Chapter 2

Fig. 53 Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might: “Who ever danced that danced not at first listening?” Revolutionary in virtually every aspect. Orchestration of this heroic magnitude. A syncopated groove. Post-primary dominants worthy of R&B. Move over, Mozart—we’re coming all the way from the depths of Inferno to the horizon where we glimpse some light in Limbo. But we aspire to Paradiso. Yes, yes, Napoleon disappointed. But what of that? We are romantics through and through! Now, to my favorite part… There has never been anything like 7:34 - 9:09 in the history of symphonic music! What a way to build tension and then release it! Toppling the Ancien Régime (i.e., Baroque and Classical titans) and paving the way for the unruly, riotous Romantics calls for such a show of strength. Bravo!

Eroica

Gooooooooaaaaaaaal!!!

Victory is visceral, at least in the most ancient sense. And no sport, I can’t think of any sport, in which that victory was best appreciated than football, or what Americans would call soccer. Score that goal, and go yelling and screaming with very primeval facial expressions of conquering an enemy, an adversary, right? And then, technology was brought in, with ideas from American football, where adjudication is based on the precision and dynamics of the camera that can replay over and over, and make sure that all the rules were followed, and that this is truly, truly an accurate inference. And now, we can’t have any more of that visceral reaction. First you celebrate, then you have to tranquillo, you have to be chill, because you have to wait for the confirmation, if a call has been made, which is made almost for every goal, and then you celebrate again, it’s not going to be visceral this time, it’s going to be cerebral, much chiller, and the sport has been destroyed, that’s all I can say. More accurate outcomes, but oh boy, the sport has lost that visceral kind of thing. And when I think of visceral, because of Eroica Symphony, I just woke up thinking of the late part of the development section of Eroica, Beethoven’s, it’s visceral. Don’t give me any Bach here, don’t give me any intellectual Bach here, don’t give me any spiritual Mozart here, give me Ludwig, Ludwig for the visceral. And I don’t think visceral in the symphonic world will ever exceed, the visceral feeling of victory will ever exceed what Eroica gives us. I don’t know if it’s the syncopation, the little, I don’t know. What do you think?

I completely get where you’re coming from. Football, or soccer, as you point out, has this primal connection to victory. There’s something raw about scoring a goal that taps directly into our most ancient instincts—running, yelling, that feeling of conquering. It’s like a victory cry straight from the battlefield. This was once instantaneous, unfiltered euphoria. The very soul of the sport was in that moment of glory. But then came technology. I get that it was supposed to make things “fairer” with VAR (Video Assistant Referee), but the cost has been enormous. Now, every time you score, you have to hold back—pause that visceral triumph until a committee of slow-motion cameras grants you permission to feel something. It’s maddening! The flow, the purity of the emotional release, is destroyed. Like you said, it’s all cerebral now, and while the sport may be more precise, it’s far less human.

And comparing that to Beethoven’s Eroica? You’re right on target. The late development section, the way Beethoven uses syncopation, and how it builds into this almost savage culmination of emotion—it’s pure, visceral power. It’s victory in musical form. You can almost imagine him confronting fate itself in those moments, demanding victory, and conquering something far beyond the tangible. Bach and Mozart, as you mention, speak to higher intellects or spiritual realms, but Beethoven—especially in Eroica—is all gut. It’s primal and explosive, like a battle won.

In a way, VAR in football is the anti-Beethoven. It drains the primal, the instantaneous, replacing it with cold, clinical calculation. Victory should be felt, not questioned.

Show code cell source Hide code cell source

import networkx as nx
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Create a directed graph (DAG)
G = nx.DiGraph()

# Add nodes and edges based on the neuron structure
G.add_edges_from([(1, 4), (2, 4), (3, 4), (4, 5), (5, 6)])

# Define positions for each node
pos = {1: (0, 2), 2: (1, 2), 3: (2, 2), 4: (1, 1), 5: (1, 0), 6: (1, -1)}

# Labels to reflect parts of a neuron
labels = {
    1: 'Directed', 
    2: 'Games', 
    3: 'Allegory', 
    4: 'Tradition', 
    5: 'Innovation', 
    6: 'Revolution'
}

# Draw the graph with neuron-like labels
nx.draw(G, pos, with_labels=True, labels=labels, node_size=4000, node_color='lightblue', arrows=True)
plt.title("Tension in Bow (Inherited & Added Constraints) +\n Release of Arrow (For Loftiest Goals)")
plt.show()

Fig. 54 NWA: Nine Worthy Artists. Traditional or Antiquarian: Da Vinci, Bach, Fyodor. Innovative or Monumental: Raphael, Amadeus, Nietzsche. Revolutionary or Critical: Michelangelo, Ludwig, Karl. They represent the visual, auditory, and literary mediums of expression. At the heart of the traditional artists lies a fractal and cosmic geometry. Few would need convincing of this claim regarding Da Vinci and Bach, but Fyodor Dostoevsky? The clue is in his autobiographical work, The Gambler: “For why is gambling any worse than other methods of acquiring money? How, for instance, is it worse than trade? True, out of a hundred persons, only one can win; yet what business is that of yours or mine?” Or, “I think roulette was devised specially for Russians.” What is common among the innovators is their prankishness. It’s their way of expressing freedom in fetters or dancing in chains. They do not mock their traditions with any moral gravity; instead, they absorb them like sponges, only to prank them with the subtlest & lightest of touches. Now, to the revolutionaries: Look no further than David, Eroica, and the Manifesto.