Beethoven’s Message
Terry Teachout,
Commentary,
Feb 05, 2003
In a famous demonstration, philosopher G.E. Moore demonstrated the reality of a chair to an audience of sceptics by kicking it across the stage. In a similar manner, this author refuts the nihilism of post-modernism by referring to Beethovin's Ninth Symphony and asserting that there is musical perfection. "This spiritual continuity—this unswerving faith in the universal power of beauty to relieve and transcend the earthly woes of mankind—is Beethoven’s message. Small wonder that its unabashed idealism should make postmodernists so uncomfortable. Disbelieving as they do in the possibility of truth and beauty, they have no choice but to seek to explain away a universal masterpiece like the Ninth Symphony, whose very existence definitively refutes the nihilism that informs their view of the world." Now I believe the Ninth is a masterful piece of work, but does it define beauty? I think not: I think of another Nine, this one by the Beatles, that is the antithesis of Beethovin, and in its own way, no less a masterpiece. I don't care whether this is properly post-modern or not, but the lesson that I take from this is not that there can be no perfection, but rather, that perfection can express itself in many ways, many forms, and thus that the existence of one does not refute the possibility of the others.
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