Even Beethoven Protested Through His Music!

Thankfully, I had to do a paper topic about Beethoven and his views on Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars last semester. Beethoven was very into politics and had very strong views about society around him. Beethoven lived in Vienna during the time that Napoleon came and occupied it. The Eroica Symphony is a very politically driven piece. There have been many disputes about who the heroic character in the symphony is. It is widely accepted among musicologists that Napoleon was the figure about whom Beethoven was writing. In 1803, Beethoven considered dedicating the Erocia Symphony to Napoleon. There is a legend that Beethoven became so enraged when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor that he withdrew his dedication. However, there are some time discrepancies with this legend. Really, it probably had more to do with satisfying patrons. It was all about the money. In fact, it seemed that Beethoven really admired the grand, heroic figure of Napoleon. Beethoven was quoted on saying this about Napoleon's death in 1821, " I have already written a piece for that catastrophe." Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is also a political piece. It was political to Beethoven (he wanted to make a statement about ideal power in response to all the politics that were going on in Europe). The author of the book Beethoven's Ninth: A Political History suggests that there was also an undertone of nationality and a call for freedom from tyranny in the piece. However, the Ninth Symphony has been used in some interesting political ways throughout the years. For instance, Hitler had the piece played frequently in concentration camps and on his birthday. The piece was also played when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. These are just some of the interesting and sometimes odd uses of this piece when one keeps in mind why the composer wrote it in the first place.