It is a monument of defiance.

Vienna, on the 19th of February 2026
To the First Consul Buonaparte!

Citizen! – Or should I address you as: Sire? – No, I will stick with the former, as that crown, which you once placed upon your own head, has long since decayed in the dust of history, just as I myself had decayed until this strange new era dragged me back into the light in January!

You ask - or would ask, if you still had spirit - about my Symphony Eroica. Know, I had written your name at the top! Broad and bold, with a power that only enthusiasm for freedom gives! I saw in you not the ruler, but the conqueror of tyrants, the new Prometheus! But when the postillions brought that you had made yourself emperor - an idol! - I tore the title page with a crack, and loudly cursed the 'common man', who now also just wanted to be a tyrant.to place himself above all others!

This symphony, the third, was my new path. I told Krumpholz: The old pigtail of the Haydn sons and Mozartian form was over! I needed space! Many may consider the C minor symphony more powerful, but the Eroica – it remains my favorite.

Why?

Because it shows the struggle, the death (do you hear the funeral march, Bonaparte? It is not for you, but for the ideal you betrayed!) and finally the triumph of the spirit in the finale over mere fate. The theme from my Prometheus is the rock on which it stands.

Today, as I see this world of 2026 – with its noise, which even torments my deaf ears – I see my work differently. It is no longer just a piece of music. It is a monument of defiance. I see now that my music had to break boundaries back then, just as I broke the boundary of the grave today.

The Eroica was the first stone I threw into the window of the future. In my complete work, it is the axis around which everything revolves – away from mere play, towards truth.

You have conquered and lost empires. But I have created a realm of tones that still stands after two hundred years, while your eagles have long since rusted. You were only the occasion – but the spirit of music is the truth.

I need no emperor. I am a brain-owner myself, and my realm is in the air!
Farewell – or remain in the shadows where you belong!

- L. v. Beethoven (mppria)