LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture, Op.

84
Born: December 16, 1770, in Bonn
Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna
Work composed: 1810
World premiere: June 15, 1810, in Vienna
Beethovens music expresses a wide range of moods: boisterous humor, deep serenity,
pathos, joy and more. But as noted above, his most characteristic tone is that of strife
leading to ultimate triumph. That emotional transformation is vividly effected in
Beethovens Overture to Wolfgang von Goethes 1788 drama Egmont.
Beethoven created this piece for a new production of the play in Vienna, in the spring of
1810. The composer had been acquainted with Goethes writings since his youth and, like
so many of his generation, he regarded the poet as one of the great spirits of the age.
Goethes poems have tremendous power over me, Beethoven once declared, adding: I
am tuned up and stimulated to composition by his language, which builds itself into
higher orders as if through the work of spirits, and already bears in itself the mysteries of
harmonies. With Egmont, moreover, the composer had two themes which were
especially attractive to him: the martyrdom of a hero in the cause of liberty; and the
selfless devotion of a woman who loves him. Beethoven was no stranger to these ideas,
having already dealt with them at length in his opera Leonore (ultimately called Fidelio).
The composers contribution to the 1810 production of Egmont was an overture and a
series of incidental pieces songs, entractes, etc. performed at various junctures
during the drama. Of these pieces, only the overture is substantial enough to stand alone
as a concert work. It begins with an introduction in slow tempo. Here Beethovens
massive initial chords express an unmistakable sense of power and crisis. From these
great blocks of sound emerge plaintive woodwind phrases that accelerate into the main
body of the work.
There, a certain kinship with the composers famous Fifth Symphony becomes evident.
The music conveys the same sense of elemental struggle encountered in the symphonys
first movement, and it even makes use of the famous four-note rhythmic figure which
dominates that piece. In the overtures coda, the parallel between the two compositions
becomes unmistakable. Like the last movement of the symphony, this concluding passage
emerges from a mysterious, dark realm where time and motion seem suspended and soars
triumphantly on rising scales, bright harmonies and the tones of trumpets.
What to Listen For
The great chords of the opening measures have a volcanic quality that was unprecedented
and must have been shocking in Beethovens day. In the faster main portion of the
work, a repeated four-note motif (dee-dee-dee dah) reprises the rhythm Beethoven had
used so effectively in his Fifth Symphony.
Paul Schiavo