Silent Music

4 Silent Music Imagine this. You write music, but you can't hear it. Impos- sible? It would seem impossible for most people, but not for one of the greatest composers in history. He was born in a small city in Europe in 1770. He was a great young talent and began performing in front of people when he was just nine years old. He met his idol, Mozart, when he was just a boy, and this inspired him to become a great piano player and a writer of music. He became a composer and was very famous and rich. But then, his life changed. When he was about 26 years old, he began to lose his hearing. He heard ringing in his ears that was so loud that he could not hear the music. He went to many doctors and tried many treatments and instruments to help him hear, but nothing worked very well. He even used a special rod that was attached to the piano. He would bite the rod, and that way he could feel the vibrations of the music in his head.

As he lost more and more of his ability to hear, he began to use “ talking books" . His friends wrote what they wanted to say, and he replied using a pen and paper. This man, who could not hear, wrote hundreds of pieces of music during his lifetime. Many people feel that his best composition was his Ninth Symphony. The night it was first played for an audience, he conducted the orchestra. When the music stopped, one of the musicians had to turn him around to see the audience clapping and cheering, for he did not hear them. The audience had heard one of the greatest pieces of music in history. But he cried, for he had heard nothing. Isn't it amazing that a person can create such beautiful music and not hear it? The deaf man's name was Ludwig van Beethoven, and his music will live on forever.