The fifth movement, Dwelling in Reality, represents the afterlife and the final stage of the journey. The traveler now enters a realm of complete connection, where mystery, love, memory and harmony coexist. Earlier ideas return in transformed forms, while the rondo traces humanity’s fall from unity and its possible spiritual return. The movement looks back on the symphony while moving beyond it, concluding that true fulfillment comes through inner growth and that every ending contains the possibility of another beginning.

Detailed Programme Notes

Now it is time for the fifth movement: Dwelling in Reality.

The final movement imagines a state of ultimate reality: a world that feels more complete, more truthful and more deeply connected than anything before it.

But before you go any further, look back.

Your journey has not been easy. It has been difficult, uncertain and demanding. Yet every challenge has led you here.

The reward is not power or knowledge alone. The reward is the ability to live in complete harmony: with others, with yourself, and with the deepest truth that exists.

So welcome.

Take a moment to look back at your journey. Look back at your life. Look back at everything you have experienced and everything you have overcome to reach this place.

This movement also reflects the afterlife—not as an ending, but as the fulfilment of everything that came before.

You have arrived.

Now, for the first time, you can truly dwell in reality.

Celestial Butterflies

And now come some further reflective thoughts.

These butterflies are similar to the butterflies you encountered in the fourth movement, but these are just a little more profound. They are butterflies that connect directly with your soul.

The piece begins with a true and familiar voice speaking to you through the music. Not speaking at you from a distance, but existing beside you. You are no longer simply listening to it from the multidimensional meeting point. You are now within the same world as this voice.

The woodwinds echo it with tenderness and calm. Their sound is full of emotion, gentleness and care. It is a voice that does not command you or frighten you. It supports you and reminds you that you are not alone.

Afterwards, the brass joins a third below each woodwind instrument. If you have sharp ears, you may notice that the melodies in the first eight bars also appeared in the earlier Divini section, where they represented a familiar presence that you had always known, even without physically hearing it.

The brass writing beneath the woodwinds represents all the support surrounding you: the support of your loved ones, the wisdom of those who came before you, and also the strength and support that you have gradually learned to give yourself.

This section does not settle clearly into a single key. It has the character of Ab major, but it continues to use major ninths and, at times, elevenths. The harmony feels open, spacious and complete without needing to resolve in an ordinary way.

Remember that you are no longer alone. The people you love, the wisdom of the past and the strength within you are all present.

This is a world in which you can fully flourish. It is a world in which you can understand who you truly are, why you have travelled so far, and what all the stages of your journey have been leading you towards.

Eternal Harmony

The next section is called Eternal Harmony.

Although the chords are not completely consonant, their dissonance creates an unexpected sense of togetherness. It is strange, but it works. The bassoons and clarinets connect with the oboes and English horns, forming a melody that feels patterned, yet also free. These instruments exist together, support one another and create a pure, beautiful sound.

Then the horns enter with a more striking melody, attempting to move towards A-flat major. The horns represent your instinct. You believe that what comes next will be delightful, positive, grand and triumphant.

But it is not.

Instead, the strings enter with calm chords, played extremely quietly.

So savour this moment.

You are living in harmony with one another and with the divine.

A Mysterious Call

The next section is called A Mysterious Call.

The voices you heard before belonged to those who had already reached this world. But this voice is different. It is the voice of the ultimate presence—the source of existence itself.

At first, it remains mysterious. Strange chords surround it, with high tremolo strings suspended above the distant sound of the double basses.

Then a quiet and unusual trumpet melody appears. The woodwinds echo it twice. As they do, the music traces the shape of a heart, and two heartbeats gradually emerge. The melody grows stronger, while the horns enter with beautiful F major chords.

Slowly, the mystery dissolves into beauty, love and everlasting support.

The music suggests a form of love or support greater than the individual self. We may not always recognise it or understand where it comes from, but it is always present.

And it is always with you

Rondo – ‘Where it all started’

Then the rondo begins.

The rondo is a classical form, but here it becomes a way of telling a story: the story of my own philosophical theory about how the world began, how humanity fell away from its original state, and how we may eventually return.

I will not reveal every detail, but I will outline the central idea.

In my theory, humanity began at a multidimensional meeting point: a state in which the physical, emotional, spiritual, moral and mystical dimensions existed together. Over time, through our own failures and choices, we lost the dimensions that mattered most and were left primarily within the physical world we now call Earth.

Perhaps we were not always as limited as we are now. Perhaps humanity once existed with a wider understanding of reality, but gradually forgot it and came to believe that the physical world was all that had ever existed.

Through a spiritual and philosophical journey, however, we may be able to return—metaphorically and mentally—to the point from which we began.

This rondo therefore explores the fall and rise of human civilisation: the loss of a fuller reality, the consequences of that loss, and the possibility of rediscovering what has been forgotten.

This is, of course, my own philosophical interpretation. I do not present it as the only explanation of the world, nor as a truth that everyone must accept. Many other profound theories exist. This is simply the one I have chosen to explore through this symphony.

I. The Rise of Our True World

The first statement of the rondo’s A section is a lively, classically styled fanfare. It represents the creation of our world.

The music begins with energetic writing for cellos, double basses, snare drum and cymbals, before expanding into the full orchestra and reaching a powerful fortissimo climax.

After this brilliance, the music suddenly withdraws into quiet woodwinds at mezzo piano, ending on a dissonant chord.

The world has been created, but it is already imperfect. That imperfection cannot be blamed entirely on any single force. It emerges through conflict, failure and the choices humanity makes within existence.

Creation is damaged.

And then the dimensions begin to fall.

II. The Fall of Dimensions

Then comes the B section: The Fall of Dimensions.

Everything moves downwards, but everything also begins to collide. The tempo gradually slows through a ritardando, while the musical line descends through the orchestra, beginning with the flute and ending in the double bass.

The dynamics also fall, moving from mezzo piano to piano with each repetition. The pitch descends as well, tone by tone, until everything begins to diminish.

One by one, the dimensions are lost. The great dimensions of the past disappear.

Finally, the music reaches a low A-sharp in the double bass.

That is where we are now: at the very bottom, with only the physical dimension remaining.

III. Music Bridging Emotions across Lost Dimensions

But there is always hope.

The lost dimensions have not disappeared completely. Music, visual art and poetry can still act as bridges between them.

This is the rondo’s C section, called Music Bridging Emotion Across Lost Dimensions.

I gave this section a slightly playful character and used string chords to explore the different emotions you, as the audience, may experience while listening to the piece.

It begins with anticipation: the feeling before the music starts, when you do not yet know what you are about to hear.

Then comes confusion. What is happening? What is this piece really about? To be honest, it is a very unusual piece.

After that comes absorption. You become drawn into the music and into its ideas.

Then comes questioning. What is real? What is not? What does this theme actually mean?

By the middle of the fourth movement, you may begin to understand the central ideas of the symphony. Some listeners, however, may still find it strange or eccentric.

Finally comes realisation. At the end of the piece, you begin to understand what the journey has truly been about.

The string chords express this progression by constantly mixing dissonance with harmony, uncertainty with clarity, and distance with connection.

IV. Spiritual Ascent

As you may know, after the C section of a rondo, the B section returns. But this is not an ordinary rondo.

This B section is closely related to the earlier one, but everything is reversed. Instead of descending from the flute to the double bass, it begins in the double bass and rises towards the flute.

This is a spiritual ascent.

The tempo increases. The pitch rises. Every element moves upwards, in direct opposition to the earlier B section. The music continues to climb by tone, becoming increasingly positive and hopeful.

This upward movement represents the journey you are experiencing now: the gradual spiritual ascent back towards the dimensions that were once lost.

And that is the returning B section.

V. Back to the Truth

Finally comes the grand finale: the return of the rondo’s A section.

It returns in a very similar form, but this time in D major, following the A dominant-seventh chord that ended the previous B section.

The structure is familiar, but the harmony begins to shift. The woodwinds move into a serious minor subdominant, followed by an E half-diminished seventh in the brass.

For a moment, the ending becomes uncertain. You may wonder: if we have reached ultimate reality, why has the music become strange again? Why does it still contain darkness?

But this is not the true ending.

The tension resolves into a radiant D major chord, crowned by a beautiful high A in the violin. Everything comes together in complete harmony.

The music leaves the listener with the sense of having glimpsed a more complete reality.

Congratulations. You have completed the journey. You have reached fortitude in both mind and spirit, and you have entered a state of unity with something greater than yourself.

You will not remain here in physical life forever. But spiritually, you have returned to the multidimensional meeting point from which you began.

And now, to conclude the entire symphony, this is its final message:

Every end is a beginning.

The symphony ends by suggesting that every ending may contain the possibility of renewal, and that true greatness lies not in appearance or desire, but in the growth of mind and spirit.