Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the Eroica, introduced an innovative approach to the symphonic form and, in spite of its negative reception, inspired a generation of composers whose creative musical forms and techniques characterized the period that came to be known as the Romantic era.
Ludwig van Beethoven began composing music at a time when mainstream musical taste valued disciplined structures, simple melodies and textures, and emotional restraint. Beethoven studied briefly with Joseph Haydn, one of the classical era’s most creative composers, so his early compositions, including two symphonies, were rooted in the styles and traditions of the time. In 1803, however, he began envisioning a symphony that would be dramatically different—longer, with richer textures and more extensive instrumentation. The recent ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte—who arose from the ranks of the common people and became first consul of the French Republic in 1799—epitomized the ideals that were sweeping Europe following the French Revolution
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The work premiered at the Theater-an-der-Wien on April 7, 1805. It was groundbreaking in its creativity, opening with two powerful staccato chords then progressing through four movements that ranged from a celebratory military piece to a mournful dirge, evoking a hero’s ascent, death, and rebirth. Its themes recurred throughout the four movements, surprising a listener with a slow passage where a spirited one might have been expected, as in the final movement, or adding a militaristic undertone to the funeral march, as in the second movement.
The final result was often unexpectedly noisy and possessed none of the unity among its movements that contemporary concertgoers expected. Even worse for these confused concertgoers, at almost an hour in length, the Eroica Symphony carried on long after other symphonies would have ended. The audience grew restless, and one patron is reported to have shouted, “I’ll pay another kreutzer if they will just stop playing!” Early reviews acknowledged the mixed reception the symphony received, and the work was only periodically performed during the rest of Beethoven’s life, but the new Romantic style it introduced would quickly find its way into the work of other composers.
Romanticism acquired its name from its evocation of the medieval romances, epic poems about heroic figures, exotic lands, and unrequited love. The Romantic era proved to be a period of sweeping musical innovation. At the center of the movement was an emotional depth imparted to music by composers who sought to express subjective, personal emotions in musical form. As a result of this expressionistic drive, the texture of Romantic music became richer. Melodies became longer, more dramatic, and more emotional. Tempos grew more extreme. Harmonies moved toward a fuller sound, sometimes even into dissonance, to create more volume and a wider range of expression. Composers even began using newly invented instruments to expand the creative possibilities of musical composition.
The values at the center of the movement—emotional intensity, the beauty of nature, the power of the imagination—had begun to emerge in combination with nationalistic themes in the Sturm und Drang literature
Hector Berlioz.
Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony offered a similar direction to a new generation of musical composers. The year after Beethoven died, an eccentric young composer named Hector Berlioz
Several of Beethoven’s successors in the Romantic movement are now considered to be among music history’s most creative and renowned figures. Franz Schubert,
Beethoven’s popularity after composing the Eroica Symphony allowed him to become the first prominent composer to earn his living from a broader audience: Lessons, the sale of his compositions as sheet music, and ticket sales for his public performances contributed to his income. The resulting financial independence allowed Beethoven to pursue his own creative vision instead of depending upon a wealthy patron, as had Joseph Haydn
Beethoven and his Romantic successors brought about an apotheosis for orchestral music. Public concerts become a popular amusement for the emerging middle class, and such audiences preferred works that appealed to their emotions rather than their understanding of musical technique or themes. As a result, not only audiences but also critics and subsequent composers came to consider symphonic music superior to sonatas, chamber works, and other popular musical forms of the period. Eventually, the heightened interest in music led to an increase in musical education and ultimately created a wider audience for sophisticated piano and concert pieces, concerti, “tone poems,” and opera.
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Abraham, Gerald, ed. Romanticism, 1830-1890. Vol. 9 in The New Oxford History of Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. An exhaustive, scholarly critical survey detailing the diverse musical styles of the Romantic era’s most renowned composers. -
Bent, Ian, ed. Music Theory in the Age of Romanticism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996. A series of essays by music historians exploring the manner in which audiences and musicians of the Romantic era would have heard and interpreted music, including the Eroica Symphony. The authors utilize a variety of social and cognitive perspectives to provide their analyses. -
Cooper, Barry. The Beethoven Compendium: A Guide to Beethoven’s Life and Music. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996. A detailed and well-organized encyclopedia of Beethoven and his life and works. Includes a broad overview of the time period and social context in which Beethoven wrote, as well as information on the development of musical instruments and musicology in Beethoven’s time. -
Lockwood, Lewis. Beethoven: The Music and the Life. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. Aimed at the general reader, this biography focuses on Beethoven’s compositions, placing them within a musical and historical context. -
Stanley, Glenn, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Series of essays analyzing Beethoven’s personality and musical compositions.
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Ludwig van Beethoven; Hector Berlioz; Johannes Brahms; Frédéric Chopin; Franz Liszt; Felix Mendelssohn; Napoleon I; Franz Schubert; Robert Schumann.