Sinfonia Eroica Turning Points

“I am only a little satisfied with my previous works. From today on I will take a neuen Weg – a new path.” When Beethoven said this to his friend Wenzel Krumpholz in 1802, Beethoven was at his pinnacle in the Viennese tradition. But faced with the fear of repetitive style, Beethoven changed towards what we can call his Romantic or “Heroic” decade, where Beethoven would launch “a turning point in the history of music itself.” This turning point was epitomized in his new symphony, the Symphony n°3 in E-Flat Major – also named the Sinfonia Eroica.
The Sinfonia Eroica was meant to be part of history because of its instrumentation and the romanticism surrounding it. Considered to be the first “romantic masterpiece”, Beethoven chose to compose the longest symphony at that time, changing the Classical orchestra to one meant to represent Sturm und Drang feelings, such as Sehnsucht in the fourth movement. Besides this important change, the symphony was also the testimony of Beethoven’s bonds to republican and romantic ideals, which can be seen from the dedication of the Symphony – per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grande Uomo – to the structure of it.
Therefore, I will show that this Symphony is the first romantic masterpiece in musical history not only because of its innovations on a musical approach, but also because of the reference to
The symphony was written between 1802 and 1803, at a time when Austria and Napoleonic France were on the verge of reconciliation, after the Treaty of Lunéville. Beethoven was filled with revolutionary ideas because of his birthplace, Bonn, located in the Rhine near the French border. From his entrance to the University of Bonn where he was taught by Max Franz to some of his mentors such as Eulogius Schneider, everyone he came across were proponents of French-inspired