By the beginning of 1803, Beethoven was already well established as an important young musician. He had completed some of the works that would remain his most popular, including the "Pathètique," "Moonlight," and "Appasionata" piano sonatas and his first three piano concertos. But his general reputation as a composer was still tied to his image as a brilliant pianist, for both his performing and his improvising abilities. His earliest two symphonies had been received favorably enough, but his transformation of the genre, which would be his most enduring legacy, had not yet really begun.
The young composer was only beginning to become aware of his hearing problem. He had already attempted medical treatment, but it had not helped, and he could not avoid facing the evidence that the problem was continuing to worsen. Without yet receiving much income as a composer, he relied on his piano performances to make a living – but obviously his performance capacity was due to become very limited indeed, should his hearing continue to fail. Embarrassed at his difficulty hearing other people in conversation, he avoided public situations, exacerbating the shyness that was already part of his personality. In particular, he suspected that he would never enjoy a meaningful romantic relationship – a prophecy that, as near as historians can establish, held painfully true.
The frustration with his progressive hearing loss served only to reinforce the revolutionary aspects of his artistic personality. After having established a path for music that was more emotionally aggressive than the style of Haydn and Mozart, he created a symphony whose scope and power would dwarf all previous contributions to the form. His inspiration was to create a grand "heroic symphony" in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was First Consul at the time. Beethoven believed Napoleon to be unique among leaders in his concern for ordinary people, and went so far as to name the work after the Frenchman. The score was completed and a fine handwritten copy ready for shipment to Paris, when a friend of the composer's presented the news that Napoleon had just proclaimed himself Emperor. Enraged, Beethoven destroyed the title page and erased all references to the would-be subject of the piece, substituting the vaguer title, Sinfonia eroica.
The first movement is as long as many complete symphonies of only a generation earlier. The first two chords, which ring out like rifle shots, suggest that perhaps a martial character will be established from the outset, but the body of the movement is far more complex. The principal theme, introduced by the cellos, is lyrical and elegant; but an agitated pulse in the inner strings provides an immediate conflicting element, and the first violins answer the cellos with their own kind of urgency. In these opening moments, an important characteristic of the movement is revealed: the conflict between lyricism and rhythmic turmoil. The richness of melodic ideas surpasses that in any previous symphonic movement; at the same time, the rhythmic struggles are the dominant force in the movement. Although written in triple meter (three beats per measure), the music often shifts temporarily into a duple pulse, with strong accents coming on every other beat.
The second movement bears the indication Marcia Funebre, which itself represents a bold decision on Beethoven's part, since symphonic movements did not typically have descriptive titles associated with them. Although some writers have tried to link the funeral march idea to Beethoven's disillusionment with Bonaparte, this position is untenable: the entire symphony, including this movement, was completed while Beethoven still held Bonaparte in the highest esteem. Historians believe that the inspiration for the funeral march was the British general Ralph Albercombie, who was mortally wounded on the battlefield in 1801. The form of the movement is unusual: the opening theme returns several times, but the intervening episodes move ever farther from the solemn character of the beginning. By allowing the form to be somewhat malleable, Beethoven allows the emotional journey of the movement to define its progress. This concept, perhaps more than any other, is responsible for Beethoven's reputation as the composer who brought "Romanticism" to music.
The third movement is perhaps the least innovative of the piece, but it still holds plenty of surprises. Aside from the modest melodic fragment first introduced by the oboe, much of the scherzo part of the movement is an unending pulse of quiet, light accompaniment, hardly defining a melody at all. Only in the loud moments does the melody have a brief opportunity to break through before being awkwardly hushed away again. The middle trio section is justly famous for its splendid horn writing: while trying to sell the symphony, Beethoven wrote to his publisher, "in addition to the usual instruments are three obbligato horns – I think it will interest the musical public."
The final movement can be loosely described as a theme and variations, but, as with the second movement, the emotional demands supersede the constraints implied by traditional formal principles. After a stormy opening, the theme is introduced in pizzicato strings, echoed lightheartedly by the woodwinds. As the movement develops, however, the original theme finds itself competing with a more lyrical version, introduced by the oboe. Interrupting the flow of the variations are fugal episodes, which subject the original theme to the rigors of development, including the indignity of being played upside-down. The second theme, however, proves to be more important, receiving a grand statement led by the cellos and first horn toward the end of the piece. The final section of the movement recalls the fury of the introduction, but with the manic energy in the violins transformed now into a delirious military celebration.