Beethoven’s hearing began to deteriorate when he was only in his late 20s and he became completely deaf later on, but continued to compose, conduct and perform.
A new study, published in the British Medical Journal, is revealing that his gradual deafness may have influenced his compositions. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam have found that it is probably the reason why his music has always been divided into three parts, the early, middle and late periods, as the stages of his career vary in the use of high notes.
Whereas his early quartets used a variety of high notes, when he began to lose his sense of hearing around 1810, the amount of high notes he used dropped significantly, and he was using lower frequency notes, which he could still hear better. But later on, in 1825, when he was completely deaf and relied completely on his inner ear, he was not compelled to produce music he could still hear and the higher notes increased again in his compositions.
I though it was interesting, although the researchers have admitted using only a limited number of Beethoven’s compositions, and their study would require a ‘complete and exhaustive statistical and spectral analyses of the composer's complete catalogue’.
Beethoven’s deafness is attributed to severe tinnitus, the sensation of ringing in the ears, and I was wondering who else among living musicians has the same problem. It turns out a lot of them do have this same problem! According to diverse websites, Neil Young, the Who’s Pete Townshend and John Entwhistle, Brian Wilson, Bob Mould, Jeff Beck, Sting, Eric Clapton, Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Colin Greenwood, Ryan Adams, Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilminster, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields and Blinda Butcher, George Harrison, George Martin, Ted Nugent, U2’s Bono and the Edge, Moby, Phil Collins, Cher, Ozzy Osborne, Huey Lewis, Mick Fleetwood, Charlie Haden, Al Di Meola, Todd Rundgren, Trent Reznor, Will.i.am, among the most famous ones, have different degrees of tinnitus.
I don't know if that influences their respective compositions, but this makes me think twice about going to another loud concert without earplugs.