Did You Know? Beethoven Edition

• Beethoven’s mother passed away when he was young, and his alcoholic and abusive father was his first music instructor.

• Beethoven first began losing his hearing in his 20’s, going completely deaf in his 40s.

• His most famous symphony, Symphony No. 9, was written when he was completely deaf.

• Luckily for Beethoven (and us), he was so immersed into music before losing his hearing, that he was able to compose after going deaf…just by hearing it in his mind!

• Beethoven came up with certain techniques for hearing music in his body. For instance, he would hold a pencil in his mouth and rest it against the piano so he could feel the vibrations of the notes against his lips.