- This work was composed in 1809-10. It is the opening movement to a set of incidental music to Goethe’s play Egmont (1788).1 The incidental music was first performed in June 1810.2
- Goethe was Beethoven’s favorite living writer, so Beethoven was very pleased to be given the commission to write incidental music to Egmont.3
- Story: in the play (based on historical events during Dutch Counter-Reformation), Count Egmont takes a stand for Dutch religious freedom and national liberation against Spanish rule and against the dastardly Spanish Duke of Alva.4
- According to Grove’s article on Beethoven, Beethoven might have felt parallels between Spain’s occupation of the Netherlands in the play, and Vienna’s recent occupation by Napoleon’s France.5
- Beethoven originally named his Eroica Symphony “Bonaparte,” but when Napoleon named himself Emperor, Beethoven was bitterly disappointed and tore up the title page. 6
Sources
- “Egmont,” Encyclopedia Brittanica (2015), accessed July 22, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Egmont.
- Douglas Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), accessed July 22, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040026.
- Ibid.
- “Egmont,” Encyclopedia Brittanica (2015), accessed July 22, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Egmont.
- Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online.
- Ibid.
Cut IDs
40169 40469 40650 20950 41463 48257 14753 17882 20950