Beethoven’s Eroica: The Once Named Bonaparte

It is Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Op. 55), best known as Eroica, an Italian word for ‘heroic.’ This musical work is noted as a mark of the end of classical era and beginning of Romanticism.

Beethoven arranged this symphony in four movements: Allegro con brio, Marcia funebre: Adagio assai, Scherzo: Allegro vivace, and Finale: Allegro molto. Complete performance is about 45 minutes. The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 bassoons, 3 horns in E flat and C, 2 trumpets in E flat and C, timpani and strings.

Originally, Beethoven dedicated this work to Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of French, and even name this symphony with The Consul’s name (Bonaparte). He is surely admire the ideals of French Revolution and The Consul. It is Napoleon Bonaparte The Consul whom he admired, so when Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of The French, he become disgusted and even tore the name Bonaparte from his completed work with a knife violently. He then changed the title into Sinfonia eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un grand'uomo (“heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man”).

Eroica now is public domain, widely available. Wikipedia even has fully played complete movement in OGG format. There are many sites that has downloadable files of Eroica in many formats such as MP3, OGG, WMA, etc. One of the ways to find it faster, type “Beethoven’s eroica” in music tab in search engines such as Altavista, Yahoo, etc.