The Role of A♭ in the Funeral March from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
Abstract
Tracing the treatment of A♭ offers a productive avenue for understanding and interpreting the second movement of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony (1803). This C-minor movement features A-flat at its most vulnerable, angry, surprising, darkly humorous, and touching moments. Digging deeper into the movement’s form and harmony reveals that A-flat also helps push this work toward its secondary keys of E-flat major and F minor, both of which define formal boundaries in the movement. Finally, telling the story of A-flat accesses many of the emotions one can imagine Beethoven feeling in 1802–1803, especially given the window into his state of mind provided by the 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament.
Repository Citation
Miyake, Jan. "The Role of A ♭ in the Funeral March from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, 'Eroica.'" In Modeling Musical Analysis, edited by Kimberly Goddard Loeffert and John Peterson, 18-26. New York: Oxford Academic, 2024.
Publisher
Oxford Academic
Publication Date
12-1-2024
Department
Music Theory
Document Type
Book Chapter
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197678473.003.0003
Notes
Chapter 3
Keywords
Form, Harmony, Key signatures, Music and meaning, Symphonic music
ISBN
9780197678473
Language
English
Format
text
