Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 or Eroica was composed in the early nineteenth century around the end of the French Revolution and Enlightenment. This period was characterized by public concerts and general public engagement with music, music written for people’s entertainment, and styles such as the galant that did not strictly adhere to musical rules. Inspired by Enlightenment ideas such as the value of nature and reason and events like the American and French Revolutions, composers created music that merged national styles, focused on melody, and was speechlike (Class Lecture 8; “Musical Taste and Style in the Enlightenment”). But what created this musical climate? Thousands of years of political, cultural, and social transformations helped to develop the musical climate of the early nineteenth century. This paper will trace these developments with a particular focus on the rise and fall of empires, evolutions in listening habits and environments, and the impact of various artistic and philosophical movements.
To first discuss the impact of the rise and fall of empires over time, one key
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the Black Death) (Class Lecture 6). The horrors of this period sparked the rise of a new age of colonial empires, exploration, and exchange that contributed to the musical climate of Beethoven’s era. During this period, trade flourished, and ideas and materials spread throughout the world. Because of these international networks, people became more connected, a paramount precursor for the cosmopolitan nature of the musical climate of Beethoven’s era (Class Lecture 8). Further, new instruments such the trombone were invented and spread, and instrumental music, the music of the early nineteenth century, emerged (Class Lecture 8). Thus, the rise of the colonial empire, like the previous empires, contributed to the production of the musical climate of the nineteenth