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Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers that he never sent but it’s often referred to as a suicide note. It’s interesting — apparently he hid his bad hearing f

Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers that he never sent but it’s often referred to as a suicide note. It’s interesting — apparently he hid his bad hearing for a long time and considered it a humiliation. From the letter it also sounds like he was a real dick to people around him as a result, but they weren’t aware. So it serves as a sort of confession, apology and goodbye. You can read it here it’s pretty short. https://nac-cna.ca/en/stories/story/beethovens-complete-heiligenstadt-testament https://nac-cna.ca/en/stories/story/beethovens-complete-heil...

lioeters 2y ago
That is heart-breaking, and will probably make me cry the next time I listen to his music.
busymom0 2y ago
Any reason why there's no periods in it?
lqet 2y ago
Beethoven surely was an interesting character. He often had trouble finding apartments because he was such a difficult neighbor (and it didn't help that he played his piano as loud as possible, so that he could hear it). One time, he was arrested because he was creeping around Wiener Neustadt at night, dressed like a beggar, and peeping into living rooms. Nobody believed he was the famous composer, and a local organist had to be brought in to identify Beethoven. He also fought a long violent legal battle for custody of his nephew Karl after the death of his brother (Beethoven hated his sister-in-law) which lead to a suicide attempt of Karl, and the break-off of all contact. His sister-in-law in turn told the authorities that the "van" in Beethovens surname had nothing to do with nobility (as he seemingly had claimed), but was just a normal surname in in the Flemish region of his ancestors. What I also find highly fascinating are the entries in his conversation books which document how relatives tried to teach him basic math. It's strange to see that one of greatest composers in human history was unable to grasp multiplication or division.
- cdelsolar 2y ago
  I would have thought you needed a decent grasp of math to compose. Don’t you have to count - ie all your measures must have equal sums of note durations (if you are using 32nds, all your notes - halves, quarters, 32nds, rests, and so on, must add up to 32 32nds).
ohthehugemanate 2y ago
Better than just reading the letter is to listen to the musical change in Beethoven's works. Beethoven's music is usually divided into 3 periods. The first is really classical sounding, like late Mozart. In fact, Beethoven was a fan of Mozart and some sources say that Mozart appreciated Beethoven's compositions too. Go listen to string quartet no. 1, or symphony no. 1 for a bit. StructureStructured, restrained, even elegant. There's definitely emotionality in there especially compared to peak Classical era like Haydn. Those guys may as well have shit marble, as Mozart put it. Check out the pathetique sonata for something about as emotive as Beethoven got at the time. Then came the diagnosis of progressive deafness. This letter is the best insight into Beethoven's mind at the time, and "existential depression with suicidal ideation" seems like the right description to me. He stopped composing for several months. When he returned to composing in 1803, it's a totally different sound. This is the wild, emotional Beethoven we generally think of. Waldstein sonata, symphony 5, string quartet no. 9 are good examples here. It's Rage Against The Machine before electric instruments were invented. If you're interested in the third period, read on. The transition to third period is more gradual, around 1815. There isn't a hard biographical line in the sand like the Heiligenstadt testament, but his relationship with his nephew/ward Karl got awful, his love life fell apart, and his deafness took a sharp turn for the worse, all around the same time. His old tricks to keep composing, like sawing off the legs of his piano so he could feel it in the floor (poor downstairs neighbors!) were not effective anymore, and he was reduced to mostly communicating on a chalk tablet. His music turned inwards, became more introspective. Themes like life and death and afterlife, godliness and debasement, retribution and redemption flood the work. It also gets much more complicated harmonically. He does a lot of contrasts, between the grandiose and the intimate, for example. Symphony 9, particularly the Ode To Joy, is quintessential. Also check out string quartet op.131, the Hammerklavier piano sonata, and the missa solemnis in D. Now go out and impress your friends at dinner parties with your deep knowledge of Beethoven! Tune in next time for Bach: the original "ba-rock" star.
- khazhoux 2y ago
  > Now go out and impress your friends at dinner parties with your deep knowledge of Beethoven! Tune in next time for Bach: the original "ba-rock" star. That is Bach, and it rocks. It's a rock block of Bach, that he learned in a school called the School of Hard Knocks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nf_MD5gHXk&t=30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nf_MD5gHXk&t=30s

lioeters 2y ago

That is heart-breaking, and will probably make me cry the next time I listen to his music.

busymom0 2y ago

Any reason why there's no periods in it?

lqet 2y ago

Beethoven surely was an interesting character. He often had trouble finding apartments because he was such a difficult neighbor (and it didn't help that he played his piano as loud as possible, so that he could hear it). One time, he was arrested because he was creeping around Wiener Neustadt at night, dressed like a beggar, and peeping into living rooms. Nobody believed he was the famous composer, and a local organist had to be brought in to identify Beethoven. He also fought a long violent legal battle for custody of his nephew Karl after the death of his brother (Beethoven hated his sister-in-law) which lead to a suicide attempt of Karl, and the break-off of all contact. His sister-in-law in turn told the authorities that the "van" in Beethovens surname had nothing to do with nobility (as he seemingly had claimed), but was just a normal surname in in the Flemish region of his ancestors. What I also find highly fascinating are the entries in his conversation books which document how relatives tried to teach him basic math. It's strange to see that one of greatest composers in human history was unable to grasp multiplication or division.

cdelsolar 2y ago
I would have thought you needed a decent grasp of math to compose. Don’t you have to count - ie all your measures must have equal sums of note durations (if you are using 32nds, all your notes - halves, quarters, 32nds, rests, and so on, must add up to 32 32nds).

ohthehugemanate 2y ago

Better than just reading the letter is to listen to the musical change in Beethoven's works. Beethoven's music is usually divided into 3 periods. The first is really classical sounding, like late Mozart. In fact, Beethoven was a fan of Mozart and some sources say that Mozart appreciated Beethoven's compositions too. Go listen to string quartet no. 1, or symphony no. 1 for a bit. StructureStructured, restrained, even elegant. There's definitely emotionality in there especially compared to peak Classical era like Haydn. Those guys may as well have shit marble, as Mozart put it. Check out the pathetique sonata for something about as emotive as Beethoven got at the time. Then came the diagnosis of progressive deafness. This letter is the best insight into Beethoven's mind at the time, and "existential depression with suicidal ideation" seems like the right description to me. He stopped composing for several months. When he returned to composing in 1803, it's a totally different sound. This is the wild, emotional Beethoven we generally think of. Waldstein sonata, symphony 5, string quartet no. 9 are good examples here. It's Rage Against The Machine before electric instruments were invented. If you're interested in the third period, read on. The transition to third period is more gradual, around 1815. There isn't a hard biographical line in the sand like the Heiligenstadt testament, but his relationship with his nephew/ward Karl got awful, his love life fell apart, and his deafness took a sharp turn for the worse, all around the same time. His old tricks to keep composing, like sawing off the legs of his piano so he could feel it in the floor (poor downstairs neighbors!) were not effective anymore, and he was reduced to mostly communicating on a chalk tablet. His music turned inwards, became more introspective. Themes like life and death and afterlife, godliness and debasement, retribution and redemption flood the work. It also gets much more complicated harmonically. He does a lot of contrasts, between the grandiose and the intimate, for example. Symphony 9, particularly the Ode To Joy, is quintessential. Also check out string quartet op.131, the Hammerklavier piano sonata, and the missa solemnis in D. Now go out and impress your friends at dinner parties with your deep knowledge of Beethoven! Tune in next time for Bach: the original "ba-rock" star.

khazhoux 2y ago
> Now go out and impress your friends at dinner parties with your deep knowledge of Beethoven! Tune in next time for Bach: the original "ba-rock" star. That is Bach, and it rocks. It's a rock block of Bach, that he learned in a school called the School of Hard Knocks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nf_MD5gHXk&t=30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nf_MD5gHXk&t=30s