Backstage / Listening Guides / Beethoven Egmont Overture

Listening Guide

Beethoven - Egmont, Opus 84, Overture

Written 1809 – 1810. 1809 was a miserable year for Beethoven - France invaded Vienna. Vienna was virtually cut off from the outside world and most of Beethoven’s friends fled.

Beethoven was commissioned to write incidental music for Goethe's play Egmont.

The story of Egmont

• Count Egmont predicts the liberation of the Netherlands from Spanish rule but dies as a result of his own bravery.
• The Overture to Egmont has survived as an independent concert piece, which is now mostly performed without the rest of the incidental music.
• The Overture is in F minor, which is associated as being a tragic key!

Listening points

• Slow, dramatic introduction with heavy chords and a theme in the oboe.
• A descending scale motif at the end of the introduction speeds up, leading to the Allegro.
• Listen out for the way the timpani and brass are used at dramatic points.
• The overture moves from darkness to light, finishing with a triumphant coda in F major.

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To find out the definition of any of the musical terms used on this page simply place your mouse cursor over the word - if a question mark appears click to show the glossary.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770 – 1827

• German composer who developed ideas from the Classical period to form concepts that have now been categorised as representing the Romantic period.
• Beethoven is one of the most widely admired composers in the history of Western music. His 9 symphonies were revolutionary at the time. He expanded the traditional symphonic orchestra, writing for instruments such as the piccolo, contra bassoon and trombones and pushed the boundaries of Classical tonality.
• Beethoven became deaf in the early nineteenth century, but continued composing, including some of his most famous works: the Symphony No. 9, written in 1826.