Walter Meyer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I remember reading that, on his deathbed, Beethoven shook his fist at a
>thunderclap outside the house.  Maybe the tale is apocryphal.  Maybe it
>was a lightning flash he was shaking his fist at.  Apparently there was an
>unprecedented thunderstorm and hurricane raging through Vienna on the day
>Beethoven died.

Yes and isn't it a beautiful, hyperromantic story? The Hero, challenging
his God.  And God's welcome to one of his favorite sons.  It was Anselm
Huttenbrenner who told this story to the world and most modern biographers
shrug their shoulders about.  This silly romantic man...  However, in 1990
medical expert O'Shea correctly pointed to something overlooked.  He wrote:
"Surprisingly, it is an accurate clinical observation: people who die of
hepatic failure often act in an exaggerated way to sudden stimuli such as
bright light.  This is due to the accumulation of toxic waste products
normally excreted by the liver.  Beethoven's gesture may be seen as having
been due to the cerebral irritation which accompanies hepatic failure, not
as a conscious act."

Joyce Maier (mail to: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask])
www.ademu.com/Beethoven