“People are united not only when they are together; even the distant one, the absent one too is present with us.” — from Goethe’s play Egmont, as quoted by Beethoven in a May 1810 letter to Therese Malfatti (Anderson, Beethoven Letters, No. 258)
One beneficial outcome of the French occupation was the closing of the censorship office. Viennese producers took this opportunity to revive two plays featuring historical figures struggling for freedom against foreign rule: Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell and Goethe’s “Egmont.”
The revivals of both Wilhelm Tell and Egmont required overtures and incidental music. Beethoven would have preferred “Tell” but Egmont was a fine second choice. The revival opened on 24 May 1810, but Beethoven’s music wasn’t ready until the performance of 15 June.
Goethe’s play of Egmont dated from 1787, but he had begun it at least a decade earlier. In the introduction to his English translation of Egmont, Charles E. Passage suggests that Goethe might have been influenced by the American Revolution in writing “Egmont.”
The real-life Count of Egmont was a Dutch statesman and general of the 16th century, born 1522 and executed 1568. At that time, the Netherlands and what is now Belgium were under the control of King Phillip II of Spain, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
In Goethe’s play, Egmont is a cheerful, easy going, eternally optimistic man, who believes in accommodation with the occupation forces. Yet, when he himself is accused of heresy and treason, he rises to the occasion and becomes a symbol of heroic resistance to tyranny.
The political liberation theme of Egmont naturally resonated with Beethoven, as did Egmont’s status as a benevolent and progressive aristocrat — the ideal of the German Enlightenment.
It’s possible that Beethoven was also drawn to Egmont by his grandfather’s Flemish origins.
Egmont begins and often returns to the streets of Brussels where unrest is brewing. We hear the differing views of the common man concerning the occupation, the new religion of Calvinism that stands opposed to the ruling Catholics, and fears of the Spanish Inquisition.
We go into the palace of the Regent, Margaret of Parma, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V who is running the Netherlands but not as strictly as her brother Phillip II would prefer.
We also meet Klärchen, Egmont’s middleclass sweetheart, who lives with her mother.
When we first meet Egmont, he doesn’t seem like the type to oppose the occupation forces. “A law-abiding citizen that supports himself honorably and industriously has as much freedom as he needs anywhere” he says. Margaret detects in Egmont both insolence and frivolousness.
Everything changes when Phillip II sends in the Duke of Alba to clamp down and suppress rebellion. Alba calls Egmont to his palace, and they debate the rights of free men, liberty, and the limitations of kings. Egmont is arrested.
Klärchen becomes radicalized and like Leonore in Beethoven’s opera, she wants to rescue Egmont from prison. Realizing that’s impossible, she drinks poison and dies.
In prison, Egmont has a vision of “the goddess Liberty, and bearing the features of my beloved.”
Egmont ends with Egmont’s speech before his execution. “I die for the liberty I lived for and fought for.” His last words exhort his countrymen (and the play’s audience) to “preserve the most cherished thing of all, die gladly, as I now set the example.”
Historically, the execution of Egmont was one of the events that touched off the Dutch War of Independence (also known as the 80 Years’ War) that resulted in an independent Dutch Republic — creating an environment in which a radical thinker like Spinoza could later flourish.
Beethoven’s Egmont music begins with an Overture often performed independently, and which concludes with exceptionally triumphant music that forecasts to the play’s end.
For nine other musical numbers, Beethoven supplied directions for integrating with the play:
1. “Die Trommel gerühret” (“Strike the drum”), a patriotic song that Klärchen sings in Act I.
2. Entracte between Acts I and II.
3. Entracte between Acts II and III.
4. “Freudvoll und leidvoll” (“To be joyful and sorrowful”), a song that Klärchen sings in Act III that concludes with the lines “Happy alone is the soul that loves.”
5. Entracte – between Acts III and IV.
6. Entracte – between Acts IV and V.
7. Klärchen’s Death in Act V. Her death occurs offstage, the music accompanying a burning lamp that goes out at the end.
8. Music for a monodrama by Egmont beginning “Süßer Schlaf” (“Sweetest sleep”) that then accompanies Egmont’s dream of “the goddess Liberty.”
9. Following Egmont’s last speech, he is escorted offstage to his execution. Yet, there is reason to celebrate. A triumphant Victory Symphony — a reprise of the end of the Overture — heralds the long-term consequences of Egmont’s execution in the history of the Netherlands.
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Egmont Overture and Incidental Music (Opus 84), 1810
I believe this is the only live performance of the complete Egmont music on YouTube. The incidental music is linked with added narration in Portuguese.
If you like the idea of hearing the Egmont music bound by narrative links but your Portuguese is a little rusty, this album available on Spotify does something similar, first in German and then in English with John Malkovich.
Beethoven: Egmont Overture and Incidental Music
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Egmont Overture (Opus 84, Overture), 1810
The overture to Egmont is often performed by itself. This quarantine video makes it particularly poignant and a powerful symbol of triumph over adversity.
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Egmont Overture (Opus 84, Overture), 1810
This award-winning 1965 film by Hungarian cinematographer János Vadász uses the Egmont Overture to show the development and hatching of a baby chick.
Beethoven composed the two Klärchen songs for the 19-year-old actress Antonie Adamberger.
On their first meeting, he asked if she could sing:
I replied without embarrassment with a decided “No!” Beethoven regarded me with amazement and said laughingly: “No? But I am to compose the songs in Egmont for you.”
She actually had starting singing four months earlier but gave it up for fear of injuring her voice. Beethoven retrieved some vocal music, and they practiced until he understood what she might be able to do on stage.
He came back in three days and sang the songs for me a few times. After I had memorized them in a few days he left me with the words: “There, that’s right. So, so that’s the way, now sing thus, don’t let anybody persuade you to do differently….” (Thayer-Forbes, 484–5)
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“Die Trommel gerühret” from Egmont (Opus 84, No. 1), 1810
Kyrgyzstan-born soprano Katharina Konradi sings Klärchen’s fantasy of being a soldier marching along with her sweetheart: “What joy beyond compare to be a man!”
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“Freudvoll und leidvoll” from Egmont (Opus 84, No. 4), 1810
Klärchen tells her mother that she sings this lullaby to rock her “grown child” (Egmont) to sleep. The lyrics explore the contradictory emotions of love.
Joyful
And rueful,
Far off in a thought;
Yearning
And burning,
With sorrow distraught;
Sky-high exulting,
To death burdened down;
Happiness lives
In the lover alone.
— translation by Charles E. Passage
According to Maynard Solomon, the Egmont songs with orchestra “left their mark on the young Gustav Mahler” (Beethoven, p. 274). Mahler would sometimes conduct these songs along with the Egmont overture, where they’d be programmed as the “Klärchen-Lieder” or “Lieder aus Egmont.”
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“Freudvoll und leidvoll” from Egmont (Opus 84, No. 4), 1810
Beethoven wrote a piano accompaniment for his Egmont lullaby, and Minsk-born soprano Halina Dubitskaya demonstrates that it works great in a recital setting.
As if whipped on by invisible spirits, the sun-steeds of time sweep the light chariot of our destiny along, and the most we can do is to maintain courage and calm, hold the reins tight, and steer the wheels to right or to left, here avoiding a stone and there avoiding a plunging crash. Where we are headed, who knows? We hardly recall whence we came.”
— Goethe, Egmont, Act II (translation by Charles E. Passage, p. 49)