Beethoven and Napoleon

No political figure loomed larger in Beethoven’s life than Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Over his life the composer viewed the general with admiration, disgust and anger, ambivalence, and finally respect. According to his sometimes reliable biographer Anton Schindler, the idea of writing a work in homage to Napoleon was suggested to the composer by General Bernadotte when the general was the French ambassador to Austria. The result was Beethoven’s Third Symphony, now titled the Heroic Symphony but originally named the Bonaparte Symphony. After Beethoven learned that Napoleon had had himself named the Emperor in 1804, he angrily scratched “Bonaparte” off the title page of the copyist’s score with such energy that it tore a hole in the page. Napoleon’s two occupations of Vienna in 1805 and 1809 severely impacted the composer’s career. In 1805 the occupation disrupted the premiere of Beethoven’s only opera, Leonore/Fidelio, and in 1809 the composer had to hide in his brother’s cellar during the heavy bombardment of Vienna to protect his hearing. By 1810 Napoleon was again at peace with Austria, and Beethoven briefly considered dedicating his Mass in C Major, Opus 86, to the emperor. In 1824 Beethoven told his friend and former student Carl Czerny, “I used to detest him, but now I think quite differently.”

Treasure 6

 

Miniature portrait of Napoleon by Edmund Gosse (1787-1878), copied from Gosse's own 1837 portrait of “Napoleon Receiving Queen Louise of Prussia, July 6, 1807” (previously in the estate of Berkeley antique dealer Donald Davis)

Gift of the American Beethoven Society, 2008
See entry with more details and a downloadable image in the Beethoven Gateway

Also on display:

Aquatint engraving, “Bombardment of Vienna on the night of the 12th of May [1809],” by Piringer after a drawing by Johann Nepomuk Höchle published by Langlois in Paris, 1822

Gift of the American Beethoven Society, 2010
See entry with more details and a downloadable image in the Beethoven Gateway

“Europe after the Congress of Vienna. A Map of Europe with Political Divisions,” Section 2, lower left quadrant: Continental Europe, printed by W. & D. Lizars in Edinburgh, 1817 for John Thomas’s New General Atlas

Gift of the American Beethoven Society, 2004
See entry with more details and a downloadable image in the Beethoven Gateway