Beethoven’s Egmont Overture: The Sound of Heroism

Beethoven composed the "Egmont Overture" during a turbulent period in European history. During this time, Europe was grappling with the aftermath of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. The siege of Vienna in May 1809, saw the Austrian capital fall to Napoleon for the second time in four years and Beethoven was forced into an uncomfortable sort of seclusion. Though he chose to stay behind, many of the Viennese elite had fled to safety.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Right after the departure of the French Army later on in the same year, Beethoven was commissioned to write the music for Goethe’s play Egmont. The play, set in 16th-century revolves around the heroic Count Egmont and his resistance against Spanish oppression. He dies heroically while making his stand.

Beethoven had famously expressed his great outrage over Napoleon 's decision to crown himself Emperor in 1804, furiously scratching out his name in the dedication of the Eroica Symphony. In the music for Egmont, Beethoven expressed his own political concerns through the exaltation of the heroic sacrifice of a man condemned to death for taking a stand against oppression. Beethoven’s incidental music begins with a powerful, strikingly original overture that summarizes the course of the drama, from its ominous slow introduction to the transformation of tragedy into triumph in a brilliant coda, This is one of Beethoven’s finest triumphant endings, and in the play it becomes the “Victory Symphony” heard when Egmont mounts the execution block and utters his final, triumphant words.

Goethe, upon receiving a copy of the score of the music for Egmont from Beethoven, was very happy with the composition. According to a report by Friedrich Förster, Goethe said, "Beethoven has reflected my intentions with the most admirable genius".

👉Fun Fact: The Overture became an unofficial anthem of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. But many of today younger kids came to know and love this piece of epic music from the video game: Hoi4 : Road to 56.