Pre-U music history

Essay:

‘By referring to the 1st and 2nd movements of the ‘Eroica’ symphony, discuss Beethoven’s expansion
of standard classical forms and structures.’

PLAN:

Eroica is Beethoven’s third symphony in Eb major and was completely unprecedented. It changed
the way that people thought about the symphony, as before this, it was not seen as one complete
piece, and was split up by other works in concert. It also introduced a large orchestra, with three
horns, and a separation between cello and bass parts. The symphony was written due to
Beethoven’s view that people should be recognised for their ability rather than heritage, taking into
practise the common idea of ‘enlightenment’, with people questioning the order of society. God was
also being questioned at this point in time due to the Lisbon earthquake, with the French
Enlightenment writer Voltaire suggesting that there could be no god if tragedies happened. Because
of this, Beethoven based ‘Eroica’ on Napoleon, a man who could do things through the force of his
own will (and who Beethoven related himself to), but when Napoleon crowned himself emperor,
Beethoven was disgusted with the fact that napoleon was just the same as every other ruler before
him, so changed the name and destroyed the dedication. The key themes in this symphony also
relate to enlightenment, as he uses the Prometheus theme, who stole fire from the gods and gave it
to people, reflecting the ‘liberte, egalite, fraternite’ theme, and the English dance in b76 symbolises
love between all of humanity.
The harmony in ‘Eroica’ follows the standards of the time by creating balance and structure which
was key in the time but changes the norm by bridging the gap between Mozart and Stravinsky’s
ideas of dissonance to create instability and then resolve it, keeping the balance of the music. The
modulations also follow this pattern, with the 2nd movement starting in C minor, and then
modulating to both Ab and F minor, therefore moving on the flat side of Eb. This is then balanced in
the third movement when it modulates mostly on the sharp side of Eb. In this, Beethoven not only
creates balance within movements, but within the entire symphony, which was not done before, as
the symphony was usually broken up by other pieces of music in concert.
When the movement returns to the Minore section, bar 105 would usually be expected to go back to
the ABA structure, but Beethoven instead modulates to F minor, and in this, puts new material into
an old key centre. This unexpected modulation continues in the movement, when deliberately
parallel harmony is used in bars 451 to 561, to create tension and resolve, and keep the running
theme of balance and symmetry running.
At the very start of the symphony, the melody is taken from page 131, using rising and falling
dominants and chromatic scales. Theses chromatic ideas are then repeated throughout the
symphony. For example, in bar 566, there is a semitone, creating a sense of unease, and in bar 22,
semitones rise and fall together with clarinets, flutes, bassoons, cellos and basses. These semitones
continue to be seen throughout the entire symphony, tying together all three movements, so that
the symphony unfolds like a running argument, tied and wrapped up by the end. This was a brand-
new concept, the fact that a symphony was about something, and was to be listened to and thought
about the whole way through, whereas beforehand, a symphony was broken up by other pieces, and
was much emotionally cooler. The melodies were also seen as unimportant, and just a way of
conveying a key to therefore convey balance, shown with Beethoven’s forgettable melodies, with
each opening idea going in a different direction.
Beethoven uses the timpani and brass to the standards of the period, to establish the tonic or
dominant, as natural horns and timpani play in one key. However, expanding on this, Beethoven
used the horns in keys that were not natural, meaning that the player would insert their hand into
the bell to change the note. As well as harmonically, Beethoven used this as a timbral feature,
changing the sound of the horn from an open and round tone to a much narrower sound, and to
utilise this, Beethoven gave the horns more harmonically significant notes so that they stuck out of
the texture slightly to emphasise the harmony.
Another timbral feature is that in the second movement, the double bass imitates a funeral drum to
support the theme of the movement being the death of the hero. The violins here also begin on a
bottom G, therefore using no vibrato, and giving a different timbre to what is expected from a violin.
The structure that Beethoven uses in the first movement is essentially sonata form, used widely
within the period, but instead a much bigger expansion on the form, introducing a third subject and
dealing with it in an extended coda, due to Beethoven wanting more excitement towards the end of
the sonata form, working with the human attention wanting a climax about three-quarters of the
way along the timeline. Because of this, there are many moments where the movement could end
but doesn’t, furthering the tension and release of the symphony. In the second movement, the
structure seems to follow the classical norms, with a major and minor ternary structure, but instead
moves into fugato, and from there into other modulation areas. Overall, the size of this symphony is
much larger than any seen before, with the normal length of a movement being around 6-8 minutes,
and ‘Eroica’ instead having 18-minute-long movements.