Beethoven Continued Composing After Going Deaf

The progression of Ludwig van Beethoven's hearing loss was a gradual and agonizing process that began in his late twenties. Around 1798, he first noticed a buzzing in his ears, and over the next decade and a half, his ability to hear conversations and the higher notes of music faded. This was a devastating blow for a composer and musician, leading him to a deep personal crisis. In a famous unsent letter to his brothers, known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, he confessed to contemplating suicide, stating that only his art held him back from ending his life. Despite his despair, he resolved to continue composing, even as the world of sound slipped away from him.

Beethoven's ability to create masterpieces while profoundly deaf was not due to a single trick, but a combination of his profound musical genius and adaptive techniques. Having been a musician since childhood, he possessed a highly developed "inner ear," allowing him to hear the music entirely within his mind. He understood the language of music so intimately that he could compose on paper without needing to hear the notes played. To aid his composing process, he would sometimes use physical sensation to perceive the music, for instance by holding a pencil in his mouth and touching it to the piano to feel the vibrations of the notes. It is also said that he used ear trumpets and had a loud Broadwood piano to help him hear for as long as possible.

By the time he composed his groundbreaking Ninth Symphony, first performed in 1824, Beethoven was almost totally deaf. At the premiere, he had to be turned around to see the thunderous applause he could not hear. The cause of his deafness remains unconfirmed, though modern analysis of a lock of his hair revealed high levels of lead, suggesting chronic lead poisoning may have been a contributing factor. Ultimately, he relied on his memory of sound and his mastery of musical structure to write some of his most enduring and revolutionary works, creating a legacy that transcends the limitations of his own hearing.