8 revolutionary musical pieces

In many countries, composers wrote works to support a revolution. The French Revolution in 1789 found its way into numerous compositions. Other uprisings have also influenced musicians. The motto of this year's Beethovenfest, held in Bonn from September 9 through October 9, is "Revolutions" - and some of these pieces are on the playbill.

One of the most famous patriotic folk songs of the US, "Yankee Doodle" was sung by American revolutionaries who wanted to break away from the British Empire; they succeeded in 1776. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson underlined the importance of freedom and equality for all people - values which before long were picked up by the French Revolution.

Etienne-Nicolas Méhul is considered the revolutionary composer par excellence. Napoleon commissioned him to compose one of the most famous hymns of the time, "Le Chant du départ" (Song of Departure). However, Napoleon wasn't interested in the solemn mass that Méhul composed for his coronation. If the piece was largely forgotten, it at least inspired Ludwig van Beethoven in his Fifth Symphony.

Luigi Cherubini was also driven by the spirit of revolution. His hit from 1800, "The Water Carrier," is an example of the musical genre called "rescue opera," in which a persecuted character is rescued. In Cherubini's work, a water carrier comes to the aid of a politically persecuted count who shares his progressive views. The opera is said to have influenced Beethoven's "Fidelio."

Longer and more intensely expressive than anything that had been composed until then, Beethoven's Third Symphony burst the boundaries in 1803. Beethoven dedicated this truly revolutionary piece to Napoleon. But when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor, thus betraying the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, Beethoven withdrew the dedication.

In 1937, for the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a celebratory cantata. The choral symphony for 500 instrumentalists and singers included sound effects - even gunfire, machine guns and alarm bells. Accompanied by texts by Marx, Engels and Lenin, the mighty work was censored by Stalin and was first performed in 1966 in a slimmed-down version.

In 1814, the poet and freedom fighter Lord Byron wrote an "Ode" ridiculing Napoleon. In 1942, during the Nazi dictatorship, Arnold Schoenberg set Byron's ode to music in a setting for a speaking voice, piano and string quartet. When a music critic pointed out parallels between Napoleon and Hitler in the work, the politically committed composer didn't contradict him.

"Revolution" was the first song recorded for The Beatles' "White Album." John Lennon (front left) had written the piece while in India with the band in 1968. Lennon was inspired by the student riots in Paris, the Vietnam War and the assassination of Martin Luther King. The Beatles' song celebrates a peaceful revolution without violent extremists.

Information on the protest movement in the Arab world is always strongly filtered, says Turkish pianist Seda Röder. That's why she asked composers from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Turkey to express what the "Arab Spring" means to them in music. The results will be given their first performance in a multimedia work on September 18 during the Beethovenfest in Bonn.