Funeral March from Op. 26 Piano Sonata

[jesserin82]

I have a question. I am finishing up my bachelor's degree and in my Form and Analysis class, we analyzed the op.26 Piano Sonata - which, of course, includes the Funeral March. A question came up during class and I have become intrigued.

Who was this movement written for? The translation of "Marcia Funebre sulla morte d'un eroe" is "Funeral march for a dead hero." Who is the hero that Beethoven is speaking of?

Was it a premonition of his own death? Was he feeling sorry for himself because he was deaf (the symbolic death of a hero)? Was it for a specific person?

I found a website that stated that the Funeral March was arranged for Leonore Prohaska. Was that a person or a larger work that contains an arrangement of the Funeral March?

Any light you can shed on this would be GREAT!

[Peter]

Eleonore Prohaska was based on a true story of a young woman from Potsdam who disguised herself as a man, took the name of Renz and enlisted with the volunteer rifles in the wars of liberation, receiving a fatal wound in 1813.

As to who Beethoven's hero was in the sonata, yet another mystery akin to the Eroica!

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'Man know thyself'

[Joy]

In my lessons of studing Beethoven and his works my professor seems to think the 'hero' Beethoven could have been thinking about was Napoleon Bonaparte or perhaps even Beethoven himself, purely conjecture I'm sure.

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Peter]

Originally posted by Joy:
In my lessons of studing Beethoven and his works my professor seems to think the 'hero' Beethoven could have been thinking about was Napoleon Bonaparte or perhaps even Beethoven himself, purely conjecture I'm sure.

Except Napoleon was still very much alive in 1801! I don't think Beethoven was that vain to regard himself as a hero, so this is another mystery to add to the IB!

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'Man know thyself'

[Droell]

Originally posted by Peter:
Except Napoleon was still very much alive in 1801! I don't think Beethoven was that vain to regard himself as a hero, so this is another mystery to add to the IB!

Here's a thought, on the Eroica's funeral march.

Suppose Beethoven was writing about the death of the French Monarchy? I admit, I'm having a hard time making the music fit the events (severed heads being notably absent), but I've had a harder time making the funeral music fit either N's or B's imagined death.

The primary difference between the two funeral marches is that the Eroica's is clearly episodic. But what are the episodes?

[Rod]

Originally posted by Droell:
Here's a thought, on the Eroica's funeral march.

I think the Erioca is an abstract view of heroism. It illustrates the various moods associated with heriosm rather than having a specific programme. Alongside the triumph, one of the most striking and powerful fascets of heriosm is that of dying for your cause (hopefully a just cause!), so it is only right that a funeral march be included.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 10-21-2005).]