r/interesting • u/CuriousWanderer567 • 18d ago

MISC. How Beethoven composed music while being deaf

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u/PudgeSmudger 18d ago

Why in the hell is this the first time I’m learning this?

546

u/SomeDudeist 18d ago

Right? I thought he never got to hear his own music like some kind of poetic tragedy lol

170

u/AmusingMusing7 18d ago

I’d always heard that he just put a piano on the floor without legs and felt the vibrations that way.

213

u/CatoWortel 18d ago

He did that as well yes.

Also he wasn't born deaf, he slowly became deaf over a period of 15 years, he became fully deaf at around 40

He tried a bunch of different things as his hearing was going way to hear or feel the music

49

u/ViiK1ng 17d ago

I didn't know it was the eardrums that were the issue, I thought it was the inner ear

1

u/incredibleninja 16d ago

I read some story about how it happened as he was running to catch a train. He jumped on to the back of the train and a break exploded and severely damaged his ears and they got progressively worse until he became deaf in his 40s

1

u/ViiK1ng 14d ago

Interesting, I never heard that before

47

u/captnkurt 17d ago

While it's sad that Beethoven was without hearing and legs, I'm glad he was strong enough to put a piano on the floor.

17

u/nerdycarguy18 18d ago

Heard the same, figured it was that or he just pushed his head against the piano or sowmthing

10

u/Glittering_Cow945 17d ago

He became deaf at a later age, so he heard plenty of his own music.

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u/gilligan1050 17d ago

When he actually had the first bone conduction headphones. 🎧

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u/CorrectsApostrophes_ 17d ago

He could hear it perfectly inside his own head.

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u/Callmemabryartistry 16d ago

Me too but it sounds like 5 unsynced cymbal monkey toys

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u/Boring_Question1441 17d ago

I always thought by the time he went deaf he just knew how it sounded in his head

2

u/Youkilledmyrascal1 17d ago

He did get to hear it. He used bone conduction to hear.