Inverno in F Minor

by CrackedInkWell


21: Beethooven the Great in Gb Major.


Four violet hollowed "B's" (in which Inverno instantly recognized as the key signature of F Minor) that was surrounded by a dark blue snowflake, the symbol of the Empire. That was what Inverno saw on his flank. “Huh?” the colt interjected, “W-Where did that come from?” He tried to rub the mark off of him, only to find that the image felt was as if it were part of him.

“Well, what do ya know,” Shining commented, “You got yourself a cutie mark.”

Inverno tilted his head, “Cutie mark? You mean this thing that I can’t get off?”

“It’s not supposed to come off,” Cadence said, “Do you know what a cutie mark is?”

“Uh… no?” the answer the colt gave surprised to everyone in the room.

His teacher blinked, “You honestly have no idea what a Cutie mark is?”

“I thought it was something that… uh… they would have.” Inverno pointed to the Crystal Ponies. “I mean, Papa never told me about Cutie marks since we never had one.”

“Really?” the royal couple said in unison.

“So what does it do?” the young unicorn inquired. “Will this thing last long?”

“It shows what you’re passionate about,” Cadence explained, “Your Cutie mark is something that stays with you for the rest of your life.”

“Will it change me?”

“Not at all,” the Professor joined in, “If anything, it shows who you are, not who you will become.” He then turned to the royal couple, “With all due respect, I would like to continue teaching Inverno until we’re finished.”

“Oh, of course,” Shining nodded, “But Inverno, we’ll talk about this later, okay?”

The colt shrugged, watching the Palace staff returning to their duties.

Alone once again with his teacher, Inverno turned to him, “Did you really have to tear up my music, something that I’ve worked hard on for the past several days?”

“I am sorry for doing that,” Professor Key explained, “But I felt it was necessary for today’s lesson.”

“And what’s that?”

“Playing out your emotions,” Key started to pick up the tattered remains of Inverno’s music. “This is an idea that Beethooven had pioneered in. Before, music was a pleasant distraction for those of the upper class. Something to reinsure the world that everything is fine, happy, and beautiful. Not that it’s a bad thing, but after centuries of nothing but that, it became boring. But when Beethooven came along, he not only single hoofenily changed the idea of music, but all of history as well!”

“How?” Inverno questioned.

“Tell me something,” the Professor said, putting the torn music on the piano. “When you compose, what sort of ideas to you put into your music?”

“Ideas?” the unicorn trailed off, thinking for a moment. “Well… Armies marching… Papa being King… the Crystal Ponies… That’s it really.”

“With Beethooven, he took the idea of music one step further than that. He, and arguably Moztrot were the first to use musical ideas from their experiences in their lives. You see, where Moztrot had experimented, Beethooven perfected it. The earliest form from Beethooven had taken to revolutionize music was from his Third Symphony: The Eroica. A Symphony dedicated to then, General Napoleon Bonaparte’s battles, where he artistically made his music violent for the first time in history.

“He was the earliest composer to integrate emotion into music, feelings that almost had never been done, such as aggression, joy, depression, loneliness, confidence, all just to name a few. In fact, I would go as far as saying that he was the Great, Great, Great, Great, Grandfather of modern Metal music. A kind of music where it’s full of anger, rage, violence, frustration, all because of,” Key played the first four notes of the Fifth Symphony.

“But why was he the first to do it?” Inverno asked. “I mean, yes, even when I played that, it sounded like this Beethooven knew exactly what I felt right there.”

“I believe it was due to the fact that half of his life, over half of all the music he’s ever written, was done when he became deaf.”

Inverno blinked, “Deaf? What’s deaf?”

“Okay,” Key thought for a moment, “Try to imagine that instead of hearing this,” he started playing the piano for a few bars, “All you hear, is this,” then he suddenly took his hooves off the keys, but moved around as if he were playing. “Imagine that you can’t hear anything, that no sound would come to your ears. Try to think that you couldn’t hear the music of the organ, the piano or even other ponies voi-” even though his lips still moved, Inverno couldn’t hear his teacher talk.

“What?” the colt asked, but no sound came out of his teacher’s mouth, even though it moved. “You’re not saying anything. Can’t you just tell me what you’re saying?” Same result. “Aren’t you going to speak up?”

Key Signature pointed at his student, “There, just like that,” he said. “Imagine that moment, but it keeps on going. That even when you play music or even sing, all you would be able to hear is silence.”

Inverno was stunned, “That’s… That’s horrible. No, that’s worse than death, I would rather lose my sight than not be able to hear.”

“But that wasn’t the case for Beethooven,” his teacher explained. “As horrible as it was, by the time he wrote his greatest masterpiece, his Ninth Symphony, he couldn’t hear a single note of it.”

The young unicorn went quiet for a good solid moment, “But… How can he write anything if he can’t hear it?”

“Even after he went deaf, he was still able to hear all the sounds of the orchestra in his mind. Remember, he was still able to hear in his early years and knew what note every instrument made. Even after he went deaf, he could still record what was in his mind. I think it was because of this, that he couldn’t hear anyone else’s music, which he was able to turn to himself and express to the world what he, himself, felt. Of course, he was always angry after he went deaf, who wouldn’t? Even isolated, lonely, even depressed, because he wasn’t able to hear what everypony else was saying to the point where they thought he went crazy. A lunatic. A monster even! But that didn’t stop him.”

“Why?”

The elder stallion put a hoof on the colt’s shoulder, “Because through music, Beethooven expressed his deepest emotions, his hopes, dreams, and nightmares to the world; it was the only way he could find peace of mind. He told music, not through how the rest of the world saw it, but from his point of view. And it is because of that, everything, not only in Equestria but for the entire world changed. After he died, all of the art, from writing to sculpturing, even music became a form of self-expression for all artists. Because of him, Beethooven became the composer’s composer.”