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?)

(BEETHOVEN)

In this world of curmumstance
Children never fear forever
And this moment that enchants
Someday we may both remember

Then
Maybe then
If we are still alive
Then
Maybe then
This moment will survive

There is time in every word
There are words in every reason
And these notes that are unheard
One day they may find their season

Then
Maybe then
If we are still alive
Then
Maybe then
This moment will survive

Then
Maybe then
If we are still alive
Maybe then
This moment will survive