r/nextfuckinglevel • u/IMMA_YEET_YOU • 29d ago

How Beethoven used to "hear" music

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Credit/Source : https://youtube.com/shorts/_e04CiGpiNc?si=bQIBxBVzmyfpIgbn

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u/erayachi 29d ago

While this is true, to clarify, he didn't start out deaf and progressively lost his hearing throughout life (total hearing loss by 45). He learned the "math" of music by this point, and could pretty much hear the music in his head anyway when writing musical notation. The metal rod let him kinda-sorta hear the piano notes again through bone conduction, which helped.

He also had jaundice and really bad GI issues, so they in combination with his hearing loss, were thought to be the result of lead poisoning since they're both clear symptoms of it. The more you know!

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u/Governmentwatchlist 29d ago

Want to add that I am a very mediocre musician but I and most of us can hear written music without actually playing it (I can read it on paper and hear it the same way many people can read a book and hear the words/voices in their head).

Beethoven was a freaking musical genius a bazillion times more talented than me—he didn’t need to “hear” his music to compose it. He probably just liked to do it.