It’s Beethoven’s birthday today. He was born in Bonn, Germany, on December 16, 1770. Now many people know that at a certain point Beethoven became deaf. It’s a common misconception, however, that it was somehow miraculous that Beethoven was able to continue composing. Many, perhaps most, composers, in fact, compose in their heads, hearing all the notes in their mind’s ear. That Beethoven could not hear was not a technical impediment, but a personal tragedy, a source of extraordinary anguish. First of all, his deafness — and his embarrassment at his deafness — isolated him, it cut him off from his friends and from society. Secondly, remember that music is a sensual art – it only fully moves us when we experience its sounds from the outside in. Beethoven could create music, but he couldn’t experience sound. For many, it’s impossible to imagine the world without the sound of Beethoven’s music. But the man to whom we owe so much was exiled. Shut out not just from his own music, but from all music.
A Minute with Miles - a production of ETV Radio made possible by the JM Smith Corporation.
