Sandra Beane wrote: >I think that Beethoven's deafness is not something that would have >hindered his music. The majority of his works were written while he was >deaf. Huh? That's far too pessimistic. Yes, the first signs of deafness appeared when he was still in his twenties, but the disease was a very, very slow process and even on his deathbed he was able to hear something, though not much. Not until 1817/8, when he was 46/7, his deafness had become so severe that he couldn't converse anymore without the help of the famous conversation books. He played the piano in public until 1808, when he had already composed the first 5 symphonies, the first 4 piano concertos, the violin concerto, quite a lot of piano sonatas and chamber music and, last but not least, Fidelio. In 1812, after he had finished the 7th symphony and had made the first sketches for the 8th, he played the piano for Goethe, who wrote about it in a rather positive way. Beethoven adored Goethe as an almost divine personality. He never would have played if he had been uncertain about the quality of his playing. One of the problems with Beethoven's deafness is that it was very variable. On some days his hearing was rather good, on other days very bad, all in the same period. We have testimonies about that same year 1812, who contradict each other. Spohr's experiences with Beethoven's hearing in that year were very bad, but Starcke's were quite the opposite. He writes in his memoirs that Beethoven's pp was "vorzueglich" (excellent). Regards, Joyce Maier ([log in to unmask])