The French Enlightenment and two men: Napoleon Bonaparte and Beethoven

From: Progress Cabo

When we want to express that something is deep, shocking, we often say: It sounds Beethovenian... Beethoven and Napoleon are contemporaries.

Did Beethoven and Napoleon ever meet? What connected them and what separated them? Where did they find inspiration and where did they stand out?

Beethoven dominated the musical world in the same way that Napoleon reigned over the military and political spheres. These two men never met, but a critical shared moment in the early 19th century revealed a stark contrast between these two icons.

Beethoven originally dedicated his third symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he believed embodied the democratic and anti-monarchical ideals of the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was passionate about music.

Like his contemporaries, he attended opera performances whenever possible. It is reported that he saw 163 different operas and about 319 performances in total. Napoleon had received some rudimentary musical instruction in his youth, but the ability to play an instrument or compose a tune did not occur.

His servant Louis-Joseph Marchand wrote: "The Emperor, if he should begin to sing, which he sometimes did while thinking about something else ... he was rarely in tune and repeated the same words for 15 minutes." When he was in an excited state of mind, he apparently wanted to "kill the birds of the village of Le devin du Rousseau". However, Napoleon clearly valued music for the pleasure it gave him, as well as because it could serve political purposes.

At the end of the first Italian campaign in 1797, he wrote a letter to the five inspectors of the Paris Conservatoire, the star composers of the time: Méhul, Le Sueur, Gossec, Cherubini and Sarrette: "Of all the fine arts, music is that which it has more influence on the emotions, and it is this influence which the legislator should most warmly encourage. A piece of 'moral' music, by the hand of a master, cannot fail to touch the heart, and has far more influence than a good piece of 'moral' writing, which moves the mind but has no effect on our conduct." .

It seems as if, with this conclusion, Napoleon warns the American professor of our time, Daniel Goleman, about what emotional intelligence is, but also as if he repeats with his own formulation what he had formulated centuries ago by Plato, which stated: "It cannot the Constitution of a country can be changed without changing the music of that country".

Napoleon loved Italian vocal music, especially when sung by beautiful women. He proudly proclaimed: “English music is filthy, the worst in the world, and French music is almost as bad as English. Italians are the only people who can produce an opera, and the Italian song has a charm that is always new." As such, Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) was Napoleon's favorite composer. He first heard Paisiello's music in New Orleans.

Napoleon in 1801 invited Paisiello to Paris to compose and conduct music for his private orchestra. Paisiello once remarked: "The Emperor likes my music because it didn't stop him from thinking about other things."

I wonder what Napoleon was thinking on December 2, 1804, the day of his coronation. Apparently, 500 singers and actors were arranged into two orchestras and four choirs and were seated on two specially constructed stands at either end of Notre Dame's aisle. So various military bands playing heroic marches are not included.

Guests and invited dignitaries were treated to music from compositions by Le Sueur, Abbot Roze, as well as a Te Deum Mass composed by Paisiello. Paisiello returned to Naples in 1803 and he served as church master for Napoleon's brother Joseph when he was King of Naples.

Every year he sent Napoleon a sacred composition for his birthday, prompting the Emperor to proclaim: "Music is the spirit of love, the sweetness of life, the solace of sorrow, and the companion of innocence."

The reforming personality of Bonaparte as a disciple of the ideals of the French bourgeois revolution, therefore, this michelin inspiring ideas and ideators, principles and their implementer, freedom and anti-royalty and the supporters of this revolution necessarily inspired. This is how Beethoven's third symphony was conceived, which is completely different from the first two.

It is vigorous, shocking, with very strong counterpoints. It is considered one of the composer's most famous works. The Symphony Eroica has a composition on such a large scale that it marked the beginning of Beethoven's innovative middle period. The composer worked on the realization of this great work mainly in the years 1803-1804.

The work broke the boundaries of a symphonic form, in length, harmony, emotional and cultural content. It is widely considered a landmark in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras.

It is often considered to be the first romantic symphony. Beethoven, Napoleon and political romanticism is a structure that has attracted different scholars at different times. One of the researchers is Leon Plantinga1. In one of his studies, he analyzes how the inspiring and uninspired relationships between Napoleon and Beethoven were.

In thick lines, the researcher notes that there is Napoleon's influence on Beethoven's works. The author describes how the conflict between Napoleon and the Austrians affected Beethoven's work as a composer. It also examines the role that Napoleon had in Beethoven's political and philosophical outlook.

The study introduces the concept of political romanticism and shows how Napoleon's meteoric rise served as both an inspiration and a threat to Beethoven's musical career.

The study entitled: "The French Enlightenment and two men: Napoleon Bonaparte and Beethoven", conducted by Kate Pisarczyk, Zach Hall and Nelle Conley from (Augustana College, Rock Island Illinois) is interesting. According to the rulers: "The relationship between Napoleon and Beethoven may not seem obvious, but when you look at the similarities between their backgrounds and careers, it is clear that the two share a similarity that is unparalleled when comparing a musical genius to a political leader, swinging from reformer to ruler and conqueror.

What brings them together are the ideals of the French Enlightenment, which were extremely important to these two men, but the ways in which they decided to portray these ideals end up being very different. Beethoven chose to portray ideals through heroic works, such as the Eroica, while Napoleon began as a gifted militant who turned corrupt upon power and lost sight of his once true ideals of the French Enlightenment. The French Enlightenment was characterized by a movement with an emphasis on nature, individuality and human emotions.

Many of these ideals were brought together in the Encyclopédie (1751), which was a culmination of writings by the best minds of the Enlightenment, such as Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau. Both Diderot and Voltaire wrote extensively about nature and the sciences behind it. One of Diderot's main philosophical theses was the "concept of natural law".

He explained natural law as the philosophy that God has laid down certain rules and it is up to mankind to discover and understand these rules. Once these ground rules come in, it leads to an ideal and better society. Another feature of the Enlightenment was the notion that every human had a divine right to individuality and self-determination.

This meant that all people had the right to make their own choices and believe what they wanted to believe. This was a very influential idea when it came to their enlightenment, because people now began to believe that they were able to create their own destiny. Moreover, the French.

Intellectual, educational and cultural enlightenment also underwent a movement towards the pursuit of happiness and the expression of emotions by the individual man. The Declaration of Independence quotes this idea directly. Society also began to respect the right to self-expression, in the sense that everyone was allowed to be themselves. With these principles established, the Enlightenment served as a starting point for discussion about the problem of who they were as a society and how each individual could benefit from and contribute to it. A fundamental idea of ​​the French Enlightenment was the thesis of "humanist thought".

From here derive the early ideas of man to make himself that begin with Aristotle and are elaborated by Spinoza. Since men, not God, were able to discover things about the world, man himself was also able to make himself out of nothing. Both Napoleon and Beethoven exemplified this, the "Enlightenment Ideal". In human behavior, it is very important from which family or social stratum he comes, what are his personal ambitions, what is the investment he makes and how determined are you to achieve it.

If Napoleon came from a family with a lower income and from his early youth had only will and ambition as his assets, feeling a kind of underestimation in front of his peers who came from upper-class families, Beethoven has a somewhat different story. "Beethoven did not grow up poor, from a young age he began to make a career for himself. From the age of 11, he was working at the Court in Bonn as an assistant to the court organist.

As a young composer, Beethoven was constantly looking for ways to improve his compositional techniques. For this reason, Beethoven began taking piano lessons with Haydn in 1792. According to a statement by Johann Schnek, Haydn made Beethoven play the same exercise for six months. Because of his eagerness to learn, Beethoven secretly met with Schnek in 1793 in order to improve his skills.

In their first meetings, Schnek noted that Beethoven had found numerous errors within the exercises Haydn was giving him. In addition to having extremely successful careers, both Napoleon and Beethoven were naturally experts in their professions. Another caveat of the French Enlightenment was the move towards increasing knowledge and expertise in one's profession or work.

Napoleon was a military genius of his generation. As a student, Napoleon was extremely diligent. Although at a young age, Napoleon's superiors noticed his hard work, ability and willingness to study, despite his narcissistic attitude. One of Napoleon's earliest successes was during the Marseilles uprising of the 1790s, for which Napoleon wrote "le souper de Beaucaire" and this document found its way into the hands of army leaders. With Napoleon's plans in hand, the French army was able to drive the rebel forces back from Toulon.

Moreover, after Napoleon declared himself Emperor, he created a series of Civil Code rules, and for a time they were quite well regarded in most of Europe.

The Napoleonic Code, introduced in 1804, replaced the existing patchwork of French laws with a unified national system built on Enlightenment principles: universal male suffrage, property rights, equality (for men) and religious freedom.

Napoleon was able to take what he learned in his army training and was able to implement impactful change throughout his career. While Beethoven was not a political figure, he was a revolutionary in terms of being a composer and musician. There are many works by Beethoven that are considered modern pieces of the repertoire even today.

As Beethoven's career progressed, he began to realize the seriousness and urgency in his deafness. In a letter to a friend, he described how miserable he was and how his deafness was a burden to being a musician, yet Beethoven was still able to compose some of his greatest works.

For example, in 1802, Beethoven completed his Second Symphony and composed up to 3 violin sonatas. Beethoven had become completely deaf by 1818, and it was only then that he was able to complete the Hammerklavier Piano Sonata. It is clear that Napoleon and Beethoven illustrated their respective political superiority and musical knowledge. Napoleon was able to implement and demand change throughout his life.

While the composer, in addition to being deaf, continued to compose some of the best and most popular works in the world. Despite their greatness, both men had their failings: Napoleon's end is worse than Beethoven's. In 1801, Beethoven began to reveal to close friends the deterioration of his hearing.

In the early autumn of 1802, he wrote the "Heiligenstadt Testament", addressed to his brothers, in which he opened his heart to write: "O you men who think or say that I am hostile, depreciating or misanthropic, how much you do me wrong. You do not know the secret cause that makes me appear like this.

From childhood, my heart and soul were full of tender feelings of goodwill, and I was always inclined to do great deeds. But you must think, for six years now I have had an incurable condition, aggravated by incompetent doctors, from year to year deceived by the hopes of getting better, finally forced to face a persistent disease (healing which may take years or even be impossible)".

A work like "Eroica", which dates from this time, seems to express in music the battles that Beethoven realizes and that no writer, no matter how expressive he was, had tried to realize in prose.

Beethoven began sketching the Eroica symphony at the time of the Heiligenstadt Testament and became more focused beginning in May 1803, some seven months later.

He originally planned to dedicate it to Napoleon, whom he had long admired. Beethoven was disappointed when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804. Ferdinand Ries, a student and early biographer of the composer, recounted the scene: “I was the first to break the news to him that Bonaparte had proclaimed himself Emperor, instantly he flew into a rage and cried out: Is he also, then, nothing more than an ordinary human being?

Now he too will violate human rights and will only satisfy his ambition!". Beethoven went to the table, grabbed the title page by the top, tore it in two and threw it on the floor. The first page was rewritten and only then the Symphony received the title "Sinfonia Eroica".

However, in a letter to his publisher not too long ago, Beethoven admitted that the title of the symphony is actually "Bonaparte". Even if he changed his mind (and there are later indications of his continued admiration for Napoleon), Ries' story is essentially confirmed by the surviving manuscript, in which the title is scratched out so violently that Beethoven tore the paper.

In the end, the work was published in 1806 under the title "Sinfonia Eroica", composed to celebrate the memory of a great man. It was heard for the first time in private and semi-private performances, beginning in early August 1804 at the home – actually the palace – of his patron Prince Lobkoëtz, to whom the work is dedicated. The public premiere of the Symphony came on April 7, 1805, at the Theater an der Wien.

When Hyden heard it played for the first time, he said it was something very different, very vigorous, reminiscent of the heroes of antiquity. Apparently, the composer's inner muse was nourished by the profound changes that Napoleon brought because he only changed the title of his symphony, but not the notes, times, rhythm, cadences and funebrity, thus Napoleon Bonaparte conceived in the third Symphony of Beethoven, this work marked profound changes in the art of music. As Bonaparte said: "Imagination leads the world".

This imagination in Beethoven was transformed into universal sounds. On May 5, 2021, it was 200 years since the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, while on December 17, 2020, it was the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, two people without whose work the history of humanity would feel empty. 1 He served on the Yale faculty from 1963 until his retirement in 2005. For six years in the 1990s, he was director of the Division of Humanities.

After retirement, Plantinga spent a year at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and is currently interim director of the Musical Instrument Collection at Yale. He has written extensively on the music of the late 1999th and 1984th centuries, including Beethoven's Concertos: History, Style, Performance (XNUMX) and the text book Romantic Music (XNUMX).