Beethoven working in a courtroom!

By Tony Pothitos

I was sitting on the bench for a few hours when I realized the entire morning had gone by without me actually taking notice. I knew people were talking to me and there were judges, plaintiffs and guilty parties around me, but I did not care.

For a very odd reason though, I was not tired, I was relaxed, and content that I had the time to sit back and experience Beethoven as I did while I was awaiting to be a key witness to what might have been my bosses last day behind bars.

I know, I know, your going to say that I was using music to filter out what was happening around me, or I was covering up my stress or anxiety as to my performance as I swore myself in and began the answering. It would be the most logical reason why I did what I did. But it wasnʼt.
So what was I doing?

In reality as I delve in deep thought, I was using the violin movements to shock and retrieve the juryʼs interest, with the baritone soloist I was throwing bones to the opposition and with the bass I was making my point. I would be utterly clear, precise, and never to be questioned again. My every word, would be a statement, as Beethovenʼs notes were.

Truth be told, in Beethovenʼs ninth symphony Beethoven enacts that universality in the course of the movement, moving between the sublime and the commonplace. Sublimity (or truth in my case) rests not only in the sweeping musical gestures (as when the chorus hammers away at the line “vor Gott,” envisioning the cherubim bowing before God), but also in the form itself, as it seeks to encompass the totality of musical scope, (or in this case the totality of an awakening to the NON guilty verdict).

The sweeping gestures were turned from notes into words.

The only thing needed for the recipe to succeed was to play my own symphony for the judges to hear.

This meant only one thing.

This meant that in my mind I was using a symphony to attack the minds which were the future of the aforementioned on trial. And like the ninth. few works or words in my case, can claim to have as much impact on an entire art form as the Ninth Symphony has had on Western Music.

So I lured my oppositionʼs attorney to wait for violins, when in reality bass and baritones were about to come forward and take whatever reality was created to be demolished, and unusable. Then the sweeps began, as waves hit a wall leaving no marks, but never allowing it to dry. This in reality was my scope as a witness. To leave no doubt that you may change some things to seem as being one way, while proving it beyond doubt that some things will never change. Just like what Beethoven left behind. The ability to create passion for thought from his music-forever!

Let us remember that this piece of heralded strife and expression for musicians and music lovers around the world is the best known of all works of European classical music, the Symphony in D Minor, Opus 125, is considered as Ludwig Van Beethovenʼs greatest masterpiece.

The music and not by chance has been adopted as the anthem for the European Union- thus playing a cultural role in modern society. The symphony will continue to be a living part of the cultural imagination, and will always have something new to offer the willing listener as long as he does just that. To LISTEN to music and find his answers!

Article written by Tony Pothitos