Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblätter zu "Wellingtons Sieg" op. 91, zu einem Quartett sowie zum Kanon "Geschlagen ist der Feind" (Hess 305), Autograph

Victory Symphony

Ever since the fifteenth century there has been a tradition of portraying battles in music. They not only include real battles but also allegorical confrontations such as love battles. The musical representation of the tumult of battle and trumpet signals play an important role. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the genre of battle music (later also the victory symphony) enjoyed a boom, triggered by the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. One of the most significant victories against Napoleon was that of the English army commander Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington on 21 June 1813 at Vitoria in Northern Spain. News of this victory reached Vienna on 27 July 1813 and was greeted with enthusiasm by the city. The initiative for Beethoven's battle music on Wellington's victory did not, however, come from the composer himself. The inventor and mechanic Johann Nepomuk Mälzel (who also invented the metronome) had the idea and asked Beethoven to write a victory symphony for his "Panharmonikon", a music machine which he had invented. It was only after the great success of the work that Beethoven also arranged the work for large orchestra and composed a second part, a battle symphony. He characterized the enemy troops of the French and the English using national marches: Rule Britannia for the English and the Marlborough March for the French. The bifolium shown here has sketches for "Wellingtons Sieg" ("Wellington's Victory") op. 91. A leaf has been inserted containing military trumpet signals. The handwriting is unknown, although there are several reasons for believing that it was Mälzel who wrote down relevant trumpet signals for Beethoven on this leaf. (J.R.)