The Composer Who Couldn’t Hear

Beethoven is one of history’s most famous composers and wrote nine symphonies and an opera, as well as many pieces for piano and orchestra. Amazingly, while he was composing many of these great musical works, he was losing his hearing.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born on the 16 December 1770 in Bonn, Germany. His father was a singer and music teacher and taught his young son the piano from the very early age, hoping he would become another Mozart. Young Ludwig gave his first musical performance at the age of seven, though his father lied and said he was only six. After the death of his parents, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he studied under great composers of the time and started to write his own music. Unfortunately, by 1800, when his Symphony Number 1 was first performed, he was already going deaf.
Beethoven noticed his hearing problems at the age of 26. He suffered a loud ringing sound in his ears. It is quite common in rock musicians nowadays. Beethoven found he couldn’t hear conversations clearly, and playing concerts became more and more difficult. There is even a story that during one concert, a friend had to turn him around at the end, so he could see the people in the room applauding him. Beethoven wrote many great musical compositions while suffering hearing loss and continued composing until his death in 1827 at age 56.