Hearing Beethoven: A Story of Musical Loss and Discovery

We’re commonly told that Beethoven heroically overcame his deafness, but he actually accomplished something even more difficult: he adapted to his hearing loss and changed the way he interacted with music, revealing important aspects of its very nature in the process.

Creating music became for Beethoven a visual and physical process, emanating from visual cues and from instruments that moved and vibrated. His deafness may have slowed him down, but it also led to works of unsurpassed profundity. Perhaps no one is better positioned to tell this story than Robin Wallace, who has dedicated his life to the music of Beethoven but also has close personal experience with late-life deafness through his late wife, Barbara. The resulting insights help us see how a disability can enhance human wholeness and flourishing.