On Beethoven's fifth

On Beethoven's fifth

Mr. Narish Stock was generous in allowing readers of The
Jakarta Post (Oct. 21, 1994) to share the experience he had when
listening to the Nusantara Chamber Orchestra's performance of
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; generous because he might have laid
himself open to ridicule in such cynical company.

In fact he is a lucky man. He has experienced a rare
phenomenon dubbed by psychiatrists `the oceanic experience'; a
feeling of complete well-being, a sensation of `eternity,' a
feeling as of something limitless, unbounded -- as it were,
`oceanic.' These last words are not mine, but those of Romain
Rolland in a letter of Freud, where this description 'oceanic'
was first used. It is a mystical experience and most commonly
felt through the medium of music. In her book Ecstasy, Marghanita
Laski writes of a questionnaire she distributed on this subject.
In controlled groups music was quoted more often than any other
art form as the trigger for this ecstatic experience.

It is encouraging to know, that in a society hell-bent on
importing the worst excesses of Western banality, a small golden
nugget has been imported too. I congratulate Mr. Stock on
achieving this experience and, of course, the Nusantara Chamber
Orchestra who made it possible. Beethoven, as usual, will peer
down smugly from his Olympian heights.

Jakarta is fortunate. We in Bali are rarely so, and usually
have to make do with a succession of indifferent performances by
second-rate guitarists and pianists who manage to convince hotel
PR ladies they are worth a free lunch. The oceanic experience is
hardly likely under such meretricious circumstances. Mr. Stock
asks if there is any chance the Nusantara Chamber Orchestra might
play more frequently. I ask only that they should be allowed to
play here at all.

ROBERT WALKER

Amlapura, Bali