¨ The expression of power via music is an attainment accomplished principally, if not solely, by Beethoven. In no other composer is the sensation of thrust, of movement from strength, of massive force in action so clearly formulated.

  It was probably for this reason, essentially, that the "Eroica," according to Beethoven's friend Schindler, was in some quarters considered a dangerously immoral work. For the power here is personal power, the strength of the individual to stand up to his own fate, in fact, to the deity himself.

  His deathbed was not the first moment when Beethoven shook his fist at the Heavens. As early as 1801, when he found himself already growing slightly deaf, he wrote his friend Carl Amenda: ". . . your Beethoven lives very unhappily, in constant conflict with nature and his Creator; oftentimes I have cursed the latter for making his creatures the sport of the most terrible chance . . ." But instead of mildly submitting to his fate, Beethoven undertook to force it to serve him.

  It is this underlying principle of energetic self-determination which links Beethoven to the figure of Napoleon. Bonaparte was, at first, the image of the champion of the people, the downtrodden. He was to be the savior of the little man, the self-made liberator of the lowly. The "Eroica" was written for him.

  According to Schindler, it was General Bernadotte who first gave Beethoven the idea of writing a symphony based on Bonaparte. In his despair over his loss of hearing the composer apparently seized on this notion as a principle of strength around which he could rebuild his faith in himself. Schindler, who was also Beethoven's first biographer, found that by the fall of 1802 Beethoven's mental attitude was "so much bettered that he could take hold afresh of his long-formulated plan and make some progress: to pay homage with a great instrumental work to the hero of the time, Na­poleon . . ."

  The inscription of the title page was orig­inally -"Buonaparte." When Ries brought Beethoven the news that his democratic hero had proclaimed himself Emperor, the composer is said to have fumed and then remarked: "Is he also nothing but a human being? He will . . . become a tyrant."

  The dedication was promptly changed and the work retitled Sinfonia Eroica—Composta per festeggiare it souvenire d'un grand' uomo (Heroic Symphony — composed to celebrate the memory of a great man).

  In art the individual always epitomizes the underlying universal principle, so there is really no change of importance accomplished by making the symphony not about Napoleon but simply about the military hero, taken as an ideal. But the fact that Beethoven's actual model was Bonaparte and none other is not in doubt. As Robert Bagar writes: "However, much as some of us might enjoy evading the fact of its purpose, the symphony was already completed when Beethoven suffered a democrat's change of heart, and like it or not, the piece is a kind of program music, written in admiration of Bonaparte. In support of that contention we have what are alleged to be Beethoven's own words spoken at the announcement of Napoleon's death. 'Did I not foresee the catastrophe when I wrote the funeral march in the `Eroica'?"

¨ The "Eroica" was first performed in 1804 at the house of the prince to whom it was eventually dedicated, Prince Lobkowitz. This was a private performance. The first performance in public came at the Theater an der Wien the following year. According to the poet Christian Kuffner, who years later asked the composer which of his symphonies was his favorite, the "Eroica" remained Beethoven's pet.

  The choice is meaningful. In the "Eroica" Beethoven probably saw his own image most clearly reflected. He liked to call himself the "Generalissimo," as a kind of pet name, and many of his remarks showed a decided penchant for thinking of himself as a kind of military hero in music. It was the idealized Napoleon of the early years who was, after all, his model here—a model no doubt chosen because it represented the qualities he held to be the highest attainable in himself.

  The remark about foreseeing the catastrophe at the end of Napoleon's career may also be taken at face value. If it is, it suggests that what Beethoven valued in Bonaparte at the time of writing the "Eroica" was the attempt to wrest fate from the hands of the gods, the striving that, however hopeless, enobles the man in the act. Beethoven, the curser of fate, the shaker of fists at destiny, was therefore quite aware of the fact that all hereos, military or musical, become in the end dead heroes. Stature may be attained through defiance, but without deceiving oneself that any other outcome is possible.

  And yet Beethoven himself won out, in one important way. As Dr. Walter wrote in the foreword to his autobiography, Theme and Variations: "For the works of the creative spirit last, they are essentially imperishable, while the world-stirring historical activities of even the most eminent men are circumscribed by time. Napoleon is dead—but Bee­thoven lives."

¨ I. Allegro con brio. Two sharp chords open the movement, followed by the principal theme given by the cellos. It continues in full orchestra, related, thematic ideas being ad­ded on the way. The second theme is introduced by the woodwinds and continued by the strings. As the movement continues it is clear that Beethoven is using, for the first time in fact, a radically new approach to the inner content of the symphony. Whole groups of themes and thematic fragments are formulated together in continuous progress. New material is added in the development section and all is charged with a central driving energy which carries the listener onward in such a way that the formal outlines of the work, while present, do nothing to detract from the sensation of advancing movement.

   II. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai. The main theme is given immediately by the strings, woodwinds and horns taking it up with the first repeat. A mournful descending theme, like an epitaph, is given by the first violins. Again the movement fulfills the rough outlines of the march form; but its emotional content is vastly more complex and subtle than this would lead us to expect.

  III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace. The theme of the scherzo, Paul Nettl remarks, "enters like a whisper of resurging life, constantly striving upwards only to fall back again." The trio, in D major like the rest of the movement, presents a simple subject of rustic charm played by oboes and bassoons.

  IV. Allegro molto. This is the first of Bee­thoven's symphonic movements in variation form. The theme is one previously used by Beethoven in three works, in the Op. 35 Piano Variations, the  Prometheus ballet music, and a contradance. Its bass line is put forward first, in pizzicato strings. The variations that follow are full of gaiety and humor. A flamboyant coda completes the work.

Notes by CHARLES BURR