Who was Ludwig van Beethoven?

Welcome to another episode of History's Not Boring with your favorite hosts, Mira and Finn! Today, we are traveling all the way back to Germany in the 1770s to meet one of the greatest musical geniuses who ever lived: Ludwig van Beethoven! Did you know Beethoven started playing the piano when he was just four years old? He practiced and practiced until he became the most famous composer in the whole wide world! But then, something unimaginable happened. Slowly, Beethoven started losing his hearing, until he was completely deaf! How could a composer write music if he couldn't even hear it? It sounds impossible, right?! But Beethoven didn't let that stop him! He used his incredible brain and memory to write his masterpiece, the Ninth Symphony, entirely in silence! At the big premiere, he actually conducted the orchestra himself. When the magnificent music stopped, the audience went completely wild, cheering and clapping! But Beethoven couldn't hear them! Someone had to gently turn him around so he could see the amazing standing ovation! Tune in to discover the incredible true story of the music that conquered silence!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Histories Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. We don't have any special shout-outs today, so we are going to dive straight into a story that is going to absolutely blow your mind.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Oh, I am ready. Is it about a massive battle or a giant explosion?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

No explosions today, but it is about a giant of history. Did you know that one of the most famous pieces of music in the entire world was written by a man who couldn't hear a single note of it?

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Wait, what? He was completely deaf? How is that even possible to write music if you can't hear?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

It sounds impossible, but it is absolutely true. His name was Ludwig van Beethoven. And Finn, I have to mention this, because the timing is perfect. Next week, on May 7th, marks exactly 202 years since his most famous piece, the Ninth Symphony, premiered back in 1824.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

202 years? That's a huge anniversary. That's older than my great-great-grandparents.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Way older! So get ready, because today we are travelling back to the late 1700s and early 1800s. We are going to learn exactly how a deaf genius managed to write music that conquered silence itself. Let's start from the very beginning. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770 in the city of Bonn, Germany.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

So that's over 250 years ago. What was his life like as a kid?

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Honestly, Finn, it was pretty tough. His father, Johann, wanted young Ludwig to be a famous child prodigy, just like the composer Mozart had been. What's a prodigy? A prodigy is a kid who is exceptionally good at something, like a genius. So, his father forced Ludwig to start practicing the piano at just four years old.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Four? I was just eating crayons and playing with blocks when I was four.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

I know, and Johann was very harsh. He would often go out with his friends, come home late at night, and actually wake little Ludwig up in the middle of the night. Oh no, to do what? He would force the poor boy to practice the piano until the church bells rang in the morning. That is terrible! And he was so small. He was. In fact, Ludwig had to stand on a little wooden footstool just to reach the keys of the piano. But despite the harshness, he became a brilliantly talented musician. At age 21, in the year 1792, he moved about 450 miles away to Vienna, Austria. Why Vienna? Because Vienna was the musical capital of the world back then. It was a bustling city of around 200,000 people, filled with palaces, theatres, and the greatest composers alive.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

So he became a superstar there?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

He sure did. The rich aristocrats loved him. He was known as the greatest piano player in Vienna. But then, around the age of 28, in 1798, something terrifying happened. He started hearing a high-pitched ringing and buzzing in his ears.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Uh-oh. Was he going deaf?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Slowly, yes. At first he tried to hide it. He was terrified that if people found out a musician was going deaf, his career would be over.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

That makes sense. It's like a painter going blind. How long did it take for him to lose all his hearing?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

It took about 18 years. By 1816, when he was around 45 years old, he was completely, 100% deaf. He couldn't hear people talking at all.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Wait, if he couldn't hear anyone, how did he even buy food or talk to his friends?

SPEAKER_00 3:57

He came up with a clever solution. He carried around these things called conversation books. His friends would write their questions down in the blank notebook and he would answer them out loud. Whoa! Do we still have those books? We do. Historians have preserved over 130 of Beethoven's conversation books. But the craziest part is how he kept composing music.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah. How did he write down notes if he couldn't hear the piano?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

He used the power of science. Since he couldn't hear the sound waves travelling through the air, he had to feel the vibrations. There is a famous legend that he actually sawed the legs off his piano so it sat flat on the floor.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Oh, no way! He ruined a perfectly good piano.

unknown 4:41

Ha ha ha!

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Actually, that is just a popular myth. Historians know he never ruined his piano to sit on the floor, but we know for sure he used another incredible trick with a wooden stick. A stick? What did he do with it? He would hold one end of a wooden stick or a pencil tightly in his teeth and press the other end against the piano.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Wait, so the sound travelled from the piano, through the stick, into his teeth, and into his skull.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Exactly! It's a scientific principle called bone conduction, and because lower notes create much bigger, heavier vibrations, for a few years his music featured a lot more deep low notes so he could feel what he was playing. Which brings us to his absolute biggest challenge. The year is 1824. Beethoven is 53 years old and totally deaf. He has spent years writing a massive, complicated new piece called the Ninth Symphony. How big are we talking?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Bigger than a normal symphony.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Way bigger. Most symphonies back then were maybe 30 minutes long. The Ninth Symphony is over 70 minutes, and it required a giant orchestra plus a massive choir of singers. Did he actually perform it for people? Yes. The premiere was on May 7, 1824, at the famous Theater am Kantor in Vienna. The theatre was packed with nearly 2,000 people. And get this, Beethoven insisted on conducting the orchestra himself.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

But wait, if he was completely deaf, how could he keep 100 musicians playing together?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

The theatre managers were secretly terrified of a disaster. So they hired another conductor named Michael Umlauf to stand on stage too. They quietly told the musicians to follow Michael and to totally ignore Beethoven.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So Beethoven was just up there waving his arms for nothing.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

He didn't know that. He was throwing his arms around violently, completely lost in the music, playing inside his own head. He was so energetic, he was almost jumping off the stage. What happened when the 70 minutes were over? The symphony ended and the crowd went absolutely wild. They were cheering, screaming, throwing their hats in the air and waving their handkerchiefs. Did Beethoven see them cheering? He didn't. Because he couldn't hear that the music had stopped. He was actually still conducting. He was several measures behind. Finally, one of the singers, a woman named Caroline Unger, walked over to him.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

What did she do?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

She gently took his arm and turned him around to face the audience. And for the first time, he saw the nearly 2,000 people giving him a massive, roaring, standing ovation.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Wow, that actually gives me goosebumps. To see thousands of people going crazy for music you can't even hear.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

It's one of the most beautiful moments in music history. But sadly, Beethoven's health was failing. Just three years later, on March 26, 1827, he died at the age of 56.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Were people in Vienna sad to lose him?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

They were completely devastated. Vienna basically shut down for his funeral on March 29th. The schools closed, the theatres locked their doors, and thousands poured into the streets.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

How many people showed up?

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Historians estimate between 20,000 and 30,000 people lined the streets for his funeral procession. To put that in perspective, that was about one-tenth of the entire population of Vienna at the time.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

30,000 people? That is enough to fill a Major League Baseball Stadium today.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Exactly. It was one of the largest funerals in the city's history. And here's a weird, slightly gross history fact. People wanted a piece of the great composer so badly that admirers actually snipped off locks of his hair as souvenirs. Ew! They kept a dead guy's hair. That is so gross. It was actually pretty common back then, but it ended up being useful. Almost 200 years later, scientists tested those surviving locks of hair and found incredibly high levels of a toxic metal called lead.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Lead? Like what's in old pipes?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yes. It might explain why he suffered from terrible stomach pains his whole life. And some scientists think the lead poisoning might have even caused his deafness.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

So his hair actually solved the 200-year-old medical mystery.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

It sure did. Today, Beethoven's legacy is larger than ever. The final part of his ninth symphony, known as the Ode to Joy, is still played everywhere. And it's even the official anthem of the European Union. Alright, Finn, quiz time.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Okay, I'm ready. Let's see how much I remember about Beethoven. First question.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

What year was Beethoven born in the city of Bonn, Germany? Next one. About how old was Beethoven when he became completely deaf? Question three. What object did Beethoven hold tightly in his teeth to help him feel the vibrations of his piano? Here's number four. What date did his famous 70-minute long 9th symphony premiere? Last question. How many people line the streets of Vienna for Beethoven's massive funeral? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is, he was born in December 1770. For question two, he was totally deaf by 1816 when he was around 45 years old. Number three, the answer is he used a wooden stick or a pencil. Question four, the ninth symphony premiered on May 7, 1824. And the final answer is between 20,000 and 30,000 people attended. I honestly can't stop thinking about how he used a wooden pencil clumped in his teeth just to feel the music he was writing.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Yeah, and standing there on stage while nearly 2,000 people cheered, without hearing a single clap. It's really inspiring to think he never gave up.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

If you loved learning about Beethoven's incredible story today, please leave us a five-star review. It helps us out so much. Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap those five stars. Yeah, do it for Beethoven. Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games, activities, and awesome history facts there.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

And if you want a shout out on the show, or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

We love hearing from you. See you next time on History is not boring. Bye, everyone.