Progressive deafness profoundly influenced Beethoven’s compos-itions, prompting him to choose lower-frequency notes as his condition worsened, according to scientists.

Beethoven first mentioned his hearing loss in 1801 at the age of 30, complaining that he was having problems hearing the high notes of instruments and voices.

By 1812 people had to shout to make themselves understood, and in 1818 he started to communicate through notebooks. In the last few years before his death in 1827, his deafness was apparently total.

Writing in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal, a trio of scientists in The Netherlands dissected Beethoven’s string quartets.

They grouped these works into four ages, ranging from early (1798-1800) to late (1824-26). The experts looked at the first violin part in the first movement of each quartet, counting the number of notes above G6, which corresponds to 1,568 Hertz.

Use of higher notes decreased as the deafness progressed, they found. To compensate, Beethoven used more middle- and low-frequency notes, which he could hear better when music was performed.

But in the late quartets – written by the time he was totally deaf – the higher notes returned.

“When he came to rely completely on his inner ear, he was no longer compelled to produce music he could actually hear when performed, and slowly returned to his inner musical world and early composing experiences,” says the paper.

A brief bio

• Ludwig van Beethoven was baptised on December 17, 1770 at Bonn.

• His father was musician at the Court of Bonn, with a defin-ite weakness for drink. His mother was always described as a gentle, retiring woman, with a warm heart.

• At an early age, Beethoven took an interest in music, and his father taught him day and night. Without doubt the child was gifted, and his father Johann envisaged creating a new Mozart, a child prodigy.

• On March 26, 1778, at the age of seven-and-a-half, Beethoven gave his first known public performance, at Cologne.

• His father announced that he was six years old. Because of this, Beethoven always thought that he was younger than he actually was.

• Soon Ludwig learned music, notably the organ and composition, from renowned musicians such as Gottlob Neefe.

• In 1782, before the age of 12, Beethoven published his first work: 9 variations in C Minor for Piano, on a march by Ernst Christoph Dressler (WoO 63).

• Ludwig was appointed organist of the court of Maximilian Franz, Elector of Cologne. He was 14.

• 1792, Beethoven went back to Vienna, benefiting from another grant, for two years.

• At Vienna, the young musician took lessons with Haydn, then with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Antonio Salieri.

• In 1795 Beethoven gave his first public performance at Vienna (an “Academy”) whereby each musician was to play his own work.

• Then followed a tour: Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin before leaving for a concert in Budapest.

• In 1801 Beethoven confessed to his friends at Bonn his worry of becoming deaf. At Heiligenstadt, in 1802, he wrote a famous text which expressed his disgust at the unfairness of life as it was treating him.

• Beethoven wrote this third symphony in honour of a great man, Bonaparte.

• In 1812, Beethoven went for hydrotherapy at Teplitz, where he wrote his ardent letter to “The Immortal Beloved”.

• In 1826 Beethoven caught cold and the illness complicated other health problems from which Beethoven had suffered all his life.

• He passed away encircled by his closest friends on March 26, 1827, just as a storm broke out.

• The funeral rites took place at the church of the Holy Trinity. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 people attended.