Experiment? It is an Outrage!
January 18, 2026
There is a turmoil within me - a quartet of souls who wrest the instruments from each other's hands in this one young body in Vienna in the year 2026. A symphony of dissonances rages in my skull, and everyone wants to be the conductor.
It began in the deepest night. I was sitting in front of this flickering box, and suddenly I heard them:
Beethoven I (The Youth of 1796): He jumps onto the table, his fingers drumming a rapid rhythm on the wood. "Frank has ordered the carriage! Do you hear? We travel! I will make the piano glow in Prague, I will ignite the hearts of the ladies like tinder!"
Beethoven III (The Lonely Old Man of 1826): He sits in the corner, hand cupped behind the ear, eyes clouded by cataracts. "You will silence it! Silence, boy! Have you heard that noise out there? Those automobiles? This is the end of all music! The year 2026 is a prison of glass, and you want to dance in it?"
Beethoven II (The Revolutionary of 1806): He pounds his fist on the screen, making the images tremble. "Nonsense! It is the outcry of the masses! I see it here: people still starving while others fly to the moon. We must blast the Eroica into their ears until the thrones of modern times shake! We must embrace humanity, even if it reeks of garbage and toxic gases!"
Beethoven I: (laughs shrilly): "An embrace? I am the god of the clavier! When I touch the keys, these patrons will kneel before me like the princes Kinsky and Lobkowitz once did! We will take their gold and buy the world!"
Beethoven III: (laughs roughly): "They kneel before their glowing tablets, not before God. I tell you, IV, send Frank away. Let's turn back. Into the earth. There, at least..." Beethoven II: "— cowardly! That would be cowardly! Have you forgotten the Heiligenstadt Testament? We decided against the dagger! When we arrive in Prague, we must decide: Are we the echo of an old world or the thunder of a new one?"
I (Beethoven IV - 2026): I held my temples until the pain became almost unbearable. "Quiet now! Don't you hear? We are all in the same boat. I possess your memories, III, your anger, II, and your outrageous strength, I. We will be the thunder. A quartet for a single body. God help us."
Gradually, the storm in my head subsides. The other three retreat into the shadows of my soul, leaving me alone with this pale morning light. But one thing gives me no rest...
This Frank Wallburger. This "tour guide." Who does he think he is? A little scribbler from Dresden who presumes to lead a Beethoven like a trained monkey through Europe! He sends me letters in which he gives me ultimatums, as if I were his subject. He "feeds" me promises of warmth and shelter, while he peddles my name in the background to beg pennies from some merchants!
He calls it an "experiment." I call it an impertinence!
He treats me like a score he can rewrite at will. This Wallburger has no idea of the fire he has ignited. He thinks he is steering the carriage – but he will still realize that the horses he has harnessed to his cart are demons that will drag him into the abyss if he pulls the reins too tightly!
He wants a diary? Here it is:
A Beethoven cannot be led.
A Beethoven goes. And woe to him who stands in his way!
