What was the reason Ludwig van Beethoven becoming deaf for?
While everyone knows Beethoven became deaf at the end of his life, no one knows why.
Beethoven suffered typhus, jaundice, infections, chronic hepatitis, rheumatism, ophthalmia, deafness, cirrhosis of the liver, and colitis and a skin disorder.
Some felt that he went deaf because of contracting smallpox and typhus disease when he was young. Beethoven himself mentioned in a letter that falling over as a child triggered a slow permanent damage to his hearing.
When his hearing started to deteriorate, Beethoven communicated in writing with friends through ‘conversation books’.
The process came in waves, and he could have had Ménière’s disease. At 26, Beethoven developed a ringing and buzzing in the ears also known as tinnitus. By the time he was 46, he was totally deaf.
He continued to compose music and he was using a spoon sticked into his mouth so that he could feel the piano’s vibrations when he was playing.
He had periods of better hearing and attacks of hearing loss and ringing noises and his music reflects that because he used low tones more in order to match the frequencies he was still hearing.
He fell into depression and started to drink heavily and died due to liver cirrhosis at the age of 56. His last symphony was composed while he was totally deaf. And the question remains:
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