On October 1, 1837, the composer and folk song enthusiast Friedrich Silcher (1789–1860) wrote to Robert Schumann: “I have long entertained the idea of making comparisons between Beethoven's music and Ossian's poetry … I would very much like to know if Beethoven really took Ossian to heart, because all his music sounds Ossianic.” From this it appears the impact of The Poems of Ossian on Beethoven has very likely been underplayed by music historians, either because they believed the poems to be unimportant, of dubious ontology, or because the documented reference by the composer is solitary and can safely be ignored in comparison with the known quantities of other writers, such as Goethe and Schiller, whose poetry the composer set to music. Beethoven (1770–1827), after all, lived at the height of Ossian's influence on German poets and writers. In the light of works such as the “Eroica” Symphony, however, and the composer's confession some six years after completing it that Ossian was one of his favorite authors, the link cannot easily be dismissed. While the “Eroica” occupies a special position in Beethoven's life and work, this chapter will also refer to other compositions in which a variety of influences from Ossian is detectable.

As for the “Eroica,” what new can be said about a renowned work that has provoked a deluge of commentaries since it was written? Anything that might be added here cannot claim special attention among influences affecting its genesis; there are simply too many factors bearing upon its conception, and also its finalizing in the autumn of 1803. Beethoven's generally reliable biographer Alexander Thayer recorded in his notebook that of all his symphonies, the composer preferred the “Eroica.” Whether or not this anecdote is true, the symphony has stimulated a variety of interpretations, but few of these mention the poems of Ossian; if they do, it is merely off hand or in passing. This is distinctly odd, when the composer explicitly referred to Ossian.