# How Deaf Was Beethoven for the 9th?



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

When he was composing it, how deaf was he?


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2019)

Very deaf.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Deaf enough that he tried to conduct the premiere by sight.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I understand that the sketches were made before the total deafness, so when it got to the actual composition of the 9th, he wasn't operating totally in the dark.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Yet when he conducted the premier (with a backup conductor) poor Ludwig kept on beating time after the music stopped and the audience was applauding. Pretty deaf. The good news was he didn't have to listen to the vocal quartet caterwauling.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

As I understand it, Beethoven’s hearing took a turn for the worse around 1815-16 and deteriorated more after that. He was never totally deaf but came close to it, with some days better than others.

So he was pretty deaf during the years he was writing the 9th Symphony, 1820-24. The premiere performance was conducted by Michael Umlauf with Beethoven also onstage beating the time to set the tempi. The musicians were told to ignore him.


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## Machiavel (Apr 12, 2010)

If my memory serves me well, his only pupil stated that Beethoven was deaf but he had extensive sketches up to his ninth symphony before he was deaf. HE compose something then set aside knowing he had something really good and he could get back to it and finish it. THe question is,, IS Beethoven deafness overhype to put him as a genius. SOmeone like him with perfect pitch a genius of music, extensive sketches. HOw hard was it really for him to finish his works. I really would like to know. I think the deaf thing is more wow factor than anythinglese like a marketing ploy. I know friends who can compose in their heads real nice jazz songs and they dont need to hear it before. everything on paper. HOw can it be that hard for a genius like LUdwig???


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

One can compose in his head without being able to hear a thing. Especially if you had had hearing enough once to know what things sound like. Deafness was an impediment, but not enough of one to keep him from from producing the Ninth, Missa Solemnis, the Diabelli Variations, the late quartets, and other works that any other composer would have sold his firstborn to produce.

What it interfered with was his ability to be a virtuoso pianist.


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2019)

Manxfeeder said:


> he wasn't operating totally in the dark.


I thought it was deafness, not blindness!


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

MacLeod said:


> I thought it was deafness, not blindness!


Now that would have really been a handicap to his composing! Or would it?


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Beethoven could not hear the audience roars after the premeire was over; the concertmaster turned him around to see the audience.


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