Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

I heard the most amazing bit of music today.  I was listening to NPR, and some lady with a British accent was interviewing an Israeli musician who conducts an orchestra (the West-Eastern Divan) comprised of Israelis, Arabs and Palestinians.  He said his orchestra is not trying to bring peace, they are trying to help people see the human-ness of each other.  He feels this is the only way peace can eventually come to the middle east.

But, the music had nothing to do with Arabs or Israelis.  It was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.  I thought I knew this song.  I have undoubtedly played it on the piano.  Probably all of us can hum it.  But this was something different.  It was like having seen sketches of the clouds at sunset, and even some decent paintings, but then- suddenly, when you think you are about to see another drawing, someone throws open the curtains and-- 

Da Da Da Dum!  There are reds and yellows and blues in depths and emotions you had never considered before.  The song had layers and emotions I could almost see.  There was nothing harsh or angry about it, like I had always heard before.  I was pulled into an emotion and meaning that was beautiful and nearly tangible.  

Then, abruptly, the selection was over.  It had only lasted a few seconds, and they went back to the interview.  I pulled into my parking spot at the grocery store and turned off the car.  But I didn't get out.  I sat still, thinking of the music, and how I could incorporate that same feeling into a novel or story.  It gave me chills.  It would take a genius.  Then I thought of the genius that had created the song in the first place.  No wonder Beethoven is considered a great composer.  How pitiful my banging on the piano must have sounded to him, when undoubtedly he had something much more along the lines of this performance in mind when he write it. 

Beautiful.  And amazing.  I'm going to see if I can buy the song, by the West-Eastern Divan, on iTunes.  You never know.  It's not only Taylor Swift songs, you know.   =)