Page 140 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

138 IN CONTEXT

I LIVE ONLY FOCUS

Breaking the mold of
the classical sonata
IN MY NOTES BEFORE
1759 Joseph Haydn writes
his First Symphony—in three
movements.

SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN E-FLAT MAJOR, 1793 The German theorist
Heinrich Christoph Koch
is the first to describe how
“EROICA,” OP. 55 (1804), LUDWIG the sonata form works.
VAN BEETHOVEN 1800 Beethoven completes
his First Symphony.
AFTER
1810 Critic E.T.A. Hoffmann
describes Beethoven as
“a purely romantic composer”
in a review of Symphony No. 5.

1824 Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 9 amazes audiences by
adding voices to a previously
purely instrumental genre.

eethoven’s “Eroica” broke
boundaries and audience
B expectations on its public
premiere in 1805, representing a
radical reworking of what was
understood by a “symphony.” The
composer’s daring expansion of
sonata form, his rebalancing of
musical structure, and even his
ordering of the work’s movements,
met with puzzlement and outrage.
The seeds of the symphony
were sown, surprisingly, with a
dance. In March 1801, a new ballet,
Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus
(The Creatures of Prometheus) had
its first performance at the Vienna
Burgtheater. Beethoven provided
the music, which ended with a jolly
theme in E-flat major. The melody

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