Piano Concerto, K. 466: I. Allegro (Cadenza by Beethoven)#
Fig. 1 Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466, was not merely a masterpiece of its era but a fissure in the dam of classical restraint, a force so potent it burst the Apollonian floodgates in Beethoven’s mind and set the Romantic deluge in motion. This piece, with its stormy D minor key and tempestuous interplay between soloist and orchestra, planted seeds of revolution in a young Beethoven, who would later write cadenzas for the concerto that burn with the intensity of his burgeoning Romantic spirit. For Beethoven, this work was a challenge and an invitation: the concerto’s brooding drama, unprecedented emotional depth, and adversarial dialogue between piano and orchestra hinted at a world beyond balance and symmetry—a world where raw feeling and individual struggle could take center stage. What followed, après moi le déluge, was the Romantic era: a tidal wave of music that embraced the personal, the sublime, and the tempestuous. Beethoven’s own concertos and symphonies would take up Mozart’s mantle, transforming the restrained elegance of the Classical period into an arena where melody (the self), harmony (the collective), and rhythm (the divine conductor) battled and reconciled in ever-expanding cycles of tension and release. Mozart’s No. 20 was the spark, but Beethoven was the flood, and the Romantic period was its uncontainable aftermath.#
The Floodgates of Memory and Transformation
If life is a piano concerto, then the past three months have unfolded as an allegro, rich with adversarial solos, iterative dialogues, and the steady cooperative rhythm of something greater than myself. They began in chaos: the Apollonian gates I had so carefully constructed burst open, unleashing a Dionysian torrent of memory, emotion, and revelation. What followed was not the tidy montage of life flashing before my eyes, but a déluge—relentless and raw, forcing me to confront the architecture of my existence.
Within this storm emerged a dynamic triad—a soloist, orchestra, and conductor: adversarial melody, iterative chords, and cooperative rhythm. Over 20 JupyterBooks, I composed a framework to rebuild—not brick by brick, but phrase by phrase. My last book, Sui, captured the essence of transformation, synthesizing shadow, Übermensch, and individuation into a framework I called Our Cosmic Score. In those pages, melody (self), chords (neighbor), and rhythm (God) emerged as living dynamics that govern not just music, but life itself.
This new book, Self-Neighbor-God, builds on that foundation. It coincides, fittingly, with Mozart’s 20 piano concertos—a genre where the soloist (self) engages with the orchestra (neighbor), under the unifying hand of the conductor (God). This structure mirrors the interplay of life’s forces:
The soloist—adversarial and expressive—embodies the melody, taking risks, seeking resolution, and defining individuality.
The orchestra, with its iterative harmonies, is the neighbor—the chords that provide context, challenge, and support to the soloist.
The conductor, guiding and stabilizing, ensures cooperative equilibrium—setting the rhythm, synchronizing movements, and elevating the whole.
Self-Neighbor-God is not merely a journal but a concerto in motion—a dialogue between adversarial, iterative, and cooperative forces. It explores the triadic interplay of the individual, the communal, and the divine as living forces shaping our rhythms, harmonies, and cadences.
If Sui was a blueprint for transformation, 1 2 3 this book is the performance—a composition where modal landscapes, diurnal variations, and the fractal dynamics of existence emerge as a unified score. The themes repeat and transform, just as a concerto revisits its motifs, never static but always evolving.
As you read, may you find your own reflections in these dynamics. Whether as soloist, orchestra, or conductor, each of us contributes to the grand symphony of shared existence. Together, we create a concerto of memory, risk, and transformation—a performance that resonates far beyond the pages of this book.