Did You Know That Beethoven Suffered from Severe Tinnitus?

Beethoven also suffered from hearing loss and eventually went completely deaf. He complained often “My ears whistle and buzz all day and night. I can say I am leading a wretched life.” He had a harsh "roaring" in his ears. He was still able to persevere and become one of the greatest composers of all time. We are not alone. Never quit.

 

Yes, Beethoven suffered terribly with tinnitus due to sensorineural hearing loss. I have that in common with him and we also share the same birthday, December 16th.
Sadly, there has been little progress in the treatment of tinnitus since Beethoven's death in 1827!
Sheet music written by Beethoven was found in a Connecticut home recently and sold at auction for $100,000!

 

Yeah I saw that article bout his sheet music. Funny !! little progress since 1827 .......... ha ha

 

I've read, classical musicians have a high percentage of T. All those high pitched strings and orchestral noise, makes for screeching ears!

 

Now he's in a state of bliss.

 

They say rock bands are loud, but full orchestras can be just as loud.

I believe I also once read their was another classical composer who had tinnitus who composed a piece in which the pitch of his tinnitus appeared as a long high note in the piece's climax.

 

This is very well known in knowdgeable music circles. The reality is that there are many more composers who had it, as well as many modern musicians. For master composers, add Robert Schumann and Bedrich Smetana. I have learned everything about these 3 (counting Beethoven).

But these are the famous ones. Many more had it, they just have not been documented. Research with orchestral members reported a lot of under reported hearing loss and tinnitus.

Beethoven, Smetana and Schumann were really unlucky, they reall had it bad. Beethoven was abused as a child and when in his 20's he moved to Vienna, he was quickly becoming a megastar because of his pianistic skills, only to get tinnitus and progressive deafness a short number of years later. His social life was pretty much over, 'cause he wasn't social at all to start with, and from then on he became famous for being angry and hostile even to his friends and benefactors.
Beethoven was a survivor of serious abuse, it's not difficult to understand why he wasn't the friendliest person, although he was a man of high values.

Schumann ended up really badly, because it's thought he contracted syphilis and that was the reason why he became mad.

Smetana, Jesus. A great pianist and composer, who became totally deaf in one month! For Beethoven it took something like 30 years, the deafness for him was slow to reach full circle. Smetana wasn't so lucky.

He described his tinnitus as 'like having a huge waterfall standing before him'.



What's incredible about Beethoven is that he continued to compose large scale symphonies even when totally deaf! I am a musician too and I know that this is so far fetched, it's incomprehensible. It's like saying that a completely blind painter can draw great paintings. That's Beethoven.

There's a lot to learn by reading about the greatest artists. I did learn a lot from that. I have their pictures on the wall.

 

Beethoven gives hope to all in despair right now. I was reading about his struggles with severe T and deafness, and in his ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’ written to his two brothers, a little quote from it seemed quiet fitting for those feeling in despair. He wrote;

“I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.”

Not to be cliche, but we all have something to live for and plenty to leave behind. Just have to keep moving forward.

 

That's why he was a genius. The world was against him and the elements were against him, but he belived in himself and followed his heart and composed great music...

It's mind over matters folks, he proved it!