Please Help Me!

[Lisa]

I have this question that has been bugging me & I just can't find the answer to. I hope someone can help me.
To whom did Beethoven originally plan to dedicate his Third Symphony in 1803? Please can someone help. Thanks

[Peter]

Beethoven originally intended the dedication of the 'Eroica' Symphony for Napoleon Bonaparte, but according to Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven was incensed by the news that Napoleon had declared himself Emperor of France and tore up the title page - the dedication was actually heavily scratched out. The words 'Geschrieben auf Bonaparte' were not erased on Beethoven's own copy of the score.

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'Man know thyself'

[oboe_15]

As I beleive, I have always been told that Beethoven, as he went to scratch out Bonaparts' name was cursing and saying "he will be nothing more than human" But never 'tore' the score, just put a hole were he scrtched out the name with his feathered quill. And who can blame him? If his political heroe had just claimed himself to be the Emporer?

From oboe_15

[Rod]

Originally posted by oboe_15:
As I beleive, I have always been told that Beethoven, as he went to scratch out Bonaparts' name was cursing and saying "he will be nothing more than human" But never 'tore' the score, just put a hole were he scrtched out the name with his feathered quill. And who can blame him? If his political heroe had just claimed himself to be the Emporer?

From oboe_15

As I believe, the incident with the torn score and the incident with the scratched out name were not different interpretations of the same event, but two different situations. Both occured.

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

[Peter]

Originally posted by Rod:
As I believe, the incident with the torn score and the incident with the scratched out name were not different interpretations of the same event, but two different situations. Both occured.

Cooper suggests that the torn title page incident occurred in May 1804 and belonged to the lost autograph score. The scratching out occurs on the copyists score. However the words 'Geschrieben auf Bonaparte' were subsequently added in pencil by B. A few months later, on 26th Aug 1804 B wrote to Breitkopf & Hartel "the title of the symphony is really Bonaparte". It wasn't until 2 years later that B decided on the title 'Eroica'.
All this combined with the fact that as late as 1810 B was contemplating dedicating the C major mass to Napoleon suggests that B still admired him, contrary to the interpretation of events offered by Ries.

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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 06-28-2001).]

[Joy]

Beethoven was honest enough to admit he did admire Napoleon because of his military skills even if B wasn't fond of N's actions,
to say the least.

[oboe_15]

What do you mean two different interpretations of the same event. If I understand correctly, Beethoven (as sadi by his close friends) had never had such an attachment o one of his works. He would have never TORE the score, only 'scribbled' on it.

Beethoven rocks!

From oboe_15