Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat, Eroica
In Italian it means,”Heroic.” Beethoven was serious. It was the longest, most sweeping and confrontational symphony of its time. When he finished it in 1803, the composer dedicated it to Napoléon, a man he thought was a democratic hero of the French people. According to the story told by Beethoven's student Ferdinand Ries, when Beethoven heard the news in late 1804 that Napoléon? had crowned himself Emperor of France, he was so disgusted that he violently erased Napoleon’s name from the manuscript, leaving holes in the title page. ?
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