Three short notes and a long one. It may be the most recognisable opening in all of music, and it arrives with a famous line attached: so pocht das Schicksal an die Pforte — "thus fate knocks at the door."
Did Beethoven really say it?
The quote comes from Anton Schindler, Beethoven's assistant and early biographer — who is now known to have invented and exaggerated a great deal. So "fate knocking" may be Schindler's poetry, not Beethoven's. What we do know is grimmer and truer: Beethoven wrote the Fifth (finished 1808) as his hearing was failing. The composer of the most famous sound in music was going deaf.
The code hidden in the rhythm
Short-short-short-long is also the Morse code for the letter V. During the Second World War the BBC used the opening of the Fifth as its call sign to occupied Europe — V for Victory. A phrase about fate became a signal of defiance, which is a very Beethoven turn of events.
Wear it
Our Symphony No. 5 tee sets the opening bars as hand-drawn notation. See it in Wearable Music.