The silent symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

This year is the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. His life was strongly affected by an important health problem: the hearing loss. Since the age of 26 years, the composer became aware of his sensorial deficit. From his correspondence emerges that Beethoven suffered from a progressive1 and fluctuating hearing loss,2 starting with difficulties to hear high tones (“I do not hear the high notes of the instruments and voices”) and associated to tinnitus (“buzzing and humming”) and recruitment phenomenon (“if someone yells, it is unbearable to me”).