Irving Berlin - Overture lyrics

On a late night in the spring of 1827
The city of Vienna is
Experiencing the largest
Lightning storm in it's long history
Within a large disheveled room
Ludwig Von Beethoven is slumped
Over his piano
And on the piano sit's the just
Completed manuscript for his tenth symphony
It is his final, and he is certain
His greatest work

Since the time when ra and isis
Raised the sphinx out of the sand
And apollo dreamed athena
And men began to understand

That when darkness folds on darkness
In the restless tides of night
And lightning raises shadows
And for moments gives them life

It's been said by those who ponder
That it surely is a sign
That a life touched by the stars
Is now running out of time

And that somewhere in that darkness
In the heart of that great storm
The world returns a soul
That the gods caused to be born

And this was such a storm
The kind one rarely sees in life
For in a room now filled with shadows
The great Beethoven was spending

His last night

From the shadows a beautiful spirit, fate
And her deformed dwarf son, twist
Emerge to inform Beethoven of what
He has already deeply suspected
That this is to be his last night on earth
They are accompanied by numerous spirit's
And ghosts from his past