I was being unclear. I also recall Mace chomping his lute, but I was asking about Beethoven specifically. I haven’t seen a source for these 20th/21st century descriptions of his using bone conduction.
The very contrary account of Beethoven banging on an out-of-tune piano and howling as he composed the Missa Solemnis is from Schindler, who knew Beethoven but was every bit as much as much of a fiction writer as Dan Brown. > On Nov 10, 2017, at 7:01 PM, jeff <[email protected]> wrote: > > Check out Mace. As I recall, in his later years, he “heard” his lute by > touching his teeth to the edge of the soundboard or edge of the bowl where it > meets the soundboard. Late in the book, I think, and part of his > complaints/observations about aging. > > Been a long time since I’ve looked at it, so I could be making this up. But I > think not… > > See ya, > > jeff > > Sent from Mail for Windows 10 > > From: howard posner > Sent: Friday, November 10, 2017 6:29 PM > To: Lutelist > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Bad lute music > > >> On Nov 10, 2017, at 10:50 AM, G. C. <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> According to Dan Brown in his newest book, "Origins", Beethoven was the >> inventor of "bone conduction technology", who upon going deaf, >> discovered that he could fix a metal rod to his piano, and bite down on >> it as he played, enabling him to hear perfectly, through vibrations in >> his jaw bone. > > Take this with a grain of salt, especially when you see things like this one > on the Time Magazine website: > > Interest in Beethoven’s hearing loss has long captivated his fans, > many of whom are fascinated by the tragic circumstances of a deaf > composer and the ways Beethoven managed to keep working even > after he completely lost his hearing by the time he was 45. As TIME > once described it, “by clenching a stick in his teeth, holding it against > the keyboard of his piano, he could discern faint sounds.” > > I’ve never seen any reference to any evidence for anything like this. Has > anyone else? > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > --
