Ludwig van Beethoven
Incidental Music to Goethe’s “Egmont”, op. 84

“Errors – errors – they are one great error in themselves … I must send my copyist there, I must go myself if I want my works … not to appear as mere mistakes … just look: in the piano reduction of Egmont’s overture, a whole bar is missing – here is the list of errors.” These pointed words were written by Ludwig van Beethoven in May 1811 to the Leipzig publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel. Beethoven was acutely aware of both his historical significance as a composer and the potential consequences of faulty publications. With the corresponding tenacity, he sought to ensure that his music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragedy Egmont, completed in June 1810, would be published in flawless condition – especially since he hoped to make a good profit from selling the score. At the time, Beethoven was plagued by financial difficulties, brought on by inflation and outstanding payments from the circle of Viennese aristocrats who had supported him since 1809 to prevent him from leaving Vienna.

In addition, Beethoven was determined to send Goethe – a literary giant of German culture even then – a polished, impeccable copy of the Egmont score. The process, however, proved to be a nerve-racking one. Letters reveal how, over the course of several months, Beethoven urged his publisher with increasing insistence to send Goethe a printed edition – one free of errors. As late as autumn 1811, Beethoven railed: “how can one of Germany’s foremost publishers be so rude, so coarse, to the foremost German poet? so send the score to Weimar without delay.” As a well-read artist who had long engaged with Goethe’s texts through his many song settings, Beethoven was well aware of the poet’s special relationship with music.

Around the time he composed the incidental music, Beethoven also produced two song cycles setting texts by Goethe, and his general experience with vocal composition is evident in the stage music for Egmont. The basis was Goethe’s 1787 drama, whose central figure was inspired by the historical Lamoral of Egmond, a 16th-century nobleman. Brussels, the setting of the tragedy, belonged at the time to the Netherlands, but was under Spanish rule. Together with William of Orange, Egmont leads the nobility’s opposition against Spanish occupation, is imprisoned, and pays for his heroism with his life. His beloved Clärchen, a commoner’s daughter, attempts to save him. When she fails, the young woman takes her own life by poison in despair. The play was conceived from the outset with a musical performance in mind. Goethe thereby drew on the ancient Greek idea of tragedy, which combined words, music, and theatre. He made notes in his manuscript indicating how particular scenes should be set to music and explicitly called for a “victory symphony” at the conclusion.

Yet it took several years before the music for the play – a commission from Vienna’s Court Theatre – was actually completed. The result was a nine-part composition framed by an overture and the triumphant finale Goethe had envisioned. Between these are two emotionally charged songs for Egmont’s beloved Clärchen, four entr’actes, a song “signifying Clärchen’s death”, and a melodrama that movingly captures Egmont’s inner conflict in the face of death through a poignant interplay of spoken word and music.