Beethoven would have seen from Ries's face that there was beautiful music playing, but he couldn't hear it. Once Beethoven was out for a country ramble with fellow composer Ferdinand Ries, and while walking they saw a shepherd playing a pipe. 'If I belonged to any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a frightful state.' 'For two years I have avoided almost all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people 'I am deaf',' he wrote.

He feared his career would be ruined if anyone realised. And yet if anyone shouts I can’t bear it.'īeethoven tried to keep news of the problem secret from those closest to him. The sound I can hear it is true, but not the words. 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. 'For the last three years my hearing has grown steadily weaker.

In 1800, aged 30, he wrote from Vienna to a childhood friend - by then working as a doctor in Bonn - saying that he had been suffering for some time: How old was Beethoven when he started going deaf?Īround the age of 26, Beethoven began to hear buzzing and ringing in his ears.

$music math creating a clapping symphany$

Then, he started to notice a buzzing sound in his ears - and everything was about to change. Click here to listen to our podcast, Beethoven: The Man Revealed on Global Player, the official Classic FM app >

Music math creating a clapping symphany