A gap divides modern ideas of genius from the sentimental conceptions of the 1760s and 1770s. Though talent was a common feature, musical genius for Rousseau and Diderot was integrally related to expression, affective identification with a community, and an orientation towards ‘the people’. Also important was ‘enthusiasm’, originally a type of religious inspiration fostered after 1700 within radical Protestant groups such as Count Zinzendorf’s Moravians, who radically challenged contemporary ideas of masculinity, sexuality and religious faith. Enthusiasm’s secularization with Goethe and Herder initiated the countercultural ‘period of genius’ (Genieperiode) later known as the Sturm und Drang. Its composers, such as J. M. Kraus, Neefe and Reichardt, lavished attention on popular, commercial forms such as German comic opera and ‘popular song’ (Volkslied) – priorities only challenged when the movement’s opponents such as J. N. Forkel tactically redefined ‘genius’ to centre it on technical mastery rather than inspiration and expression.

Chapter 9 explores Goethe’s development as a dramatist, from the works of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) era, through the classical period to his last plays, and the associated shifts in style. It considers both the dramas that have entered the canon and those – such as the fragments, masques and Singspiele – that have now largely been forgotten. The chapter also emphasises the importance of seeing Goethe not only as a playwright but also as a practitioner, whose involvement in the Weimar court theatre helped to shape his writing.

Classicism and Romanticism are frequently used as a shorthand to designate the stylistic and aesthetic shifts that occurred as the eighteenth gave way to the nineteenth century. However, this neat picture blurs as one delves into the subject. Not only did Romantic musicians learn the foundations of harmony, phrasing, and texture from their predecessors, but many of the styles of innocent naïveté or exuberant striving beloved by Romantics emerged from specific eighteenth-century genre contexts, including opera, the fantasy, folk song, and church music. Change did happen, of course. Not only did the ethical concerns of the eighteenth century turn towards metaphysical ones in the nineteenth, but the social and institutional divides that had long separated musicians and writers began to lessen. As a result, musicians and writers learned to admire and emulate what each believed the other excelled at.

This chapter provides cultural context for Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, by discussing other pertinent expressions of heroism in Western culture. While these include the deeds of real-life figures such as Napoleon, the primary focus here is on literary heroes found in the epics of Homer ‘as translated in Beethoven’s time by Heinrich Voss’ and in prominent German dramas by Goethe and Schiller that date from their Sturm und Drang and Klassik periods. The underlying nature and overt actions of literary heroes such as Hector, Götz von Berlichingen, Karl Moor, the Marquis von Posa and Egmont influenced Beethoven in the articulation of his own code of values ‘evidenced by quotations in Beethoven’s letters and diary’, while the ways that Goethe and Schiller dramatised their poetic language may well have influenced the formation of the highly dramatic musical language of Beethoven’s heroic style. Varieties of heroism discussed in the chapter include the necessity of rebellion in the face of tyranny, the overriding importance of free thought and freedom in general, the rise of the autonomous individual and the triumph of free will in overcoming adversity and even overcoming one’s own self, culminating in the moral commitment to sacrifice oneself for a higher ideal.