Monday, July 22, 2024
Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is a remarkable masterpiece, a grand creation of wonderment and perfection. Do you know that symphony? Of course you do, everyone knows Beethoven’s 5th Symphony! Look it up, and you’ll recognize it by the first four notes – G-G-G-E-flat; short-short-short-LONG. Now do you know Beethoven’s 5th Symphony?
I could write volumes to describe Beethoven’s 5th, but reducing it to four notes helps you recall a mere nano spec fragment of a monumental masterpiece that extends far beyond that. To claim knowledge of it is insulting. OK, you have some knowledge of it – call it familiarity.
The best way to know The 5th is to go to a concert and hear it live. But then, you can only experience it incrementally as it’s happening. When it’s over, it leaves an impression, a fragment. How can you know Beethoven’s 5th in its entirety? You can experience it all. You can hear it everyday, and you’d forget much more than you could recall. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony cannot stick to you. You can be there fully as it happens, but you can scarcely take it in, in its fullness.
Do you know me? No – you don’t. You know of me like you know of Beethoven’s 5th. What you know of me are a mere two notes. The rest is an impression of an indescribable essence so miraculous, so grand, so remarkable you can scarcely take it in.
In the 35 minutes you’re hearing Symphony No. 5 you can’t take it in, but in real time, it can take you in, and merge you into timelessness. Couldn’t the same be said of God? Do you know God? You can scarcely take it in. But you can always go to a concert and be swept away, then be left with quite an impression. But the impression is only a fragment.