{"id":594,"date":"2016-08-19T04:36:29","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T04:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mda.org.mo\/2018\/2016\/08\/19\/359\/"},"modified":"2016-08-19T04:36:29","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T04:36:29","slug":"359-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mda.org.mo\/home\/359-2\/","title":{"rendered":"So if Beethoven was completely deaf, how did he compose?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ludwig was still pumping out the masterpieces – even when he was completely deaf. Here’s how he did it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“For the last three years my hearing has grown steadily weaker…” – so wrote Beethoven<\/a>, aged 30, in a letter to a friend.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The young Beethoven was known as the most important musician since Mozart. By his mid-20s, he had studied with Haydn and was celebrated as a brilliant, virtuoso pianist. <\/span><\/p>\n

Beethoven’s life timeline: 1770 – 1802 ><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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By the time he turned 30 he had composed a couple of piano<\/a> concertos, six string quartets, and his first symphony. Everything was looking pretty good for the guy, with the prospect of a long, successful career ahead. <\/span><\/p>\n

Then, he started to notice a buzzing sound in his ears – and everything was about to change.<\/span><\/p>\n

image: http:\/\/assets.classicfm.com\/2013\/09\/young-beethoven–1362652086.jpg<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"German<\/span><\/p>\n

How old was Beethoven when he started going deaf?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Around the age of 26, Beethoven began to hear buzzing and ringing in his ears. In 1800, aged 30, he wrote from Vienna to a childhood friend – by then working as a doctor in Bonn – saying that he had been suffering for some time: <\/span><\/p>\n

“For the last three years my hearing has grown steadily weaker. I can give you some idea of this peculiar deafness when I must tell you that in the theatre I have to get very close to the orchestra to understand the performers, and that from a distance I do not hear the high notes of the instruments and the singers\u2019 voices\u2026 Sometimes too I hardly hear people who speak softly. The sound I can hear it is true, but not the words. And yet if anyone shouts I can\u2019t bear it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Beethoven tried to keep news of the problem secret from those closest to him. He feared his career would be ruined if anyone realised.<\/span><\/p>\n

“For two years I have avoided almost all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people ‘I am deaf’,” he wrote. “If I belonged to any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a frightful state.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Once Beethoven was out for a country ramble with fellow composer Ferdinand Ries, and while walking they saw a shepherd playing a pipe. Beethoven would have seen from Ries’s face that there was beautiful music playing, but he couldn’t hear it. It’s said that Beethoven was never the same again after this incident, because he had confronted his deafness for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beethoven could apparently still hear some speech and music until 1812. But by the age of 44, he was almost totally deaf and unable to hear voices or so many of the sounds of his beloved countryside. It must have been devastating for him. <\/span><\/p>\n

image: http:\/\/assets.classicfm.com\/2016\/33\/das-leben-des-beethoven-directed-by-hans-otto–1471431710-custom-0.jpg<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"'Das<\/span><\/p>\n

Picture: Still from ‘Das Leben des Beethoven’ (1927)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Why did Beethoven go deaf?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The exact cause of his hearing loss is unknown. Theories range from syphilis to lead poisoning, typhus, or possibly even his habit of plunging his head into cold water to keep himself awake.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point he claimed he had suffered a fit of rage in 1798 when someone interrupted him at work. Having fallen over, he said, he got up to find himself deaf. At other times he blamed it on gastrointestinal problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The cause of this must be the condition of my belly which as you know has always been wretched and has been getting worse,” he wrote, “since I am always troubled with diarrhoea, which causes extraordinary weakness.”<\/span><\/p>\n

An autopsy carried out after he died found he had a distended inner ear, which developed lesions over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s Beethoven’s famous Symphony No.5, written in 1804. Its famous opening motif is often referred to as ‘fate knocking at the door’; the cruel hearing loss that he feared would afflict him for the rest of his life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Quiz: How well do you REALLY know Beethoven’s 5th? ><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


Read more at http:\/\/www.classicfm.com\/composers\/beethoven\/guides\/deaf-hearing-loss-composing\/#WUCQRYUxzBIclTgm.99<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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