Richibi’s Weblog

    “Moses“ (1956) 

      Marc Chagall

         ________

Beethoven’s Opus 111 is, to my mind,

the equivalent of the Sermon on the 

Mount, or Moses’s rendering of the 

Ten Commandments, see above, in 

our post-Christian world, the world 

where God is dead and where we’re 

all left to our own devices for better 

or for worse 

Beethoven confronts a Listener, 

who is, or is not, there, pleading 

for meaning, purpose

the first movement is rebellious,

despite, ever, his reverence for 

his abstract Interlocutor, bowing 

before, heeding, this self-anointed 

Adjudicator, the Deity we fashion 

for ourselves 

we are witness to this interchange

the second movement is more

subservient, pleading more 

rationally, less explosively, his

case, we hear this too

there are only two movements,

dichotomies, war, peace, man,

woman, chaos, order, none of 

them a choice

Beethoven says to exist, to be,

itself, encompasses its own 

glory, that is our grace, 

whether or not there is a 

hereafter

listen

R ! chard

psst: thank you so much for your 

          participation, however 

          intermittent, in my Month 

          of Sonatas, I am not only 

          grateful, but honored, by 

          your presence