
Ah, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Just look at him. Angry. Bitter. Deaf. He wasn’t born deaf, he went deaf–completely deaf at age 45–after becoming the greatest composer of music of his time. Then the apocalypse happened, he found a bunch of books he could finally read, and then broke his glasses. That last part is not true. But (truthfully) even after going deaf, he continued to compose music he would never hear–and it’s awesome. He was also eccentric, clumsy, messy, headstrong, loud, unkempt, and many other undesirable things. But he was so brilliant, even in the face of adversity, that I think we can ignore the bad stuff and play his excellent music.
Beethoven’s early compositions followed in the classical tradition and were elegant, structured, and formal. But a funny thing happens to an artist when your life falls apart mid-career. You begin to express your emotions through your art. And boy did Beethoven ever express. He musical expressions of anger were so effective, we’re all still TICKED OFF today. So much so, it takes his musical expressions of sadness, beauty, trepidation, and joy continue to help calm us down.
He died in the most Beethoven way, during a thunderstorm, raising his fist at God as if to say, “Why did you make me the world’s best composer and deaf?”. God may have responded: “It wasn’t me. It was Paget’s disease. It caused your charlie-brown-sized head*, protruding jaw, and compressed your eighth cranial nerve resulting in deafness.” All joking aside, it would seem suffering and great art frequently go together. In Beethoven’s case, they combined to form some of the best music you’ll ever hear.
*Beethoven’s head was reported to be the size of a modern-day exercise ball.

Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59, “Fur Elise”