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professional virtuoso’s repertoire. But there was a downside: Sonatas that had originally been created for all amateur to play were now becoming too difficult. The virtuoso had begun to run off with the amateur’s music, a development that would continue throughout the nineteenth century.
Beethoven Loses His Hearing
Beethoven cut a strange, eccentric figure as he wandered the streets of Vienna, sometimes humming, sometimes mumbling, and sometimes jotting on music paper. Dogs barked and street kids, knowing nothing about genius, sometimes threw stones—which he threw back! Adding to the difficulties of his somewhat unstable personality was the fact that Beethoven was gradually losing his hear- ing—a serious handicap for any person, but a tragic condition for a musician. Can you imagine a blind painter?
Beethoven first complained about his hearing and a ringing in his ears (tin- nitus) in the late 1790s, and he suffered considerable anguish and depression. His increasing deafness did not stop him from composing—most people can hear simple melodies inside their heads, and the gifted Beethoven could gener- ate complex melodies and harmonies in his “inner ear” without need of exter- nal sound. As he himself said in 1801, “In my playing and composing my defect [deafness] matters least; but it matters a great deal in social interaction.” In truth, growing deafness gradually affected both his social relations and his capacity to perform; he became a recluse and stopped appearing as a pianist because he could no longer gauge how hard to press the keys.
By late 1802, Beethoven recognized that he would ultimately suffer a total loss of hearing. In despair, he wrote something akin to a last will and testament, today called the Heiligenstadt Testament after the Viennese suburb in which he penned it. In this confessional document for posterity, the composer admits that he considered suicide: “I would have ended my life; it was only my art that held me back.” Beethoven emerged from this personal crisis with renewed re- solve to fulfill his artistic destiny—he would now, despite his deafness, “seize Fate by the throat.”
The “Heroic” Period (1803–1813)
It was in this resurgent, defiant mood that Beethoven entered what we call his “heroic” period of composition (1803–1813; also simply termed his “middle peri- od”). His works became longer, more assertive, and full of grand gestures. Simple, often triadic, themes predominate, and these are repeated, sometimes incessantly, as the music swells to majestic proportions. When these themes are played forte and given over to the brass instruments, a heroic, triumphant sound results.
Beethoven wrote nine symphonies in all, six of them during his “heroic” pe- riod. Beethoven’s symphonies are few in number because they are so much lon- ger and more complex than those of his predecessors. Beginning with No. 3, his symphonies sometimes go on for forty-five minutes or more, twice the duration of any symphony of Haydn or Mozart. Beethoven’s works set the standard for the epic, narrative symphony of the nineteenth century.
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