Beethoven and Napoleon
In the wisely-closed topic "Beethoven and Hitler", Ateach Asc suggested that Beethoven's reaction to Hitler's ideas would have been the same as "Beethoven's ultimate reaction to Napoleon... and we know that story all too well."
I have no wish to reopen the Hitler/Beethoven discussion, but to compare that pea-brained racist to Napoleon is to insult not only "the greatest breath of life to have ever quickened human clay" (as Napoleon's critic Chateaubriand once described him), but also Beethoven.
The story we know all to well presumably refers to the one reported by Ries in 1804, when Beethoven heard that the First Consul of France was about to crown himself Emperor, and furiously changed the title of his 3rd Symphony from "Bonaparte" to "Eroica" (it was never dedicated to him). But that was by no means Beethoven's ultimate judgement, which he gave 20 years later while visiting a coffee shop with Karl Czerny. Napoleon had died on St Helena in 1821, and Europe was being flooded with the reminiscences of his companions in exile. Now, in 1824, the newspapers carried advertisments for Sir Walter Scott's eagerly awaited 10-volume "Life of Napoleon". "Naopoleon!" cried Beethoven. "Formerly I disliked him, but now I think quite differently."
So while I agree that Beethoven would have treated the nazi nonentity with utter contempt, his "ultimate" judgement of Napoleon implies quite the reverse.
I have no wish to reopen the Hitler/Beethoven discussion, but to compare that pea-brained racist to Napoleon is to insult not only "the greatest breath of life to have ever quickened human clay" (as Napoleon's critic Chateaubriand once described him), but also Beethoven.
The story we know all to well presumably refers to the one reported by Ries in 1804, when Beethoven heard that the First Consul of France was about to crown himself Emperor, and furiously changed the title of his 3rd Symphony from "Bonaparte" to "Eroica" (it was never dedicated to him). But that was by no means Beethoven's ultimate judgement, which he gave 20 years later while visiting a coffee shop with Karl Czerny. Napoleon had died on St Helena in 1821, and Europe was being flooded with the reminiscences of his companions in exile. Now, in 1824, the newspapers carried advertisments for Sir Walter Scott's eagerly awaited 10-volume "Life of Napoleon". "Naopoleon!" cried Beethoven. "Formerly I disliked him, but now I think quite differently."
So while I agree that Beethoven would have treated the nazi nonentity with utter contempt, his "ultimate" judgement of Napoleon implies quite the reverse.