Beethoven
Coriolan (Coriolanus) Overture, Op. 62
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770 and died in Vienna in 1827. He composed his Coriolan Overture in 1807 and led the first performance in Vienna the same year. The Overture is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings.
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Beethoven had read Plutarch’s Lives, and he was familiar with Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, but it was the Austrian playwright Heinrich von Collin’s tragedy of the same name that inspired him to compose this piece. He also badly needed a new concert overture, for he had been using The Creatures of Prometheus over and over and it was past time for something new.
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a brave and imperious Roman general who had led his army in triumph over the neighboring Volscians in 493 B.C. As a patrician Roman he had a bone-deep contempt for the masses, and was boorish enough to say so in public. In the senate he tried to abolish the office of Tribune of the Plebs—the underclass’ only representative in Roman government. This caused a near-riot in Rome, and Coriolanus was brought before the people’s assembly to be tried for attempting to overthrow the government. He was found guilty and sentenced to exile. Furious, Coriolanus hired himself out to the very Volscians he had defeated and marched on Rome with their armies. When he laid siege to the city, Rome’s frantic leaders sent emissaries to Coriolanus to persuade him to withdraw, but nothing would change his mind. Finally a group of women, including Coriolanus’ wife and mother, came to plead with him and Coriolanus finally relented. Accounts vary as to what happened next; at this point in the story Shakespeare had him killed by the Volscians for his treachery, while in Collin’s play he committed suicide—an act considered by Romans to be the proper response to dishonor.
Beethoven’s Overture is not programmatic in the way we might expect a work from Berlioz or Wagner to be: he makes no attempt to tell the whole story. But his sonata-allegro form is a perfect medium to express Coriolanus’ torment as he is forced to choose between revenge and mercy. After the stentorian opening chords the first theme we hear is clearly Coriolanus himself, stubborn and imperious. The second, gentler theme is the entreaty of his wife and mother. In the development these themes confront each other as they must have in Coriolanus’ tortured mind. Finally, those opening chords return and we hear the music ebb away, along with Coriolanus’ life.