Dot-Dot-Dot-Dash
the Morse Code for "V"—
Victory in the war!
The Morse code is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm. Morse code uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message. The short and long elements can be formed by sounds, marks, or pulses, in on off keying and are commonly known as "dots" and "dashes" or "dits" and "dahs". The symphony, and the four-note opening motif in particular, are well known worldwide, with the motif appearing frequently in popular culture, from disco to rock and roll, to appearances in film and television. During World War II, the BBC used the four-note motif of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to announce Prime Minister Winston Churchill's radio news broadcasts because it evoked the Morse code letter "V"
(, "victory").

Rap-Rap-Rap-RAP!
Fate knocking on the door—
Grim Reaper is calling!
The initial motif of the symphony has sometimes been credited with symbolic significance as a representation of Fate knocking at the door. This idea comes from Beethoven's secretary and factotum Anton Schindler, who wrote, many years after Beethoven's death: The composer himself provided the key to these depths when one day, in this author's presence, he pointed to the beginning of the first movement and expressed in these words the fundamental idea of his work: "Thus Fate knocks at the door!" Schindler's testimony concerning any point of Beethoven's life is disparaged by experts (he is believed to have forged entries in Beethoven's conversation books). Another version on the same motif is from Antony Hopkins's description of the symphony. Karl Czerny (Beethoven's pupil, who premiered the Emperor Concerto) claimed that "the little pattern of notes had come to Beethoven from a yellow-hammer's song, heard as he walked in the Prater-park in Vienna." (Wikipedia)

North-South-East-West—
the four directions of Space
blowing in the wind.
Music is played in time while painting is exhibited in space. The cardinal points, North, South, East, West, shown on the compass, symbolize the four directions of space. These points are invoked by Native Americans in their Prayer to the Great Spirit. Albrecht Dürer has drawn the Four Winds in the corners of a world map in his etchings. Here is a web site "Beethoven in Space": (1) The twin Voyager probes were launched into space in 1977 to study the atmosphere and magnetic fields of planets. They also contained a copper disc containing messages for other civilizations after the probes leave our solar system. Included on the disc is the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. (2) On the planet Mercury near its equator is a crater 660 kilometers in diameter that has been given the name Beethoven. (3) On December 16, 1999, the 229th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, a supernova flared up with strong gamma waves of energy. It was given the name "Beethoven Burst" that is 10 million light years away.

Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter—
the four seasons of Time
sing of the Eternal.
The four seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, symbolize the flow of time as the earth revolve around the sun. This theme has been celebrated in music of Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons (1723) and in the Lerner & Loewe's Broadway musical Camelot (1960). Robert Goulet's as Lancelot sang "If Ever I Would Leave You" contrasting the four seasons and concluding that he could never leave. Walter Crane's The Masque of the Four Seasons shows four allegorical women in seasonal attire. In Chapter 21 of The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran writes about Time: "And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless? But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future in longing." Because Dante's love for Beatrice was pure and undivided, he was able to soar to paradise beyond time and experience the Eternal. (Dante's Cosmic Vision)

Waking-Dream-Sleep-Turiya—
the fourth state chanting
OM— "Be Awake!"
This exhortation of "Wake up!" is not waking up from sleep to our ordinary daytime activities. It is waking up to Buddha (The Awakened One) or Cosmic Consciousness. Mandukya Upanishad (circa 500 B.C.) delineates the four states of consciousness: waking, dream, sleep, turiya. This "fourth state" turiya or Pure Consciousness, symbolized by OM or AUM, is the essence or substratum of the waking, dream, and deep sleep states. It is unchanging and timeless. Beethoven who was familiar with The Upanishads may had this in mind when he composed the opening of his Fifth Symphony with the distinctive four-note "short-short-short-long" motif: "dun-dun-dun-DUN!". I believe the last long and louder note represents the fourth state of consciousness— Beethoven is telling us to "WAKE UP!" to Enlightenment! In Lewis Lockwood's Beethoven: The Music and the Life (2003), Beethoven composed his only song cycle "An die ferne Geliebte" ("To the Distant Beloved") for voice & piano, Op. 98 (1816) based on a poem of Viennese Jewish medical student, Alosis Jeitteles. At one point Jeitteles's poem sounds a strange note: