File:Autograph sketch of 'Clärchen's First Song' in 'Egmont'.jpg

Identifier: beethovencritica00indy (find matches)
Title: Beethoven; a critical biography
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Indy, Vincent d', 1851-1931
Subjects: Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
Publisher: Boston, Mass., The Boston music company New York, G. Schirmer
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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r, should be materialized for Beethoven in theshape of gigantic plumes and Hungarian kurtkas, and findmusical expression in the rhythms of the drum-beat andgallop? We encounter it in this shape in the dead-march of Op.26; in the violin-sonata dedicated to Emperor Alexander,Op. 30, No. 2, where the second theme assumes the guise ofan attack by the Preobajenski grenadiers; in the ThirdSymphony; in the violin-concerto (1806); in the warlikeAndante and so absolutely heroic finale of the Fifth Sym-phony (1808); in the overture and entractes to Egmont(1809), and, very naturally, in the Victory of Wellingtonand the dozen marches or pieces for military band whichhe wrote from 1809 to 1816. One can still find echoes orreminiscences of it in Op. 101 (1816), and as late as thefifteenth quartet and the Ninth Symphony. To a certain extent this martial spirit again reveals itselfin the superb overture to Coriolanus (1807), although themilitary rhythm does not appear; but here this spirit en- ( 64 1
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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN gages in conflict with an admirable theme of conjugal love,and ends, like the hero of the drama, by succumbing to thebuffets of fate. Here we must interpose an observation apropos of theHeroic Symphony. We agree perfectly with the opinionexpressed by M. Chantavoine in his essay on Beethoven; itappears to us beyond doubt that the name of Bonaparte,inscribed by the musician on the title-page of the symphony,was so placed in the sense of a dedication. In fact, the com-position of the Third Symphony coincides with that quiterestricted period of Beethovens career in which he addressedthe dedications of important works to heads of the State.The first two sonatas for violoncello were dedicated, as earlyas 1796, to the king of Prussia, Frederick William II; in1799, Beethoven inscribed the great septet (Op. 20) to theempress Maria Theresa; in 1802, three violin-sonatas tothe emperor of Russia. So it is not astonishing that in 1804he desired to offer one of his great compos

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