Beethoven

14 Stories

With Locks of Hair, Scientists Solve a Beethoven Mystery
With Locks of Hair, Scientists
Solve a Beethoven Mystery
in case you missed it
Mar 26, 2023 7:15 AM CDT

With Locks of Hair, Scientists Solve a Beethoven Mystery

DNA indicates the contributing factors of the liver disease thought to have killed him

(Newser) - With one Ludwig van Beethoven mystery likely solved , it's on to another one: why he spent his life in so much pain. It's a quest that led scientists to sequence his genome in a search for answers as to what may have caused his hearing loss, days-long bouts...

Author May Have Cracked Beethoven's 'Elise' Mystery

Book argues that 'Fur Elise' wasn't actually written for anyone named Elise

(Newser) - You've heard Beethoven's instantly recognizable "Fur Elise" somewhere, if only in a ring tone or a movie. As the New York Times put it in one appreciation, "Even if you don't know 'Fur Elise,' you know 'Fur Elise.'" Now, an...

'I Don't Know It': Mom With Dementia Plays Beethoven

For Elaine Lebar, 92, 'life makes sense' at the piano

(Newser) - Elaine Lebar may have dementia, but she still knows her way around a keyboard—and hasn't forgotten the third movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," TMZ reports. A video of the 92-year-old playing the piece recently became a hit on TikTok. "I don't know it,...

'Game-Changer' Upends Old Story About Beethoven

The classical music giant could actually hear a little

(Newser) - Ludwig van Beethoven composed masterpieces while totally deaf, right? Well, hold that thought. New research into his so-called "conversation books" suggests Beethoven had a little hearing in his left ear until soon before he died in 1827, the Guardian reports. "This is going to send everybody scurrying to...

Beethoven Sleuths: Old Sheet Shows How He Worked

'He writes a line, crosses it out. It's in pencil then written over in ink.'

(Newser) - Appraiser Brendan Ryan was at a house in Greenwich, Conn., to take a look at furniture and other items the owner wanted to sell, but it was a framed document hanging on a wall that caught his attention. "I said to myself, 'Oh my God, that's Beethoven,...

Beethoven Sheet Music Scores $100K

A chance find in Connecticut home proves exceptionally valuable

(Newser) - Sheet music written by Ludwig van Beethoven and found in a Connecticut home has fetched $100,000 at auction. Appraiser Brendan Ryan spotted the sheet music when he visited the home of a Greenwich woman looking to sell some belongings. He recognized Beethoven's handwriting in the German words, directions,...

Heart Arrhythmia May Have Influenced Beethoven Music

Scientists speculate he may have tapped into his heartbeat as he lost his hearing

(Newser) - As Beethoven went deaf, he may have started listening to his heart. In a new study published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine , a cardiologist, an internal medical specialist, and a musicologist point out that three of the German composer's works exhibit "rhythmic shifts and punctuations" that weren'...

Lost Beethoven Piece Performed After 2 Centuries

Movement reconstructed using composer's sketches

(Newser) - After Beethoven scrapped a movement from a string quartet, it was lost to the world’s ears for two centuries. No longer: A music professor in Britain has recreated the piece using the composer’s sketches for every measure. The movement of String Quartet in G, Opus 18, No. 2...

Yes, Classical Music Can Still Change the World

New symphony a 'call to action' on the environment: DB Grady

(Newser) - Before YouTube or Twitter, composing a symphony was a great way to get your revolution going—the French one inspired Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, and Shostakovich wrote such controversial music that he would wait outside for the Soviet regime to arrest him so his family wouldn't be disturbed....

Tweeting Beethoven a Noteworthy Development
Tweeting Beethoven a Noteworthy Development
analysis
Jul 30, 2009 10:23 AM CDT

Tweeting Beethoven a Noteworthy Development

Tech assist enhances classical experience

(Newser) - In a bid to win over multitaskers and technophobes, the National Symphony Orchestra will tweet along with tonight's performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, the Washington Post reports. Audience members with appropriate gadgets can sit in a special section on the lawn at Wolf Trap, in suburban Virginia, and follow...

Jacko Hair to Be Made Into Diamonds

(Newser) - A diamond company plans to turn the King of Pop's hair into bling, the New York Daily News reports. Company officials claim they have a lock of Michael Jackson's hair—obtained from the producer of the Pepsi commercial that set the singer's hair ablaze—and it intends to extract the...

Noisy Teens Sentenced to Manilow Sessions

'Music misery' sentences used to bring noisemakers in line

(Newser) - Call it cruel and unusual punishment—or at least unusual. When a Colorado judge sentences teenagers guilty of blasting car stereos too loud in Fort Lupton, he often imposes a session of enforced "musical misery," the Los Angeles Times reports. That means a Friday night in his courtroom...

Schroeder 'Played' Real Beethoven
Schroeder 'Played' Real Beethoven 
Jan 14, 2009 5:39 AM CST

Schroeder 'Played' Real Beethoven

Schulz's love of classical music came through in comic

(Newser) - The written notes that rose over Schroeder's piano weren't just doodles, scholars studying Peanuts tell the New York Times. Charles Schulz loved classical music as much as his Beethoven-obsessed character and carefully transcribed notes from real Beethoven scores to provide a soundtrack for every comic strip in which Schroeder was...

Fonda Heads Back to Broadway
 Fonda Heads Back to Broadway 
Dec 5, 2008 11:12 AM CST

Fonda Heads Back to Broadway

Starring role marks return after 46 years

(Newser) - Oscar- and Emmy-winning actress Jane Fonda will have another chance to add a Tony to her collection when she returns to Broadway after a 46-year absence, Playbill reports. Fonda, who made her Broadway debut in 1960, will star in Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations as Katherine Brandt, a musicologist working...

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