What Is Eternal

(BEETHOVEN) And here in the night As I feel the inferno I stare in the dark Thinking what is eternal The man or the moment The act or the reason These thoughts fill my head As I contemplate treason Of dreams I have had And dreams I have pondered When late in the night My mind it would wander To things I have done And then quickly regretted While denying vices My life had selected And I think what I've done Or have yet to begin And the man I've become And the man that I've been Now caught in a waltz With the eternal dancer I'm courted by death But death isn't the answer I say All I was Meant to be Could I Suddenly Just decide Not a thought Would survive Could it be My life's worth Ended there With my birth If I could see someone Who's been there before me And traded his soul For a moment of glory His penance or mercy By spirits debated Wile judged on a scale That's been heavily weighted And what have I done Could there be such a sin In this man I've become In this man that I've been Now calling to god From the pit's very bottom I pray he forgives Every sin I've forgotten This day And who would have thought That my fate it would conjure This twist in the road On which I have wandered Each vision and dream now Completely dismembered To give one's whole life And find nothing's remembered And what good is a life That leaves nothing behind Not a thought or a dream That might echo in time The years and the hours The seconds and minutes And everything that My life has placed in it Betrayed Betrayed Betrayed The things I have done The placed I've been The cost of my dreams The weight of my sins And everything that I've gathered in life Could it be lost Could it be lost in this Could it be lost in this Night (Crushed by the dilemma he finds himself in and unable to reach a decision, Beethoven tries to recall the particular actions in his life that have led to his damnation. In anger, he confronts Fate for having dealt him such a cruel hand in life. Taken a back by his accusations, she offers to review his life with him and to change anything that he wishes to change.) (Delighted with this unexpected proposition, Beethoven accepts. When she asks where he would like to start, Beethoven says the first thing he would change is his childhood. Fate takes him back through time where he finds himself as a young child sitting at a piano. He has just been cruelly slapped by a tutor for having failed to receive an appointment to the emperor's court. His tutor is trying to create a new child wonder, similar to Mozart, but unlike Mozart, Beethoven is an awkward and gangly youth. Now, sitting alone at the piano, he is trying to console himself by playing a melody that he finds soothing. Beethoven recognizes the melody as the future Sixth Symphony and sitting down next to the child completes the tune. The child smiles at this kindly adult and after they talk for awhile, asks if they might meet again and finish the song. Beethoven reassures the child that one day that just might possibly happen.)