currents underlying his reality. In hindsight, it is not difficult to see why Beethoven’s audience rejected his leap of faith — by embracing the unknown and achieving his artistic destiny, Beethoven had abandoned listeners of the era. Despite its initial failure, the ‘Eroica’ rapidly gained popularity in the decades to come, providing a blueprint for what would become the ideal Romantic symphony.
In many ways, the ‘Eroica’ is a reminder of the power of music to represent both the infinitesimal quality of the individual and the cosmic grandeur of the universe. It reminds us to pay less attention to the symphony and the audience, and more attention to the symphony as a world of its own.
Sources
A Genius Finds Inspiration in the Music of Another — The New York Times (nytimes.com)
A Genius Finds Inspiration in the Music of Another — The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Symphony guide: Beethoven’s Third (‘Eroica’) | Music | The Guardian
“Beethoven’s Eroica: Keeping Score | PBS.” PBS: Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/keepingscore/beethoven-eroica.html.
