Beethoven's Last Night

Midnight

Since the time when Ra and Isis
Raised the sphinx out of the sand
And Apollo dreamed Athena
And men began to understand

That when darkness folds on darkness
In the restless tides of night
And lightning raises shadows
And for moments, gives them life

It's been said by those who ponder
That it surely is a sign
That a life touched by the stars
Is now running out of time

And that somewhere in that darkness
In the heart of that great storm
The world returns a soul
That the gods caused to be born

And this was such a storm
The kind one rarely sees in life
For in a room now filled with shadows
The Great Beethoven was spending
His last night

Now gathered around him there
Were the ghosts from out his past
For in the play unfolding there, this night
They, would be the cast

And there among these shadows
Was the beautiful Spirit of Fate
Who had arrived with her dwarf son, Twist
And with the other ghosts did watch and wait

Midnight

Fate

What Good This Deafness

So upon this night, the darkness humbled
Candles sputtered, spirits grumbled
Brooding in this bitter room
What Fate had woven on her loom
While shadows fed upon the gloom

But as these spirits talked and chattered
With all their thoughts quite widely scattered
On things that no one else thought mattered
Beethoven, who was as you know, quite deaf
Heard all their words with deep regret
And wished that he was deafer yet

What Good This Deafness

Mephistopheles

Beethoven then begged
For these shadows to take their leave
That they had no business being there
But the shadows, they disagreed

For no matter how Beethoven implored
For these shadows to leave him alone
They chattered on and would not be gone
From his one-man catacomb

Then Twist explained how it was
That they could not do as the composer wished
For since they were his shadows
It was only by his light they could exist

And as Beethoven’s life was fading
On this, his final night
It was only natural that these shadows
Should cling closer to his fading light

Now, meanwhile, the clock, it just ticked on
As clocks are known to do
For time’s their only purpose
Their only point of view

But when that clock struck midnight
Its chimes both loud and clear
From out of those shifting shadows
A final figure did appear

His voice, it had a certain charm
That concealed all his disease
As he introduced himself to them
As thee, Mephistopheles

He said he had come to collect
The Great Beethoven’s soul
He said it wasn’t much, you see
“Merely, a lump of coal”

“You look surprised, my dear composer
This simple fact to learn
But before tomorrow morning
Together, we will watch it burn”

Beethoven stepped back in horror
“This thing cannot be true!
I have done no great wrongs in life
At least none that I knew”

“Men quite often forget their sins”
The Devil did reply
“Until it’s too late to repent,
Forgetting it’s never too late to die
It’s part of human nature
Upon which I’ve come strongly, to rely

Men quite often forget their sins
For redemption can always wait
And I always allow this to happen
It’s an important part of my bait
For by the time they remember
It always tends to be…too late

Now, you may think your sins are minor
To enter Hell, they’re not enough
Well, a cruel act, a rude word there
Believe me, they add up

And rising from the shadows
Is the specter of your death
For since your birth he has been owed
And now is here to clear the debt
But perhaps we can talk a little while
For you are not dead…not yet”

The cloaked figure of death rises from the floor. He offers Beethoven a bony hand. The composer backs away in terror as Mephistopheles sympathetically offers advice.

Mephistopheles

What Is Eternal

“I cannot die upon this night”
The composer did protest
“For I must complete my Tenth Symphony
Before my final rest”

Backwards
Till he fell into his chair
And searched his mind for a reply
But there were no answers there

And the Devil said “I see
That your mind is quite confused
So I will return here in one hour
For the answer that you choose
And you can tell me then
What you will keep and what you will lose

The hands of the clock rotate backwards from midnight to eleven PM.

So tell me now what do you fear
What do you love or hold too dear
Is it death well wrapped in pain?
Or perhaps it’s no one will remember your name?
If this is so, perhaps I cannot win
But then add pride onto your other sins

I am not trying to pressure you
I know you cannot decide yet
But nothing focuses the mind my friend
Like the approach of one’s own death”

And as he turned to disappear
Into his personal abyss
Beethoven called for him to wait
For something was now amiss

The hands upon the clock
It seems were moving much too fast
And at this rate his hour gift
Would not an hour last

“Consider it a final act of kindness”
Over his shoulder the Devil did call
“Because where you are going my dear Ludwig
The clocks they never, move, at all”

Mephistopheles disappears back into the abyss through a hole in the floor that opens up to receive him.

With Mephistopheles gone
The spirits silently crept back
And watched the great composer agonize
Over the time that he now lacked

So in this room now filled with shadows
Beethoven stood quite alone
And contemplated how to save
The one thing he truly ever owned

Could all the wisdom he had found
Like so many leaves upon the ground
Combine with all his dreams and sins
And on this night be scattered to the wind

For of our faith they are so insistent
With gods who are so inconsistent
And if we are to further delve
Into this night and find ourselves
Might we discover in our past
What in our lives might one day last

What Is Eternal

The Moment

For a moment there was silence
As the storm it hesitated
And like the shadows in the room
On his next word it waited

As Beethoven tried to remember
The exact moment when he crossed the line
Did he lose his soul with one cruel act
Or with little ones that piled up in time

Then Beethoven wondered
What one’s soul was worth
Is the price the same the day we die
As it is upon our birth?

Then he turned towards Fate
There was anger in his eyes
Could his present plight, upon this night
Be something she'd devised?

"Why did you deal me such a hand
Was it all chance or was it planned
And as throughout my life you toyed
Did you regret or just enjoy?”

Now, Fate, she was quite stunned
By this unexpected attack
But she never lost her flawless grace
As she gently replied back

“Mephistopheles has made you an offer
Now I will make one, too
That you and I go back through your life
And every act review

Together we'll go through your years
This thing I can arrange
And anything that you wish me to
This very night I'll change”

Now, Beethoven thought, “was this a trick?”
But a trick he could not see
So he did the only thing he could
Which was, to this new offer, he agreed

"Forgive my outburst" Beethoven said,
“You take kindness to an art
I will gratefully accept your proposal
If you'll just tell me where we start"

"In looking back" Fate replied
"I see your youth was wild
But if one really wants to know the man
One has to know the child"

And with those words, the room around them
Did slowly fade away
Replaced with one from his distant past
Where, as a youth, he had once played

And there he saw himself as a young child
Still a long way from the grave
Where anything was possible
And any dream could still be saved

He was sitting at a piano
But there was sorrow in his eyes
And no child’s eyes should have sorrow
But the composer knew the reasons why

His teacher had just struck him
The mark was still clear upon his face
As were the tears that followed it
And whose path one could still trace
And somewhere in his deepest thoughts
The composer could still taste

The child was writing a melody
To distract himself from his pain
And the elder Beethoven watching this
Could not be restrained

He entered into the small room
And sat next to the child
Which startled the boy for a moment
Until the elderly gentleman smiled

Then he played the song the child was writing
And where the melody was rough
Beethoven added three small notes
But those notes they were enough

So in the year of 1778
On a beautiful summer’s day
To a young child’s ears and an old man’s fears
The Sixth Symphony was first played

The child looks up in delight at the kind stranger who has helped him finish his song. Though unused to such acts of kindness from adults he quickly warms to the elderly man and together they play, “The Pastoral Symphony.”

Fate then whispered from the darkness
That his time here was at an end
But as he was getting up to leave
The child asked would they ever meet again?

The Moment

Vienna

The composer then looked at the child

Who smiled but did not speak

And then the child faded into the dark of the past
Where the darkness is always deep

And Beethoven turned back to Fate
Who had always been close by

And told her what he wanted changed
So his fate could be defied

“I did not need a teacher

Who taught with the back of his hand
While the music I was dreaming

He could never understand”

“These moments of your life I’ll change” Fate says
“But there is a warning I must give
That to change one moment of a life
Can change how that life is lived

Like the gears inside a clock

Every moment turns another

Remove from a wall a single block

And sometimes that entire wall will shudder

The pain you felt through childhood

Would now seem to have no worth

But it was the salve you sought to ease that pain
That gave your Sixth Symphony birth

So, before I grant this wish

And this tale you later tell

Know that these wounds will disappear
But so will your Sixth Symphony, as well

So now that you know all that will be changed
Including things far out of view

When your decision has been made

Tell me what it is you would have me do?”

Fate did not have long to wait

The answer was clear upon his face

His childhood would retain its tears

And his sixth symphony would retain its place

Fate then said they should move on

For their time was growing short

And then asked where he had been happiest?
And she watched as he followed that thought

For a moment there was a glitter
Somewhere beyond his stare

In a time when days were not bitter
And she found Vienna there

Which brings us all, my friends

To the next chapter in our story

As they watched Beethoven as a young man
Arriving in Vienna with all its glory

Vienna

Mozart

Fate then reminded him “It was here you first met Haydn
And walked through palaces filled with art
And studied with your childhood hero
The legendary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart”
“It was here, as you improvised together
That Amadeus became your brother
Your melodies weaving seamlessly
As each note seemed to dare another”

The Dreams Of Candlelight

Fate then reminded him
That music was not the only debt
He owed the city of Vienna,
It was there that he first met,
The Harsburg Princess Theresa
And how their lives became entwined
By a love that became immortal
And still echoes now through time

Together, Fate and Beethoven watch the composer as a young man falling in love with the Princess Theresa.

The Dreams Of Candlelight

Requiem

The happiest moments of his life
Were there inside that night
But within a year my friends I fear
He would drive her from his life

Not because his love had faded
Or another lover had been met
But because he could not believe that someone could love
A musician that was becoming deaf

He gave her no explanations
For this secret, it was his shame
He could not bear to ever hear
The word “deaf” connected to his name

He would not answer her letters
Or the inquires she left
He stayed inside, alone with his pride
Though his heart would not forget

He knew she was still out there
This he could still clearly recall
But the silence was there also

Requiem (The Fifth)

I'll Keep Your Secrets

Sometimes early in the evening
While twilight still lingered in the sky
Beethoven would be writing in his music room
And Theresa would walk by

She knew that something had changed in his life
A secret his soul kept deep within
But Theresa did not care what that secret was
She only cared about him

I'll Keep Your Secrets

The Dark

The years quickly went by
Until he was totally quite deaf
And then, suddenly, the years he had lived
Were more than the ones he had left
While the silence, it grew deeper
As it mingled with his fears
But in that total silence
The muses still whispered in his ear

And from deep inside
They beckoned, dance
And deftly wove their porcelain trance
Of Chinese silk
Dyed in morphine
By princesses so bacchantine

The Dark

Für Elise

“I see the answer clearly now” Beethoven said
“Of this wish, I can have no regrets

The greatest pain within my years

Occurred as I became deaf”

“Go back into my past, sweet fate

And return my hearing throughout my life

My live performances would again be legendary
And Theresa would have become my wife

I would have children gathered around me
Where now I just have songs

Return my hearing, my sweet lady

And in doing so, you will right all wrongs”

“Oh, my dearest Ludwig,” fate replied,

“I ache to grant your wish
but as I warned you once before

It would cause your other songs to not exist

Before you lost your hearing

Your performances were your art

It was how you made your living

Of your life it was an irremovable part

It was only when your hearing left you
That you truly began to write

Creating masterpiece after masterpiece
That have led us to this night

Say the word and I’ll remove your deafness
Say the word and I’ll remove the pain

But the music will disappear as well

And the world won’t be the same

I wish I could offer you an easy answer
But easy answers are rarely there

And at this moment in your life

Of that fact I’m sure you are quite aware

No one, including myself, would blame you
For trying to save your soul

But the Devil will have his victory

And the future’s children will pay the toll

So, tell me Ludwig, what should I do?

Should I return your hearing to you

You cannot seek advice from another
Voice these songs are your children, their fate, your choice”

Beethoven gazed at her

Through eyes of deep regret

The songs, they would remain for now
And his ears, they would remain quite deaf

After The Fall

Fate then informed him
That it is not only his deafness that shaped his life
But his lack of ability to believe
That prevented Theresa from being his wife

She would then show Beethoven
A moment of his life, of which he was unaware
When, as an old man, he walked down a street
And Theresa saw him there

The princess kept her presence silent
As she stood in the shadow of a tavern’s sign
But Fate allowed him to hear Theresa’s thoughts
As she watched him for the very last time

After The Fall

A Last Illusion

And with that, the princess Theresa
Walked slowly into the night
It would be the last time that she would see him
At least, the last time in this life

And Beethoven’s heart collapsed into itself
When he realized what might have been
And the only one that could not see how she felt
During their lives, had been him

Now, Fate, she tried to ease the pain
From his wounds, now steeped in salt
And reminded him that a man
Was not the total sum of his faults

“Think what you have written
The ears you have enchanted
The wishes for every hurt soul’s peace
That you have somehow granted

The wings you’ve given cripples
In the world inside their minds
The joy you brought to countless lives
That heard you music for the first time

Hear how that music echoes
In the futures yet to be
And now look into the shadows
And hear the music your life will cause to be”

Fate allows Beethoven to see all the musicians from the past that have affected his writing as well as all the musicians still unborn whose work will be inspired by him.

A Last Illusion

This Is Who You Are

At the end of this opus
From the future and the past
Fate watches the joy on the old man’s face
As he finally realized at last

That a man is not the sum total
Of the collection of his faults
The errors and mistakes from his past
He keeps carefully locked in vaults

This Is Who You Are

Mephistopheles' Return

Their time, it was now over
Like a shattered hourglass
He could not win
So with his sins
They returned from his past

From the shadows of his life
He told Fate his decision was made
He would not give up a single note
Every piece, it would be saved

He could not remove the music
That gave so many other people joy
But still, he dread his future
As the Lord of Evil’s toy
So late into his life
Like the last days of December
He searched his mind
For a way to find, a way out of his dilemma

For Satan, in our lives, is noted
All his vices often quoted
And though he serves a splendid feast
At the table’s head, still sits the beast

Mephistopheles' Return

Misery

Then, at that moment, the clock behind them
Struck midnight on its bell
And Mephistopheles once more appeared
Shimmering in its knell

Saying, “So, tell me, my dear Ludwig
What did we decide?
Do we have a deal?
Has your end been sealed
Or has it been defied?”

The composer moved not an inch
As he stated his reply
“This music I cannot allow you to take from this world
So it appears you must take I”

“You do not appreciate my kindness,” the Devil said
“No one could offer you more
Your soul is trapped
In fire wrapped
And I’ve given you a door

How could you deny it?
Are you a saint or are you a fool?
Well I’m feeling generous this night
So, once more, I’ll bend the rules

A deal, it is still out there
Just hidden, out of view
So I’ll make one final offer
That will return your soul to you

The compassion you feel for mankind
I perhaps can understand
That your music that has brought such happiness
You cannot remove from the lives of man

But your Tenth Symphony, You’ve just completed
No one else knows it exists
And what mankind has never heard
Mankind will never miss
Believe what I say is true, my friend
It’s as clear as a Judas Kiss

So, give this last song to me
Is it really so much?
To trade so little for your eternal soul
It’s a deal for which you should rush”

Beethoven wavered for a second
Until the ghost of Mozart reappeared
And whispered very quietly
in the Great Beethoven’s ear

“You cannot give this song to him
Though the temptation is very hard
For this is the greatest piece ever written
It is the very voice of God”

Then Mozart faded back into the darkness
But his words had done their work
As Beethoven once more turned down
The offer, no matter how it hurt

“You are a cagey bargainer”
The Devil replied, his voice quite icy cold
“If Judas had you around in thirty-three A.D.
His silver pieces just might have been gold
But I’ll make you a final offer
And this one, I swear you must accept
For if you turn it down my friend
Your last offer is death

Your soul is now mine to keep
But I have something else to trade
A jewel that glitters in this night
And it is entirely man made

Walk over to the window
And gaze across the street
At a child lying in the gutter
Where she is trying to gather sleep

But the rain, it will not let her
As it falls both hard and cold
With every drop, a Devil’s prop
Designed to make her old”

Misery

Who Is This Child

“Release your Tenth Symphony” the Devil said
“That’s all I ask of thee

And I will give this child to you
A fair trade you would agree
A mere trickling of notes

Who cares about a single song

To not trade it for this innocent child
Would certainly be...wrong”

Beethoven turned away from the window
And gave the Devil a final “no!”

But the child was still inside his mind
And he could not let her go
(And the more he denied her hold on him
The more that hold did grow)

Who Is This Child

A Final Dream

Beethoven collapsed at his piano
Saying to the Devil “we now have a deal.”

And Satan replied, “I’ll be gone from her life this very night,
From here on happiness is all she will feel”

The devil then leapt with sheer delight

In evil ecstasy

Shouting for all to hear within sight
“The Tenth Symphony now belongs to me”

But while Beethoven sat face down at his piano
As if Satan’s boast he had not heard

Twist came up and pulled the composer’s sleeve
And said, “How do you know that the Devil will keep his word?”

The Devil did not even look up from the manuscript
Where he was examining his prize

“Don’t worry about hurting my feelings
With what your warped friend has implied

I see you have a bible on the table
Where you keep the statements from your bank
And, as you may have noticed, the last page of a bible
Is always left quite blank

Now, if you’ll just take that bible

And tear out that final page

You can write a contract of your own choosing
That will hold my word like a dragon in a cage

And if you don’t believe me

Just ask your good friend, Fate

For a contract written on such a holy page
Even I could never break”

Beethoven glanced up at fate

Who was still within his view

And she nodded her head gently
Acknowledging that the Devil’s words were true

The old man took the bible

And tore out the last page, as he was told
But when he tried to write, his hands, they shook
From nervousness or perhaps just from being old

These words would be his ending
But the words would just not come
As the Devil grew impatient

For the deal to finally be done

Fate took pity on the composer
And going gently to his side
Offered to write the contract

And the composer nodded his reply

She then took the paper

And with bold artistic strokes
Put down their agreement
And this is what she wrote

It is agreed upon this night, March 26, 1827 between the undersigned, that the music of the Tenth Symphony, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, firstborn son of Johann and Maria van Beethoven, of the city of Bonn, shall henceforth be the property of Mephistopheles. It is also understood that it is his intention to remove any signs of this music from the memory of man for all time. In exchange for the destruction of the aforementioned music it is also agreed that Mephistopheles and all his minions will remove themselves from the life of the child presently sleeping in the gutter directly across from the window of this room. This removal of influence is to be commenced immediately upon signing and to be enforced for all eternity.



_____________________ _____________________
Ludwig Van Beethoven Mephistopheles

The Devil read it rapidly
And quickly signed his name
And slowly without looking up
Beethoven did the same

The Devil grinned a devil’s grin
And shoved the symphony over the candle’s flame,
Savoring the fire that would consume it all
Forever erasing its name

But when the manuscript emerged from the fire
It was still all quite there

It wasn’t burned or even singed

There wasn’t even smoke wafting in the air

He took the symphony once again

And forced it to burst into flames

But once again it remained unsinged

And Mephistopheles looked for who to blame

Then the Devil heard a giggle

Escaping from a grinning dwarf

And looking around, saw Fate’s son, Twist
And he beckoned him to come forth

“Why is this symphony still here?

Why does it not ignite?

Tell me you gnome, what do you know?
For if it does not burn...you might”

Twist squirmed nervously before Satan
But could not hide his delight

As he explained how the music had survived
And would live long past this night

“The contract says that you now own

The Tenth Symphony

Written by the firstborn son, named Ludwig
Of the Johann and Maria van Beethoven family

Now, a little known fact of history

But I assure you, it’s totally true

That the composer had an older brother
Who was named Ludwig van Beethoven, too

Now this child died quite young

Before our composer here was born

So they named their second son Ludwig, also
Though you would think the name was getting worn

His older brother lived only days

And now is at rest with God

As to why they named their second son Ludwig too
Perhaps coming up with names back then was hard

So, according to the deal you signed
If the first Ludwig rises through his coffin boards
And writes nine other symphonies
The tenth one will be yours!”

The Devil’s face contorted

As he realized he’d been fooled

And the child outside was safe as well
For the contract’s words would rule

The floor opened into an abyss

And the Devil disappeared
As outside the storm subsided

And the stars shined in skies now clear

Beethoven stood up in confusion

Over what had just occurred
He realized the girl and the symphony were safe from what he had overheard

But he asked Fate why the Devil
Had not taken his soul to hell

“He never had your soul,” Fate said
“It was never his to sell”

“But the Devil, he said he owned it

From my sins that he did summarize”
“Well the Devil may have said that” fate replied back
“But, my dear, he’s the Devil, he lies”

“But I was rude and cruel in my life”

Beethoven answered with regret

“Yes,” Fate replied, “but the Devil left out

That those actions were often caused because you were deaf

And the pains that you caused in life

You worked twice as hard to undo

And those acts of kindness, even more than your music
That, my friend, is you

It is true that you made some mistakes in life
Sometimes you seemed rude or a fool

But it was always because of your deafness
And not because you were evil or cruel

You went out of your way your whole life

To try to amend those you hurt

And when God weighs your sins against your good deeds
The world will be glad of your birth”

“And what about Theresa?

Is it now truly too late?”

“You will see her again,” Fate replied
“For love, it will always wait

She’s on the other side of this night
Which is closer than it seems

And she will be there by your side

When you awaken from your next dream”

Slowly the shadows and spirits disappear. The room is now completely empty except for Beethoven who lies down on a cushioned window seat and drifts into his final sleep.

A Final Dream

Now you think our story’s over
And all have faded from this night
The ghosts, spirits and the Lady Fate
Have all faded out of sight

And just when all seemed silent
A window opened up
And Twist came in his face agrin
With what he had though up

And picking up the only copy
Of Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony
He slid it behind the clock on the wall
Where I think it still must be

And some time on some future day
No one can really say when
That manuscript will be discovered
And the music will live again

The End