Freedom-fighter to tyrant

Beethoven had always been a fervent follower of the ideals of the French Revolution, for all his princely connections in Vienna. (Beethoven was one of the very first freelance composers, eschewing employment by courts or churches for a life dependent on a variety of individual patrons, many of whom happened to be aristocrats and diplomats and who financially ‘sponsored’ individual works.) As a result, he admired Napoleon as a revolutionary leader and a man determined to sweep away the iniquities of the old order. His new work, written largely in the summer and autumn of 1803 and certainly completed by the spring of 1804, was initially given the heading ‘Grand Symphony entitled Bonaparte’, but when Beethoven was told of Napoleon’s acceptance of the title of French Emperor, he is said to have been put into a rage and torn his title page in half.

Is he, then, nothing more than an ordinary human being?
Now he, too, will trample on all the rights of man
and indulge only his ambition.
He will exalt himself above all others, become a tyrant!

Beethoven as quoted by his pupil Ferdinand Ries