Fear No More
Beethoven's Egmont Overture (1810)
By Alexander Lawler
Beethoven’s Egmont Overture is one of his many concert overtures depicting different kinds of heroic individuals. The Egmont Overture is derived from the incidental music Beethoven wrote for Goethe’s play of the same name (Egmont, 1788). The play is a historical drama of the sixteenth-century struggle of the Count of Egmont against the Duke of Alba for the freedom of the Netherlands. In the play, Egmont boldly confronts Alba’s tyranny, knowing that it will cost him his life. His sacrifice is not in vain: it will ensure the downfall of Alba. Beethoven condenses one of the primary messages of Goethe’s play into a searing overture: the only way to defeat tyranny is through an equally strong gesture of defiance, although such an act carries with it great peril. Egmont resembles Prometheus, whose resistance to tyranny through his theft of fire led to his imprisonment, but also humanity’s salvation. However, this connection goes farther, as Franz Welser-Möst describes below:
Franz discusses examples of promethean heroes and the difficulty of freedom. Features an excerpt of the Orchestra’s 60th Anniversary TV Special (1978), with Lorin Maazel conducting a performance of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. Video compiled and edited by Alexander Lawler. All audio, images, and pictures courtesy of The Cleveland Orchestra Archives.
Franz describes another aspect of being a promethean hero, – the ability to conquer fear. To stand up against tyranny and the status quo is difficult and frightening. Any act of resistance requires that one defeat fear doubly — in standing up to tyranny and facing the unknown consequences. Promethean figures like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Joan of Arc, and Egmont stood up and, through their heroism, and sacrifice, gave others the strength to stand. Although they ultimately lost their lives in pursuit of freedom (just as in the stirring conclusion to the Egmont Overture), the fire that their heroic spark started would become a blaze.
You can listen below to the rest of Egmont’s promethean journey — conflict, hope, despair, and salvation — through a selection of audio clips from the Orchestra archives.
Beethoven: Egmont Overture – Part 2
The Cleveland Orchestra, Louis Lane
Archival Recording: Severance Hall, December 8, 1967
Beethoven: Egmont Overture – Part 3
The Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell
Archival Recording: Blossom Music Center, July 20, 1968
Beethoven: Egmont Overture – Part 4
The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst
Archival Recording: Severance Hall, July 14, 2017
- Alexander Lawler worked for the Orchestra’s Archives over three seasons while working on a Historical Musicology PhD at Case Western Reserve University. First writing the “From the Archives” online essays in the 2015/16 season, next designing a photo digitization and metadata project in the 2016/17 season and finally, in the 2017/18 centennial season with the Prometheus Project.
Essay & Audio Library
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Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus
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Symphony No. 1
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Symphony No. 3
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Egmont Overture
Beethoven’s Egmont Overture is one of his many concert overtures depicting different kinds of heroic individuals.
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Symphony No. 4
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Symphony No. 7
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Overture to Coriolan
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Symphony No. 2
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