How Did Beethoven Hear Music?

Beethoven's deafness just seems like a cruel joke. Music is clearly what he loved most in life, and he's one everyone's short list of the greatest ever composers. And yet he was denied the ability to enjoy it. So much about Beethoven seems tragic.

The fact that Symphony No. 9 possibly could’ve been intended to be in Db rather than D is mind blowing and we are not making a big enough deal of this

In my opinion, Beethoven's 9th Symphony is the greatest piece of music ever created in the history of music. Every note is perfect. Every dynamic is perfect. The entire arrangement is perfect. It's very unlikely humanity will ever achieve that level of perfection in art ever again.

As a guy in his 20's with severe hearing impairment who loves composing music, this is very inspiring (and tear-jerking).

When a musician complained about the difficulty in playing his music, Beethoven retorted, “I’m writing music for God and you’re complaining about a bunch of notes?!“ He took his music very seriously.

That letter is heartbreaking. I knew about his deafness, but I did not know about his feelings.

Worth noting that much of Beethoven's music, even when he was deaf, was bubbling over with optimism and joy. How appropriate that the last movement of his last symphony is known as 'Ode To Joy' and is a musical representation his vision of universal brotherhood.

As someone who’s 14 with tinnitus and possible hearing loss, I’m completely devastated, especially because I want to write music. I haven’t learned any of the instruments I want to either, which scares me because I want to remember how they sound so that I can imagine them more. I haven’t spayed these instruments to much , but I can imagine entirely made up songs in my head when it’s quite, even with tinnitus, so I hope before I completely go deaf, if I am, I can expand my ability to hear more music in my head by learning to play the instruments with my hearing right now.

I couldn’t hear the tinnitus demonstration over my own tinnitus.

I rarely comment on youtube videos but this one, I had to. I am a musician, singer/songwriter, pianist, operatic trained singer, a singing teacher and piano teacher for the past 15 years, I've multiple degrees, studied music all my life, and preparing my PhD proposal as we speak. I am also arranging and producing my own music, and write music for theatre and dance. I also performed Beethoven's Opus 110 piano Sonata for my soloist graduation exams (he was utterly completely deaf when he composed this - it is such a miraculous work of art, brings you to tears, especially if you figure out that it only happened in his head.. and he never actually heard it, in reality). I had a major injury at some students' concert, while kneeling in front of a speaker, that just blew up in my face, when I lost most of my high frequencies, from my right ear. I have now also severe tinitus and extra hearing loss due to severe loss of B12 vitamin that is ruining my nervous system, and my doctors are trying to figure it out. We just now came to the conclusion that B12 is what actually caused more frequencies' loss, and extra and louder tinitus ( i hear what you displayed, plus white noise, all the time, unstoppably). It is sometimes very hard to tune myself and sing, when i play live, and my in ear monitors sometimes help, sometimes cause me such distress that i cry (luckily for me, my music is dark and sad, so nobody notices). All this, to say this. If music is what you are, you will keep doing it. It hurts like hell. Yes, you constantly think of Ludwig, if you start having hearing issues. Although to me, Ravel's end is the most scary one, if you are an artist. i don't know if he indeed had perfect pitch. To my experience, people who deal with music to such depth, tend to .. memorize pitches and they somehow seem to develop a sort of acquired perfect pitch. And ear training gets to be able to dictate music at such ease, yes it does. The most fascinating thing about Beethoven is, that in his writings it seems as if he got more philosophical and futuristic as he got deaf, and maybe that is because he freed himself of the .. earthly insecurities, since it all just happened in his head, and so did all the criticism. If you ever study the 109, 110 and 111 Sonatas, which to me are one huge Sonata all together, you will probably feel like this man is actually foreseing the future, while commenting on the past and present to such depth, it makes you feel small, and gigantic at the same time. I hope more people did videos like this, and explained to the rest of the world how incredibly tough it is to be a musician, and what it's like to struggle with all that. I know it's not the topic of the channel, but it would be so lovely if you could do a video on what it was like for Ravel to suffer the way he did, as a musician. thank you, you who may read this. sorry if I took too long, this video made me cry.. by the way, today, december 17th, is Beethoven's Baptism day, back in 1770 (it's kinda like his birthday)

As a pianist this is the worse thing that could happen to him... Not being able to listen to this beautiful instrument when your soul is connected to it, it's like air to breathe was snatched away... Yet he didn't give up, such an inspiration

As great as the 9th symphony is, I think his Missa solemnis (written around the same time as the 9th) is an even greater achievement. The fact he wrote the 9th, Missa solemnis, the late quartets and the last 4 piano sonatas whilst being almost totally deaf is indeed remarkable.

wait until beethoven hears about this

Do a "what makes this song great" with some of Beethoven

I was awestruck by Beethoven ever since I was a child. I read everything I could get my hands on about him. I watched every documentary I could find about him and his music. This video here is a fresh perspective and is a great glimpse into the greatness that was Beethoven. It brought back the feelings of wonder and amazement I had 30+ years ago when I first found about him. I can’t thank you enough Rick.

You answered all my questions about Beethoven. Thank You Our minds are as strong as our soul.

Hope Ludwig's not a blocker

I was born with my left ear being deaf. Last year, I was fitted with a Widex Hearing aid in my right ear, because I have significant hearing loss in my right ear as well. I've been writing music since I was a teen, and this is an amazing video - in fact it made me cry. Hearing loss is incredibly isolating and the hearing aid is giving me a little more time to hear music. Its not perfect, but it sure is amazing. I LOVE Beethoven because of his perseverence in spite of his hearing loss. Thanks for posting this!

It’s hard to imagine the world of music without Beethoven’s music as a part of it. And it’s hard not to get a strong sense of the divine when you listen some of his pieces. I think Beethoven knew all this deeply and that’s why he persisted in his efforts at creating this music even though he couldn’t enjoy it from a listeners point of view. Remarkable human being!

That kind of musical imagination is remarkable. Many of us can play by ear or play parts or songs in our heads but to have everything; every note and nuance is on a different level all together.