[+] Palisca, Claude. "French Revolutionary Models for Beethoven's Eroica Funeral March." In Music and Context: Essays for John M. Ward, ed. Anne Dhu Shapiro, 198-209. Cambridge, Mass.: Department of Music, Harvard University, 1985.
Beethoven's homage to Napoleon in his Symphony No. 3 has been the subject of much debate and extensive research. Of all the movements in the symphony, it is the Marcia funebre second movement that provides the most telling evidence of Beethoven's allegiance to French Republican music of the 1790s. The passage beginning at m. 19 of the Marcia funebre seems to be a direct parody of a passage from Gossec's Marche Lugubre (beginning at m. 30). Yet most of the musical devices that Beethoven employs--such as the imitations of drumrolls, cadential unison passages, and lyrical hymnlike themes--are not overt borrowings, but rather represent a unique assimilation of conventions culled from the earlier tradition.
Index Classifications: 1800s
Contributed by: Mark S. Spicer
