- Date:
- 1960
- Summary:
- Professor Woodworth begins the program by declaring that Beethoven's "Eroica” and "Pastoral" Symphonies are examples of Whitman's line, "It is not the sounds alone that move, but their exquisite meaning." The French Revolution, liberation from tyranny, equality, fraternity, heroism—these, says Professor Woodworth, were present in Beethoven's mind when he wrote the Third Symphony and named it "Eroica." Yet it—like the Sixth or "Pastoral" Symphony which took its theme from a holiday in the country—follows strict musical and compositional forms and can be understood even without an acquaintance with the pictorial or poetic background which influenced them.