Beethoven Retained Some Hearing Later In Life, Heard His Final Symphony; Used 'Conversation Books'

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'Deaf’ genius Beethoven (1770-1827) was able to hear his final symphony after all. Musicologist uncovers evidence that, contrary to established belief, the great composer retained some hearing in his final years. The Guardian, Feb.1, 2020. *2020 Is the 250th Anniversary of His Birth.*

The one thing everyone knows – or thinks they know – about Ludwig van Beethoven is that he composed some of music’s greatest masterpieces while completely deaf. Compelling as this sounds, the story has a flaw: it may not be true. According to a leading Beethoven expert, the composer still had hearing in his left ear until shortly before his death in 1827.



“This is going to send everybody scurrying to revise biographical concepts about Beethoven,” Theodore Albrecht, professor of musicology at Kent State University, Ohio, told the Observer. Albrecht, who has uncovered crucial evidence in contemporary accounts, believes that although Beethoven suffered severe deterioration in his hearing, he did not lose it “to the very profound depths” that musicologists have assumed.

“Not only was Beethoven not completely deaf at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony in May 1824, he could hear, although increasingly faintly, for at least two years afterwards, probably through the last premiere that he would supervise, his String Quartet in B-flat, Op 130, in March 1826,” Albrecht said.

Beethoven began to lose his hearing in 1798. “If I belonged to any other profession, it would be easier,” he told a friend, “but in my profession it is a frightful state.” Between 1812 and 1816, he tried ear trumpets, with little success. From 1818, he carried blank “conversation books”, in which friends and acquaintances jotted down comments, to which he would reply aloud...

More, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/01/beethoven-not-completely-deaf-says-musicologist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven

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