Tchaikovsky's Symphony #5 - Hope Breaking into Sorrow!

Listening to Houston Symphony's Tchaikovsky Symphony #5 at the HBU gave me a glimpse of how Hope musically breaks into the sorrowful struggle with Fate. Tchaikovsky wrote this symphony exploring the idea of struggle against Fate.

This Symphony was played during the battle of Lenningrad. It is said that German bombs were being dropped on Lenningrad even as the second movement was being played. The Symphony was not stopped. It was played multiple times during WWII because of the theme of struggle against fate.

Today, there isn't WWII to give a framework to interpret the idea of struggle against Fate. So, while I was listening to it, I was using Original Sin as the interpretive framework. All human beings have some form of insecurity that manifests itself in the craving to be liked, respect and affirmed. As psychologist Robert A. Johnson, said we all are pushed by our compulsions. Our compulsions arising out of our insecurity makes us act in hurtful ways - whether it be distancing ourselves from people who love us or acting aggressively towards those who we are threatened by. This pervasive closet of compulsions that drive us is what I consider a manifestation of "Original Sin." 

The struggle against our compulsions is a struggle against our Fate of Original Sin in the broken world where we do not love others well neither do others love us as well as we would like. The end result being cycles of sorrows of hurting others and being hurt by others. Tchaikovsky's Symphony #5 exemplifies this sorrowful struggle, except that in the symphony the sorrow resolves by hopeful music breaking through to bring victory.

Listening to how Tchaikovsky was weaving sorrow, struggle and glimpses of hope for victory, I was reminded about the first Chapter in Tolkien's Silmarillion. Illuvatar (All Father God) has his Ainur (Angels) sing a beautiful song that creates the world. Melkor (Lucifer-figure) starts a dissonant counter-tune to Illuvatar's theme. The song turn sorrowful, but out of the sorrow its beauty chiefly comes because Illuvatar is brilliant enough to bring a new harmony through Melkor's dissonances. 

At the end of fourth movement, Tchaikovsky resolves the music into a final victory over sorrowful Fate. Experiencing the cathartic release of musically drawn tension helped me realize why traumatized souls would want to listen to it over and over again. Tchaikovsky's Symphony #5 is an avenue for feeling Gospel hope breaking into sorrow, during a times of trail as in WWII or as in the struggle against pervasive compulsions, the Original Sin.