ABSTRACT
Ludwig van Beethoven received a letter from a Scottish folksong enthusiast, George Thomson, of Edinburgh, inviting him to contribute to a series of sonatas on Scottish airs. Beethoven replied, offering to write six for a fee of £150—too much for Thomson, who answered that he would pay no more than £75. The year 1804 saw first performance of "Eroica". The French army, under Beethoven's former "hero," had a few days before occupied Salzburg and Ulm, and Vienna itself was entered on November 13th, the aristocratic patrons of music promptly going out as French came in. In 1803 Beethoven had been commissioned by Schikaneder, director of the Vienna Theatre, to write an opera, and rooms in the Theatre had been given him. Both commission and accommodation lapsed a year later, when Schikaneder sold his interest in the concern; but Beethoven was already at work on his task, and "Fidelio" was produced a few months after the first performance of the "Eroica".
