Fantasia in a Spiritual Key

Imagine, if you will, a world where men were created without the faculty of hearing. For thousands of years, since the dawn of civilization, not a single soul could hear a single sound. Then, a wondrous miracle occurred, and the function of hearing came into being. The exact circumstances need not be described here; let’s just simply refer to it as a “gift.”

Immediately after mankind was gifted with this fifth sense, beautiful works of music were spontaneously composed and soon performed. The intricacies of a Bach, the sublimity of a Mozart, the power and passion of a Beethoven, the inspiring emotion of a Tchaikovsky, all interwoven into the tapestry that was human life, pulling it up to greater and greater heights. For several centuries, the experience these pieces of music wrought uplifted man and set his gaze to ever-transcendent ideals.

Throughout this period a group formed to promote the music, to spread it, to encourage newer forms, to bring it to those who had never heard it before. And for several centuries it was extremely successful in its endeavor, as this glorious music spread to just about every corner of the globe.

Then, a century ago, a second group infiltrated the first group, and these newer upstarts, for whatever reason, did not want this music shared. No, instead they wanted a New Music. And in a remarkably swift time, thirty or forty years, these men accomplished their mission. No longer would strains of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky be heard in the great concert halls. No. Now, the only music permitted would be the folksy guitar strum-alongs of Carol and Paula from the old television show The Magic Garden.

It happened so fast there was almost no protest. And in an even more remarkably swifter time, the older music was forgotten, and the people preferred the New Music.

But although the original melodies were no longer played or heard, they had been frozen in time in the form of sheet music. A third, infinitely smaller group found this sheet music and preserved it and undertook the difficult, uncertain task of learning to read it. Thus mastered, the next inevitable step would be to fantasize what the sheet music might sound like if it were ever allowed to be performed again.