The First Fifth
The first time that Beethoven’s Fifth was played, people ran into the streets. Men and women wept. No one was left unchanged. Thieves returned coins and silver while Wife beaters laid hammers to their hands. Clergy turned away from preaching hell and sang long hymns of love at mass or all alone in bare-walled cells. The audience and those outside the hall wanted nothing more than love, to love, be loved, make love and music, all.