This was truer than he imagined. This same man, who was known to shake his fist at the heavens, also wrote, "God above all things! ...I will submit myself to all vicissitudes and place my safe confidence in Thine unalterable goodness. O God! Be my rock, my life, forever my trust."

     His was a generation which saw both the American and French Revolutions, and the dawn of the Industrial Age. Beethoven intended his Eroica Symphony (No. 3) as a tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he imagined a champion of the common man...until his hero proclaimed himself emperor. Later, the maestro wrote a "minor" work known as Wellington's Victory, full renditions of which call for both musket and cannon fire. (As I said before, subtlety was not one of his virtues.) Believe it or not, Wellington's Victory was a novelty piece, written for an orchestrion (a kind of mechanical band which was a predecessor of today's jukebox). Not surprisingly, the mechanized orchestra didn't work out too well, but then neither did Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture when it premiered. Its electrically, remote-controlled cannon firing and bell ringing overloaded available 19th century technology.

     However, egalitarian that he was, Beethoven would have been gratified to know that a century later, the opening 4-note theme of his 5th Symphony became an expression of defiance toward the Nazis during World War II, and a symbol for victory. "Dit dit dit da-a-ah" sounding equivalent to "V" in Morse code.

     Perhaps it is fitting that he died during a thunderstorm. His death knell was announced by a thunder clap. Leave it to Beethoven to go out with a bang.

Acknowledgments: 31

© Russ Brown, 1998