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Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most influential figures in the history of music. His name is synonymous with classical music, and you’d be surprised to find out how many tunes you’ve heard since your childhood that were crafted by him. Have you heard of “Ode to Joy?” If you grew up watching Looney Tunes, you’ve heard Beethoven. The guy is everywhere. In his Late Period, which began around 1815, Beethoven composed some of his most famous works without a sense of hearing. What you may not know is that he’s an early champion of bone conduction technology.
This piece of music was written by a hearing-impaired man:
Beethoven and Bone Conduction Hearing Loss Solutions
We don’t know how you feel, but our minds are completely blown. As Beethoven began to lose his hearing, his music took on a more personal, unconventional, and emotionally intense quality. It’s during this period that he wrote the “9th Symphony,” which is perhaps his most famous. His hearing began to leave him around the turn of the century, and he struggled to reconcile the agony of being a genius musician with the loss of hearing. In an 1802 letter called the “Heligenstadt Testament” he had this to say:
“…I was forced to isolate myself. I was misunderstood and rudely repulsed because I was yet unable to say to people ‘Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf,’” adding “With joy I hasten to meet death.”
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Ultimately, Beethoven resolved to live in the pursuit of better art, which is where we find the connection between his compositions and our bone conduction headphones. He was a brilliant enough composer to hear his ideas in his head before making them real on paper, but in order to hear how they actually sounded Beethoven removed the legs from his piano to lay it on the floor. Afterwards he laid his head on the wooden floor beside it and felt the vibration it made in the same way we feel the vibrations from an AfterShokz bone conduction transducer. From there he composed masterpieces of music, the effects of which still reverberate through pop music today.
Today we are using bone conduction to reduce hearing loss. If only Beethoven had that luxury! It seems like he did pretty well considering his predicament, though, doesn’t it? We applaud Beethoven to no end, for keeping it real, composing some of the most amazing music in history, and finding bone conduction intuitively so the music could continue unabated.
What’s your favorite instance of Beethoven in pop music today? Tell us about it in the comments section below, or talk to us on Facebook and Twitter. And keep reading the blog for more bone conduction moments in history!
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
