Robin Wallace - Beethovent hallani

We are all familiar with the image of the passionate, gloomy Beethoven who fought determinedly to overcome his deafness, who continued to play and compose music for more than a decade after losing his hearing. We usually think of this as superhuman heroism, but the truth is that Beethoven's response to deafness is very human. And by demystifying his actions, we can learn a lot about Beethoven's music. Perhaps no one knows more about this than Robin Wallace, who has not only dedicated his life to Beethoven's music as a musicologist, but also has close personal experience with deafness. One day, at the age of forty-four, Wallace's wife, Barbara, discovered that she could not hear in her right ear - the hearing loss was caused by radiation therapy used to treat her brain tumor. Three years later, he also became deaf in his left ear. For the remaining eight and a half years of her life, although she used a cochlear implant, Barbara was never again able to live as a hearing person.
Wallace shows us that, contrary to popular belief, Beethoven did not heroically battle his deafness, but instead accomplished something even more difficult and greater: he adapted to his hearing loss and changed his relationship with music, and in the process learned important aspects of the nature of music. Creating music became a visual and physical process for him, arising from visible instructions and the movement and vibration of the instruments. Deafness may have slowed him down, but it also led him to works of unparalleled depth.
The story of Beethoven's creative life is intertwined in the book with the experiences of Barbara and her loved ones, introducing aspects to us, the readers, that only those living with deafness can show. These aspects also make Beethoven's music more accessible, understandable and relatable, and help us understand how a disability can contribute to living life to the fullest and to development.