Da-da-da-dum.
Short-short-short-long.
That’s probably all you need to get a particular music theme in your head.
It is a pattern found all around us, from the way we knock on doors to the way advertisers frame the ominous. It might be one of the most recognized and over-exposed musical phrases in history.
The source? The opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C Minor.
To my ear, the loveliest and most under-stated presentation of that musical idea comes at the end of the third movement of that symphony: Most of the orchestra has fallen silent, while the strings gently pluck a flattened version of the theme. And then it is reduced to a simple pulse played on timpani — one of the first moments in the Western “art music” tradition when percussion carries the main theme.
From there, the orchestra slowly reassembles around that insistent beat, mustering the bombast of the opening of the fourth movement.
It is an extraordinary moment, more than 20 minutes into the piece.
But how often do we get that far?
Daily life keeps us busy. We’ve all heard that theme dozens or hundreds of times. The initial notes enter our ears, and, if only subconsciously, we think: Yep, I’ve heard that.
Now that I’ve pointed it out, there’s nothing to stop you from going directly to that part of the third movement on a CD or an iPod and listening to the transition.
And there’s the problem: that’s akin to walking into a concert hall with a full orchestra, asking them to pick it up 80 bars before the end of the third movement, and then disrupting them after a few minutes with a “Thank you, that’s enough.”
Described that way, it is absurd. But that’s how we so often treat great music and great ideas.
And by we, I mean me, too! I’m not saying it is easy. Even listening to the Fifth while writing this post, I cheated and started at the beginning of the third movement. Sorry, Ludwig: You and I both deserve better.
There is an inherent beauty to this passage of the symphony, but what makes it profound is the twenty or so minutes that precede it.
If we encounter the passage as a 30-second excerpt, underscoring a particular emotion in a film, or by starting up the car after an hour shopping for shirts, we have an entirely different experience.
Art, Squeezed Into Life
We tend to connect with art that fits within our hectic and idea-saturated lives.
At 227 minutes long, “Lawrence of Arabia” sits gathering dust as we plow through shorter films in the Netflix queue. The Salman Rushdie novel that makes us wish we knew more about the Partition of Pakistan and India gets postponed, half-read. Self-appointed critics describe a seven-minute pop song as “artistic self-indulgence”.
I’ve noticed that YouTube has warped my perception of short films: When watching something online, my hand rarely leaves the mouse. Barely thirty seconds in, I find myself grumbling: “If this doesn’t get interesting in the next 10 seconds, I’m on to the next thing.”
That’s not a disaster for most of the trifles on YouTube, but what if I subconsciously transfer that same sensibility to other experiences of art or music or film — or even human interaction?
The experience of beauty often requires sustained attention, physical expanse, perception of nuance and deep thinking.
When we “don’t have time” for such experiences, we will have less beauty and awe and inspiration in our lives.
Meeting Claudio
When I was eighteen, I had a chance to hear Claudio Monteverdi’s opera “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” performed on 17th-century instruments.
I had never been to an opera. I had never even listened to a single act of one, let alone a whole work. How long would it be? Would I get bored? Was it worth the time?
I went, and was enthralled from the first note. Monteverdi remains one of my favorite composers to this day. How much later in my life would I have discovered that music if I hadn’t gone that night?
We don’t have time for such experiences every day.
All I’m saying is give 220-minute-long Italian Baroque operas — or something like them — a chance.
Exercise
Clear some space in your schedule for a big idea or big art. Set aside the time, make a date, and go to a specific place, if needed, to experience the enormous, however you define that.
Choose something you don’t typically have time to enjoy and absorb, and that you think might be humbling and awe-inspiring. It could be:
- Something physically or sensually larger than you, like standing in the middle of a redwood forest.
- Something on a timescale outside your everyday experience — like “Lawrence of Arabia”.
- A complicated idea that requires intricate thinking and focused attention.
Seemingly small ideas and experiences can become enormous in our heads. An Emily Dickinson poem may seem small, but if it expands in your mind and occupies your thoughts for days or weeks, its import and impact could be enormous. Give yourself time to let a small idea grow in your mind.
The amount of our time and energy attracted to an idea is a much better measure of its size than word counts, duration, or physical measurements. The critical ingredients are time and the ability to focus.
Questions
- How was this experience different from your typical day-to-day encounters with art and ideas?
- Was it worth devoting the time to it? Was it worth whatever hassle you had to go through to make the time in your schedule?
- Will you do it again? How often?
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