Beethoven’s Hearing Aids

Although Beethoven utilized these “ear-trumpets” during the last couple decades of his life, I don’t recall ever reading any accounts of them actually…working…

On the other hand, his conversation books were quite effective. His friends and relatives would jot down their questions or responses, while Beethoven would reply aloud. Fortunately for us, a great deal of these conversation books have been preserved. In recent years, many of them were translated into English for the first time!

Other sources:
Swafford, Jan; Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph

🎶
Fulda Symphonic Orchestra, 2000.
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

#Classicalmusic #Beethoven #history

[thephantomeagle]

He also wrote his 9th symphony while nearly completely deaf. It’s widely regarded as on of the greatest symphony pieces ever. It’s my favorite

[sirtron]

his music is so good that i keep forgetting he was deaf

[TheBuckeyeHistoryGuy]

The first 3mins of his 7th will forever be one of the greatest works of musical art ever made

[johnnytheyoungmaestro]

A man who studies everything related to Beethoven said once that Beethoven wasn't completely deaf, as many people would think. He still had a very, very tiny amount of hearing in his left ear. In an interview I saw with Igor Stravinsky, he stated that Beethoven would use a pencil to feel the vibrations of the music on his piano. One of my favorite stories, though, is that Beethoven actually got to conduct at the premiere of his 9th Symphony, but no one payed attention to him, really, as there was already another conductor there. So, Beethoven was a few bars off after the performance ended, he was turned around, and saw the resounding standing ovation. That's all history, and Beethoven was simply one of the most amazing composers ever.

[michaelsmith]

Bless him. He had such a hard time with his hearing loss. And wrote some his great masterworks while deaf. I’m a pianist losing my hearing as well. I’ve had hearing loss my entire life. Luckily I’m still ok but wear hearing aids in both ears. And they sound awful. Thank God I can hear the piano well.

[DmitriShostakovichDSCH]

i wonder if they really worked? i wish i could’ve met beethoven

[Heyhydwyd]

God bless all that have disabilities like this man. Maybe you could turn it into something good

[hoangkimviet]

Another famous composer who also lost his hearing ability is Bedrich Smetana. However, unlike Beethoven, Smetana lost his this ability very lately, at the age of 50.

[masonjoesph]

Someone once said to me that his secretary came up with beethoven have a conversation book i never knew he actually truly had one.

[bethhall-eeip]

It has been suggested that his consumption of lead ( which was actually not uncommon as a sweetener and also drinking cups, mugs etc were often made with high lead content) contributed to his hearing loss...Tragic...

[HoneyDog]

Imagine we could travel in time, meet him and give him and give him a modern day hearing aid device 👂👂👂

[LudwigVan_Beethoven]

It was hard to carry this things everywhere I go.

[secondchairmusic]

Those ear trumpets did not look comfortable to use at ALL! Did you observe the headband attached to some of them? Beethoven would've been walking around looking completely crazy! 😂😂

[MetalClassicalRocks]

With the tinnitus sond effect you momentarily made me think it was literally in my head 😅

[toulminbrown]

LVB's father was said to beat physically young Ludwig. The father figure forced LVB to practice 8 to 15 hrs a day. Mankind is bizarre but would he have become the world's greatest composer? Without his father's discipline? DOUBTFUL

[lnd]

If you wouldn’t mind, what are your preferred sources for making videos like these? I’d love to spend countless hours reading classical lore

[yohanrovicordonez]

WE BREAKIN INTO THE BANK WITH THIS ONE

[potato]

Beethoven is the best composer of all time, my favorite person to have ever lived on this earth, even to this day, i still think he didn't get the recognition he deserved, I hope people will realise that this "modern music" is absolute nonsense and start listening to classical music instead.

[gunterangel]

Actually these primitive hearing aids worked surprisingly well.

My grandfather (1890 - 1972 ) would still prefer to use such an ear trumpet inspite of having a first generation electronic hear aid at his disposal.

But this device was still very clumsy at that time, and my grandfather would also be constantly fumbling with it to improve the volume, so that it would be out of order for most of the time . 😄

But it was no other than the famous mechanic, Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, who befriended Beethoven while in Vienna, when Beethoven was in his forties.

Mälzel handcrafted 3 different ear trumpets for the composer, of which Beethoven used the smallest one the most. Today these ear trumpets are at display at the Beethoven-House in Bonn, Germany.

Mälzel would also construct the mechanic metronome by an inspiration of Beethoven's.

And it was Mälzel, who would ask Beethoven to compose his battle music, "Wellington's Victory", originally for Mälzel's mechanic orchestrion, the arrangement for orchestra would become Beethoven's most succesful work during his lifetime.

However by 1818 Beethoven's hearing loss had worsened to such an extent, that he was clinically deaf and he began to use the conversation books to communicate with others.

Today the modern electronic and astonishingly small hearing devices have greatly improved of course and my grandpa, if still alive, wouldn't have to fumble it out of order.😁

[richardkastlemusic]

I posted a video explaining the science behind how Beethoven's loss of auditory input caused massive increase his capacity to process variables between Symphony #2 and the Eroica. This is what made him the greatest composer.