Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of the most successful and influential composers of all time, devoted his life to music. Composing and performing were his passion and his lifelong goal. Early on in his career, his hearing began to fail. This was a huge obstacle for anyone, but especially for someone whose profession and life’s work was completely dependant on sound. His determination and his love for music drove him to push past anything that came in his path, to find a way forward, and to ultimately find success. Ludwig van Beethoven became one of the most famous and influential composers of all time, despite the fact that he had a hearing problem throughout most of his adult life.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in a small town in Germany called
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He came up with many brilliant tricks which enabled him to continue his life in music and expand his composing abilities (Audicus). In 1814 Beethoven asked Johann Maelzel to create a device for him called an ear-trumpet (Bauer 89). An ear-trumpet is something that helps amplify sound using a tube held close to the ear. This device worked for a while, but became useless as Beethoven’s hearing worsened. Beethoven also found out that he could feel the vibrations of his fortepiano while he played it by having the legs removed and the instrument would sit on the ground. Being able to feel the music he played helped him picture it in his head (Bauer 49). He realized that there was nothing he could do to slow down his ever-worsening deafness, so he found a way to overcome his inability to hear the music. This made Beethoven a better musician in the end because he had to push himself in ways he’d never had to before to succeed. In 1818, Beethoven used a blank-paged book to write in and communicate with others, so that people could interact with him even with his hearing loss. This was another way that Beethoven coped with his disability (Bauer 91). This also showed that he was beginning to accept the fact that he could not hear because he was trying to stay connected with his friends and the rest of the world. Throughout Beethoven's career, he kept trying to find ways to aid his hearing loss, unfortunately, most of these attempts would prove unsuccessful when his hearing was at it’s worst. At this point in his life, Beethoven was completely deaf. He was beginning to act more strange and paid no attention to his appearance. As he would walk the streets of Vienna, children would follow and make fun of him. Although it seemed as though Beethoven had stopped producing music (Zannos 37), he was actually in a seven year long process of creating what is now known as his “symphonic masterpiece” (Bauer 104), the Ninth