Page 143 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

CLASSICAL 1750–1820 141

Expressive grandeur in Beethoven’s “Eroica”

More developed first movement
than any symphony to date,
and longer than many
Opens with two entire symphonies. A second movement
powerful chords. that opens with a sombre
funeral march in C minor.

“Eroica” is
Use of triadic revolutionary An energetic scherzo in
(three-note) themes. the third movement.

Huge range Harmonic tensions
of keys. and surprises.
Prominent use
of brasses to
produce “heroic” end.

use a theme-and-variation form as subtly interlinked. He was to
its closing movement, Beethoven venture even further in his later
broke with tradition by failing to symphonies, and by the time he
start with the theme itself. Instead, reached the Ninth, in 1824, what
the movement begins with a bass had once been four separate units
line, from which Beethoven builds linked only by a common title,
the orchestral texture until we had become a musical narrative
finally reach the theme melody. He brilliantly interwoven across the
was turning the form on its head by old sonata structure.
effectively writing variations before Those who witnessed the early
he had even got to the theme. Also, performances of the “Eroica” found
rather than the variations being it a difficult work to understand—it
based on a single melody, the whole was simply too far from their idea
orchestra is involved in exchanging of how a symphony should work,
and developing interweaving lines both in terms of its length and its
of material, ending in an elaborate structure. But it was soon accepted
fugato that brings the music firmly as a work of profound genius and
and finally to the home key. was to exert a huge influence on Symphony No. 3 was already known
Beethoven had created a four- later generations of symphonists, as the “Eroica” by the time it was
movement journey through keys, from Schumann and Brahms to published, as this frontispiece of
themes, and ideas, cleverly and Bruckner and Mahler. ■ the first edition shows.

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