More on Beethoven's Loss of Hearing :


After researching into the loss of Beethoven's hearing I came across a number of quotes taken from Beethoven's letter's in which he described his own most inner thoughts and feelings relating to his developing illness. It is these letters which provide an insight into the area of his life that affected the work of the young composer the most. As his hearing loss progressively got worse as he aged he could no longer hear the audience's reception and thier applause at the premiere of some of his most famous work's such as at the opening of the Eroica (Symphony No3).

Beethoven expressed how he felt about the loss of his hearing in many of his letter's.

I found out that he often kept conversation books in which visitors would communicate thier thoughts through writing. Beethoven wanted to communicate his inner most feelings to his audience by expressing them through his compositions whereby his music became an outlet of his own emotions.

An extract taken from a letter that Ludwig van Beethoven sent his brothers Carl and Johann Beethoven, expressing his feelings about his experiences with his hearing loss.

• "If at times I tried to forget all this, oh how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing. Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, "Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf." Ah, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed."

It is claimed that Beethoven suffered from tinnitus, In a letter he wrote in 1801 he complained:

• "My ears whistle and buzz continually, day and night...such a condition is trulyfrightful."

On June 29, 1801, he writes about the loss of his hearing to Dr. Franz Wegeler in Bonn:

• "My hearing has grown steadily worse for three years...I was often in despair. To give you some idea of my extraordinary deafness, I must tell you that in the the theater I am obliged to lean up close against the orchestra in order to understand the actors, and when a little way off I hear none of the high notes...Frequently,I can hear the sounds of a low conversation, but cannot make out the words" .