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What Are The Qualities Of Beethoven Being Deaf

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Beethoven, one of the worlds most skilled musicians, was among the deaf community. Being a musician and composer, you would probably consider hearing to be the most important sense for him to have, but Beethoven actually wrote some of his most successful pieces while he was deaf, such as the 9th symphony. His love for music started when he was very young. His father, Johann van Beethoven, was a violin and piano teacher, as well as a tenor. He was the one who first introduced Beethoven to music. By the age of 7, Beethoven was considered a child prodigy. He had already performed his first public concert, which was in his home town Bonn. By the time Beethoven was 21, he had composed some of his own pieces and he began publishing them a few years later. …show more content…

All of his achievements previously mentioned were done with good hearing. That all changed in 1796 when he mentioned in letters that he was hearing buzzing noises. That was just the beginning of his hearing problems. We didn't have documented evidence of him going deaf until 1801. Specifically, this letter that he wrote to his physician, saying:

"For the last three years my hearing has grown steadily weaker . . . I can give you some idea of this peculiar deafness when I must tell you that in the theatre I have to get very close to the orchestra to understand the performers, and that from a distance I do not hear the high notes of the instruments and the singers’ voices. . . Sometimes too I hardly hear people who speak softly. The sound I can hear it is true, but not the words. And yet if anyone shouts I can’t bear

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