When Beethoven Realized He Was Going Deaf…

by



The poignant tale of music history’s most profound irony.

For more insights into my work, follow me @second_bassoon on 𝕏.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

📚 Sources 📚

Swafford, Jan. Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph: A Biography. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.

Forbes, Elliot, editor. Thayer’s Life of Beethoven. Princeton University Press, 1967.

Cooper, Barry. The Beethoven Compendium: A Guide to Beethoven’s Life and Music. Thames & Hudson, 1996.

Beethoven, Ludwig Van, and A. C. Kalischer. Beethoven’s Letters with Explanatory Notes by A.C. Kalischer. Edited by A. Eaglefield-Hull, Dover, 1972.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

🎶 Music 🎶

All pieces included were composed by Beethoven (of course)

Piano Sonata No. 26 in E♭ major, Op. 81a “Les Adieux”

Symphony No.1, Op.21 Adagio molto – Allegro con brio

Symphony No.3, Op.55 “Eroica” Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio

Piano Sonata No.8, Op.13 “Pathetique” Grave – Allegro di molto e con brio

Piano Sonata No.29, Op.106 “Hammerklavier” Adagio sostenuto

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

Most Images shown were sourced via Wikimedia commons and Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

All others were generated via Midjourney, and upscaled with Magnific.

I’ll fill out more details and add subtitles later. I’ve been up for 28 hours straight, and my bed is beckoning to me just as Vienna beckoned to Beethoven. 🙃

source

25 thoughts on “When Beethoven Realized He Was Going Deaf…”

  4. Beethoven is the only composer who is known in my country followed by Mozart (presumably)… some people even heard one of Beethoven's compositions without even knowing his name (namely the famous motif of the 5th symphony)… Also, speaking of which, do you know Beethoven read Bhagavad Gita and was fascinated by the book so much that he wrote some lines from the book in his diary?

    Reply

  10. Bravo! Fantastic writing and narration. It's quite profound to realize that nearly all of Beethoven's greatest works came AFTER the period that you portray in this video. He really was the archetype of the tortured artist.

    Reply

  18. wow.. this was heart touching. I shed a few tears watching this video and to me, this is why Beethoven is the GOAT and my biggest inspiration

    and THANK YOU MONIQUE FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND TIME 😀 I always learn so much from your videos and I aspire to know as much about Beethoven as you LOL

    Reply

  20. Wow, very moving. People don’t realize how close we came to losing Beethoven after his Fourth symphony. (Faure and Smetana also had hearing issues, but later on in their careers.) Thank you. What was the motivation for giving it that jittery “1960s grade school filmstrip” treatment? I am probably a lone dissenter but after about
    5 minutes in it kinda got on my nerves and I mostly just listened with an occasional glance at the images. Just saying.

    Isn’t music history filled with such “what ifs”? What if Brahms had never met the Schumanns, in that short window of time, a mere five months, before Robert ended up in the asylum for good, and without Robert’s promotion/mentoring and Clara’s lifelong creative support, would Brahms have become influential enough to bestow awards and mentor and get a publisher for the then-obscure Dvorak for whom opportunities led to his appointment as director of the National Conservatory in the US— would there ever have been a New World Symphony?

    Reply

  21. The community choir I sing in recently sang “ A Silence Haunts Me” by Jake Runestad and Todd Boss which is portions of the Heiligenstadt Testament set to music. It is a beautiful , touching, and disturbing piece.

    Reply

  23. its incredible to me how beethoven would probably be the hardest person to communicate with. i dont speak german, he was deaf, and he was very socially awkward as is. yet, i understand him because music has no language barrier

    Reply

Leave a Comment