Vienna, 1798. Age 27.

Two staves of music sketched in brown ink in Beethoven's hand, hurried, with corrections
A sketch in his hand. Detail of BH 116, Beethoven-Haus Bonn: working notes toward the Bagatelle WoO 59, some years later than this date. It is the earliest working paper of his that can be freely reproduced here; the paper of 1798 looked like this. Public domain.
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, op. 13, composed 1798. First movement, Grave — Allegro di molto e con brio.

1801. To Franz Gerhard Wegeler, in Bonn.

… my ears whistle and buzz continually, day and night. I can say I am living a wretched life. For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf. If I had any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a terrible handicap.

… I beg you to keep what I have told you about my hearing a great secret, to be confided to nobody, whoever he may be.

Ludwig van Beethoven to Franz Wegeler, Vienna, 29 June 1801. The letter itself is held by the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn. No freely reproducible photograph of it exists; the words are given here in translation.

Heiligenstadt, 6 October 1802. To his brothers. Found in a drawer after his death, twenty-five years later.

First page of the Heiligenstadt Testament, dense handwriting in brown ink on discoloured paper
Second page of the Heiligenstadt Testament
Third page of the Heiligenstadt Testament
Fourth page of the Heiligenstadt Testament, with the signature and the added lines of 10 October

The Heiligenstadt Testament, facsimile of the four leaves. Hamburg State and University Library. Public domain. Almost nobody can read the hand comfortably; the passage most people come for is on the first leaf, and reads:

… how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than in others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection …

… it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

In translation. He was thirty-one.

From 1818. The conversation books.

An open conversation book, two small pages of pencil handwriting
Conversation book D. 10, folio 44 and following, February 1823. Berlin State Library. Public domain. This leaf is one of the rarer kind: the hand is his. He is answering Anton Schindler about a former pupil, in French, because they were in a public place and he did not want the room to hear. Most leaves are the other way round: a friend's question in pencil, and then nothing, because he answered out loud.

Are you coming tomorrow?

Write your answer and press Enter.

1824.

A page of the autograph manuscript of the Ninth Symphony: dense staves, corrections, ink and pencil
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op. 125, autograph manuscript, page 12. Berlin State Library. Public domain.
Photograph of a passage from the autograph of the Ninth Symphony, heavily worked, with crossings-out
A passage from the same manuscript, photographed for the Dutch press archive. Nationaal Archief. Public domain.
1824

7 May 1824. Theater am Kärntnertor, Vienna. The first performance of the Ninth.

The Kärntnertor theatre seen from the square, a painting: a pale classical facade, carriages, people in the street
The Kärntnertortheater, painted by Karl Wenzel Zajicek from the Spitalplatz. The house was demolished in 1870. Public domain.
Portrait of the contralto Caroline Unger
Caroline Unger, contralto, aged twenty. Public domain.

He stood beside the conductor, Michael Umlauf, beating time into music he could not hear; the players had been told to follow Umlauf.the accounts agree on this

When it ended he was still turned toward the orchestra, several bars behind.the accounts agree on this

Caroline Unger took his sleeve and turned him around to face the hall.whether after the scherzo or at the end, the accounts differ

Five ovations. Hats and handkerchiefs in the air, so that the applause could be seen.the accounts agree on the handkerchiefs

A page of the autograph manuscript of the Ninth Symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9
1824

Sources. The sketch (BH 116) and the conversation book (D. 10) are reproduced from the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and the Berlin State Library respectively, via Wikimedia Commons; the Heiligenstadt Testament from the Hamburg facsimile; the Ninth's autograph from the Berlin State Library and the Nationaal Archief; the theatre from a painting by Karl Wenzel Zajicek; all public domain. The 1801 letter to Wegeler is quoted in translation; it is held in Bonn and no free reproduction exists.

Recordings. Op. 13, first movement: a performance released to the public domain (CC0). Op. 125, fourth movement: Musopen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Both are recordings available to you today. Sound on this page is withdrawn at the point in the record where it stopped being available to him; nothing here attempts to reproduce what he heard, at any stage. We do not know that.

The conversation on the blank leaf is invented. The books are real; 139 survive; his side of them does not, because it was spoken. The accounts of the premiere differ on exactly when Caroline Unger turned him; every account agrees on the turn and on the handkerchiefs.

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