Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 ‘Eroica’

Composer

Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)

Work

Symphony No. 3 in E♭ major, Op. 55 “Eroica”

Composed

1803–1804

Premiere

April 7, 1805, Theater an der Wien, Vienna

Key

E♭ major

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

Movements

4 movements
I. Allegro con brio (E♭ major)
II. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai (C minor)
III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace (E♭ major)
IV. Finale: Allegro molto (E♭ major)

Duration

Approx. 50 minutes

In the spring of 1804, Beethoven’s student Ferdinand Ries walked into his teacher’s study and found a freshly completed symphony on the desk. On the title page, at the very top, a single name was written: Bonaparte.

Then Ries told Beethoven the news: Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor.

What happened next became one of the most famous moments in the history of music. Beethoven, in a fury, seized the title page and tore it in half. “So he is nothing but an ordinary man,” he reportedly said. “Now he will trample on all the rights of man and indulge only his ambition.”

The symphony that was to celebrate a revolutionary hero would instead be called simply Eroica — “Heroic.” And it would change the course of Western music forever.

Heiligenstadt and the Decision to Live

To understand the Eroica, you need to know what Beethoven had just survived. In October 1802, he wrote the “Heiligenstadt Testament” — a letter to his brothers, never sent, that reads like a suicide note. At 31, he was going deaf. For a composer, this was the cruelest possible fate.

“I was on the verge of putting an end to my life,” he wrote. “Only Art held me back. It seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt within me.”

The Eroica was what came after that decision. It was not music by a man resigned to suffering. It was music by a man who had chosen to fight.

Why the Eroica Changed Everything

Before the Eroica, a symphony lasted 20 to 30 minutes. Beethoven’s Third lasts nearly 50. The first movement alone is longer than many entire symphonies by Haydn.

But length was the least of it. The Eroica broke every convention in the book:

• Scale: The emotional and structural ambition was unprecedented. This was a symphony that aspired to the scale of an epic poem.
• The funeral march: A slow movement of shattering gravity — a full funeral march placed as the second movement. Nothing in Haydn or Mozart prepared audiences for this.
• Dissonance as drama: In the development section of the first movement, Beethoven introduces a shocking new theme — in the “wrong” key — that sounds like a crisis erupting mid-narrative. No one had done this before.
• The finale as argument: The fourth movement is a set of variations on a theme Beethoven had used before — in his ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. It’s not just a happy ending; it’s a philosophical statement about creation and transformation.

Play: Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 Eroica | Michael Boder & ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

Napoleon: Hero or Tyrant?

Beethoven’s relationship with Napoleon was complicated long before the self-coronation. As a young man inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution — liberty, equality, fraternity — Beethoven saw in Napoleon a modern Prometheus: a man who would liberate Europe from the old monarchies.

The dedication to “Bonaparte” was sincere. Beethoven genuinely believed he was honoring a hero. When Napoleon declared himself Emperor in May 1804, the betrayal cut deep. The erasure on the title page is not merely a biographical anecdote — it’s the physical evidence of political disillusionment made manifest in art.

Yet the subtitle Beethoven eventually settled on — “Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man” — is intriguingly ambiguous. Was the “great man” a dead hero? A fallen ideal? Or Beethoven himself, who had survived Heiligenstadt and chosen to live?

The Marcia Funebre

The second movement is the emotional center of the symphony — and arguably the most profound slow movement Beethoven ever wrote. A funeral march in C minor that lasts nearly 17 minutes, it unfolds with the gravity of a state occasion and the intimacy of personal grief.

The march theme itself is stark and simple. What Beethoven does with it is extraordinary: a fugue erupts from the mourning, building to a devastating climax before subsiding. Near the end, the theme returns in fragments — broken, stammering, as though the music itself can no longer sustain the weight of grief. It is one of the most shattering passages in all of Western music.

Play: Gustavo Dudamel – Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 – Mvmt 2 (Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar)

Recommended Recordings

Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic (1962) — Monumental. The funeral march has a weight that feels like geology.

Carlos Kleiber / Bavarian State Orchestra (1982) — Electric. Every phrase surges with kinetic energy. The fastest Eroica that still makes dramatic sense.

John Eliot Gardiner / ORR (1992) — Period instruments. Lean, fierce, and utterly convincing. Strips away the varnish to reveal the revolutionary core.

Furtwängler / Vienna Philharmonic (1944) — Wartime. Played with a desperate intensity that can never be replicated. The most human Eroica ever recorded.

Follow the Score

Play: Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 "Eroica" [Böhm & VPO] (with Score)

The full score is freely available at IMSLP. View the Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’, Op. 55 score on IMSLP

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Beethoven really tear up the title page?

The surviving manuscript shows the name “Bonaparte” furiously scratched out — so hard that the paper was torn. Ferdinand Ries’s account of the incident is the primary source. While some details may be embellished, the physical evidence on the manuscript is indisputable.

Why is the Eroica considered the beginning of Romantic music?

Because it expanded the symphony’s scale, emotional range, and structural ambition beyond anything previously attempted. After the Eroica, the symphony was no longer entertainment for aristocratic salons — it was a vehicle for the expression of profound human experience.

Who is the “great man” in the subtitle?

Scholars still debate this. The most common reading is that it refers to the ideal of heroism that Napoleon once embodied but betrayed. Some have suggested it refers to Beethoven himself — a man who survived despair and chose art over death.

Further Reading

• → Beethoven Symphony No. 5 — The Symphony of Fate
• → Symphony Beginner’s Guide — Three Essential First Listens

🎼 View the Score — Free score download at IMSLP

Why is Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony called the ‘Eroica’?

Beethoven initially dedicated the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, but tore up the dedication in a rage after Napoleon declared himself Emperor. He retitled it “Sinfonia Eroica” (Heroic Symphony), composing it “to celebrate the memory of a great man.”

How long is the Eroica Symphony and how many movements does it have?

The Eroica Symphony is a substantial work, typically lasting around 48-52 minutes. It is structured in four movements and is written in the key of E-flat major.

What is the famous funeral march in the Eroica Symphony?

The second movement, ‘Marcia funebre: Adagio assai’, is the symphony’s renowned funeral march. This powerful and solemn movement in C minor is a cornerstone of the work’s emotional depth.

When did Beethoven write the ‘Eroica’ Symphony?

Beethoven composed his Third Symphony between 1803 and 1804. It received its first public performance in Vienna in 1805.