It is well known that, with increasing age, Beethoven lost more and more of his hearing. However, so far it was unclear if this was reflected in his compositions. SILS-researcher Edoardo Saccenti found evidence that the German composer was indeed influenced by his progressing deafness, as written in his publication Beethoven’s deafness and his three styles in the special Christmas edition of British Medical Journal. His publication is accompanied by an online movie, recorded in House of Amsterdam, in which Saccenti and SILS-professor Age Smilde reflect on Beethoven’s deafness.

Saccenti performed a statistical analysis of 16 string quartets, representative of the three styles of Beethoven’s compositions: his first period (hearing still functional), his second period (progressive loss of hearing) and his third period (deafness). He found that Beethoven used significantly less high notes (i.e. notes above G6, or 1568 Hz) in his second than in his first period, whereas he started using them again in his third period.

Saccenti: ‘Most likely, Beethoven used less high notes in his second period because he had difficulty hearing specifically high notes. We think he started using them again in his third period because he couldn’t hear at all anymore. He was probably composing from his inner hearing then. That could explain why people are so appreciative of his music from this period, calling it free and expressive.'