gspaulsson (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

Somehow my answer got lost, so here goes again. George Grove, Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies, p.140: "it is impossible not to believe that the work ... is based on his relations to the Countess [Teresa von Brunswick] and is more or less a picture of their personality and connection". To humour you, I reread the whole chapter on the 5th, nothing about deafness. I don't agree with Grove, but at least he has a clue, which you don't.

liquidpoly (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

lmao,, did you read that before you posted it? Fifty years and you didn't even know beethoven 5 was beethoven coming to terms with his deafness?! Well, you have been wasting your time haven't you.

gspaulsson (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

Look, I have been a classical music lover for about 50 years, I have read every biography of Beethoven there is, and you on the other hand appear never to have heard of the Heiligenstadt testament. Go educate yourself and stop being a smartass.

liquidpoly (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

No, whatever you read in wikipedia was wrong. It is the fifth symphony and the moonlight sonata that Beethoven used as vehicles of his pain of going deaf in. Read Groves dictionary.

gspaulsson (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

Google Heiligenstadt Testament and get the whole story. It was written in 1802 "in despair over his growing deafness". He wasn't deaf yet, but he knew it was just a matter of time - that's when his crisis of the soul was. By 1812 he had to stop performing, 11 years before the premiere of the 9th. Not that he didn't keep brooding over it - a lot of his music is about triumph over adversity -, but it could be any adversity. E.g. Vienna was occupied by the French. This is not simple program music.

liquidpoly (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

No he didn't. He could hear perfectly when he wrote the 2nd symphony and had no idea he was going deaf

mohsen789 (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

...woah

gspaulsson (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

Which, if you actually know German, doesn't mean "Germans are better than anyone else", it means "Above all, Germany". The anthem was written at the time of German unification, and was meant to get Germans to think of themselves as Germans first and Prussians, Bavarians, Swabians, etc., second.

gspaulsson (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

It might have been sped up a little to squeeze it into one side of an LP.

gspaulsson (January 1, 1970 at 7:29 am)

No, actually, after he found out he was going deaf he poured out his anguish in the Heiligenstadt Testament, and then went on to write the 2nd symphony, which is the most sweetness-and-light of them all.