“Only connect !” But softly, softly..

“It will be generally admitted that Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man. All sorts and conditions are satisfied by it. Whether you are like Mrs. Munt, and tap surreptitiously when the tunes come – of course, not so as to disturb the others – or like Helen, who can see heroes and shipwrecks in the music’s flood; or like Margaret, who can only see the music; or like Tibby, who is profoundly versed in counterpoint, and holds the full score open on his knee; or like their cousin, Fraulein Mosebach, who remembers all the time that Beethoven is echt Deutsch (genuinely German); or like Fraulein Mosebach’s young man, who can remember nothing but Fraulein Mosebach: in any case, the passion of your life becomes more vivid…”

- EM Forster in Howards End

Late yesterday, I was indulging in what’s become part of my solitary garret entertainment these long winter nights: warbling along appreciatively while Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D Minor played at maximum volume, occasionally succumbing during the most overpowering bits to conduct my imaginary orchestra. It’s the kind of music that makes you clutch your heart to keep it from beating wildly out of your ribcage for all the beauty. Je me suis laissée emporter par la musique and I was enjoying myself thoroughly when suddenly, my doorbell rang furiously. Utter horror, panic, and silence as I hastily muted the computer. This was not how I’d imagined my first meeting with my neighbour to be! Unsure how to react further, I held my breath and waited. A door slammed soon after, leaving me beetroot red and fervently wishing, once again, that we all had thicker walls. Seriously, the things you absolutely do not want to be woken up to hear in the early hours of the morning.

That capped a rather productive weekend, if you don’t count the non-revision haemorrhaging out of my ears. Seized by the need to procrastinate efficiently, I did several loads of laundry, cleaned the room from wall to wall, arranged my clean clothes by colour, then by suitability for weather exigencies, then again by frequency of wear, whereupon my head exploded. So I went for a run and happily frittered the late afternoon away drinking in the gorgeousness by the riverside, as well as sucking on my finger, which had split very painfully in the dryness. Too much tension, as you might imagine.. because life is hardly a bed of rosarum. Oh nemesis of the exams!

Small matter. Only two more weeks to go..

This is what else Forster has to say about Beethoven’s Fifth, which I will love forever and ever only through my earphones now.

“Helen said to her aunt: ‘Now comes the wonderful movement: first of all the goblins, and then a trio of elephants dancing’; and Tibby implored the company generally to look out for the transitional passage on the drum.

“‘On the what, dear?’

“‘On the drum, Aunt Juley.’

“‘No; look out for the part where you think you have done with the goblins and they come back,’ breathed Helen, as the music started with a goblin walking quietly over the universe, from end to end. Others followed him. They were not aggressive creatures; it was that that made them so terrible to Helen. They merely observed in passing that there was no such thing as splendour or heroism in the world. After the interlude of elephants dancing, they returned and made the observation for the second time. Helen could not contradict them, for, once at all events, she had felt the same, and had seen the reliable walls of youth collapse. Panic and emptiness! Panic and emptiness! The goblins were right. Her brother raised his finger; it was the transitional passage on the drum.

“For, as if things were going too far, Beethoven took hold of the goblins and made them do what he wanted. He appeared in person. He gave them a little push, and they began to walk in a major key instead of in a minor, and then – he blew with his mouth and they were scattered! Gusts of splendour, gods and demigods contending with vast swords, colour and fragrance broadcast on the field of battle, magnificent victory, magnificent death! Oh, it all burst before the girl, and she even stretched out her gloved hands as if it was tangible. Any fate was titanic; any contest desirable; conqueror and conquered would alike be applauded by the angels of the utmost stars.

“And the goblins – they had not really been there at all?

“They were only the phantoms of cowardice and unbelief? One healthy human impulse would dispel them? Men like the Wilcoxes, or ex-President Roosevelt, would say yes. Beethoven knew better. The goblins really had been there. They might return – and they did. It was as if the splendour of life might boil over and waste to steam and froth. In its dissolution one heard the terrible, ominous note, and a goblin, with increased malignity, walked quietly over the universe from end to end. Panic and emptiness! Panic and emptiness! Even the flaming ramparts of the world might fall. Beethoven chose to make all right in the end. He built the ramparts up. He blew with his mouth for the second time, and again the goblins were scattered. He brought back the gusts of splendour, the heroism, the youth, the magnificence of life and of death, and, amid vast roarings of a superhuman joy, he led his Fifth Symphony to its conclusion. But the goblins were there. They could return. He had said so bravely, and that is why one can trust Beethoven when he says other things.”

From Chapter 5 of Howards End. Trust Forster to invest such whimsical yet portentous significance in his appreciation of the music, which I’ve always thought of as a highly personal affair. He writes brilliantly eh? Imagine your pleasure in reading this while listening to the third and fourth movements of the symphony. A Room with a View is highly entertaining and of course, A Passage to India, a veritable handbook on living life. Genius.

Right, enough procrastinating. Time to go off and get more hearty hijinks from my trusty online translator. Except not so hearty, and more like low jinks rather than high.

~ by grossomodo on November 28, 2006.