Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)

Bum-bum-bum-BUMMM. Do you hear that? It sounds like a secret knock on a giant wooden door. Or maybe it’s the footsteps of a giant stomping through a forest. It’s a sound that asks a big question and makes you lean in close to find out the answer. It’s a little bit scary but also very exciting. What am I? I’m not a person you can meet or a place you can visit. I am a story told with violins, trumpets, and drums. I am a feeling that you can hear with your own two ears. I am the Symphony No. 5.

A man with music in his heart made me. His name was Ludwig van Beethoven, and he loved music more than anything in the world. He had a great storm of brilliant ideas inside his mind all the time. He was passionate, which means his feelings about music were extra big and powerful. But a very sad thing was happening to him. The world was getting quieter and quieter because Ludwig was losing his hearing. Can you imagine making music when you can’t hear it very well? It made him feel frustrated and lonely. But he was also very strong and full of hope. So he took all of those big, stormy feelings—the sad ones and the brave ones—and he poured them onto paper with ink. For four whole years, between 1804 and 1808, he worked on me, writing down every single note. Finally, on a chilly night, December 22nd, 1808, it was time for the world to hear me. In a big theater in a city called Vienna, a whole group of musicians, called an orchestra, played my notes for the very first time. The audience shivered, not just from the cold, but from my power. They had never heard a story like me before, a story about fighting through sadness to find strength, all told without a single word.

My story starts with that famous knock at the door, which sounds a little bit stormy and serious. It’s like the beginning of an adventure that might be a little scary. But if you listen all the way to the end, something amazing happens. The music changes. The trumpets sound like sunshine breaking through the clouds. The violins sing a happy song. I go from darkness to light, telling a story about winning a big victory. That 'short-short-short-LONG' sound is so famous now. You might have heard me in a cartoon when a character has a great idea, or in a movie during an exciting part. I am a reminder from my friend Ludwig that even when things feel hard, you have strength and hope inside you. My music is like a secret message sent through time, from his heart to yours, proving that a powerful feeling can be shared forever through the magic of a song.