When was egmont overture written

The Count of Egmont. The play is about the historic revolt by Count Egmont against the Spanish in The Netherlands in the 16th century. Egmont trusts his judgement blindly even when his passion transcends reason. Although traditionally loyal to the Spanish king, Egmont opposed their repression of the Dutch whose country they occupied. The rest of the overture, in a brisk Allegro, carries us forward in a style like that of his Fifth Symphony , written two years earlier.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont Overture, Op. The net result was the weakening of what had been one of the greatest of the European powers. And a knock-on result was that the Austrian Army had to join Napoleon for his ill-fated invasion of Russia in see Tchaikovsky for the musical victory of Russia. For more of the best in classical music, sign up to our E-Newsletter. The triumphant fanfare heard from the brass here represents Count Egmont facing oppression and the people behind the torture.

The piece ends with strong tonic chords for the final triumph of the hero. The overture goes through trials, tribulations, tragedy and triumph — all in eight short minutes. This overture was a part of a new trend of programmatic overtures.

Image Source. Your email address will not be published. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. Haydn composed symphonies over the course of his long and fruitful life, Read more…. Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont Overture Context The Egmont Overture is the opening of a set of incidental music that Beethoven was commissioned to write for a play of the same name by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe.

The Music The Egmont Overture opens the play, and is written in sonata form. Categories: Blogs Orchestral Overture. Tags: beethovent classical music egmont. That Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who is to German letters what Beethoven is to German music, was "unmusical" is a canard that clings tenaciously to life. The slander stems from his relationship, or lack of one, with Franz Schubert.

Goethe, it might be noted, outlived his much younger contemporaries, Beethoven and Schubert. The Goethe-Schubert "story" has it that Goethe failed utterly to appreciate Schubert's settings of his texts. Closer to the truth is that the music by the little-known young composer was brought to the attention of an aged, perhaps tired Goethe, preoccupied with his own writing, with his diplomatic work for the Weimar court -- and perhaps, most importantly, constantly importuned by young writers and young composers to exert his influence on their behalf.

Anyone who has bothered to seriously engage the matter will find that Goethe was the most musically involved of writers, who insisted that a poem, by him or anyone else, was not "complete" until it had been sung. Not that we are discussing only verse: Goethe in his plays -- we'll get to Egmont shortly -- indicates where music should complement the text or provide atmosphere.

And let's not forget that for the many passages in his Faust that call for music, Goethe had in mind a composer, and only one composer, who could do his visions justice: Wolfgang Mozart. But Mozart was no longer available when Faust was completed. Furthermore, to assert, as has frequently been done, that Goethe didn't appreciate Beethoven's music is nonsense.

Temperamentally, however, they were at opposite poles, as indicated by their face-to-face meeting in , by which time the composer had already written his Egmont music, although Goethe had not as yet heard it.

The meeting -- to which both famous men looked forward keenly -- took place at the Bohemian spa of Teplitz today Teplice, in the Czech Republic. As Goethe wrote to the composer Friedrich Zelter: "I got to know Beethoven… His talent amazed me [Beethoven performed on the piano for a select audience at the spa]. But his personality is utterly lacking in self-control.

He may not be wrong in thinking that the world is odious, but neither does such an attitude make it any more tolerable to himself or to others. On the other hand, he deserves to be both excused and pitied, for his hearing has almost failed him, which probably does more harm to the social part of his character than to the musical part. He, who in any case is laconic by nature, is now becoming doubly so because of his defect.

Bettina first relates a lengthy conversation between the poet and the composer regarding what honors were due them. Beethoven seemingly did most of the talking, which took the form of a diatribe against the aristocracy and its condescending attitude toward men of genius not something that Goethe actually suffered.

After which the two men went for a walk. Now, Beethoven said [to Goethe], 'Keep your arm linked in mine. They must make room for us, not we for them.