´So he too is nothing more than an ordinary man. [...] he will place himself above everyone else and become a tyrant!´ is what Beethoven is said to have shouted full of rage when Napoleon had declared himself emperor, and supposedly tore the title page of Symphony No. 3 headed ´Bonaparte´ to pieces. Despite his anger, however, the work was again headed ´Bonaparte´ when he wanted to publish it in 1804. But it was the first edition of 1806 which finally bore the title of Sinfonia eroica. Symphony No. 3 was Beethoven´s first work in which he had come to terms with his progressing deafness and left the boundaries of the musical conventions far behind.