Beethoven quickly becomes the focus of this essay. What was written here seems to evoke his 9th Symphony, created at the end of his life. Music which today can become invisible because of its pre-recorded familiarity, or revelatory in its creation of soul-stirring vibrations.
This doc is a bit cheezy but still a rather moving chronicle of the present day life of this 200 year old piece;
"That because Beethoven was freed {by deafness? maybe} to explore deep within his own nature, he was able to create works that would have a future." And, he most definitely did.
"The truth is perhaps that Beethoven's music has in it
something inaudible (something for which hearing is not the
exact locality), and this brings us to the second Beethoven."- pg.152
It may be important here to think of Barthes as a student of Phenomenology, having an interest in the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. Through Beethoven he may be waxing on the complexity of experience that music, and all other art forms, can stir up.
