Beethoven is no Beethoven

[Florestan]

I would think anyone interested enough to read a biography of Beethoven would find this of interest.

Let's assume that the researchers are right and Beethoven's father was actually the son of Johann-Peter Schmerzling. How would this fact change your perspective on Beethoven's music?

[Spotted Horses]

Let's assume that the researchers are right and Beethoven's father was actually the son of Johann-Peter Schmerzling. How would this fact change your perspective on Beethoven's music?

You seem to have glossed over the gist of my comment.

Their findings are interesting to me, not so much because of the infidelity, but because of the information about Beethoven's life.

Analysis of Beethoven's DNA gives insight into Beethoven's state of health, final illness and lifestyle.

[San Antone]

No need to panic, because this illegitimate grandfather may have been the decisive genetic reason for Ludvig van becoming the great composer he became.

I wonder if he had other offspring who were composers? Who knows there may more Beethovens out there.

[Florestan]

You seem to have glossed over the gist of my comment.

Analysis of Beethoven's DNA gives insight into Beethoven's state of health, final illness and lifestyle.

Yes, I did miss that part, my bad. I'll give you his state of health, and especially the final illness, which is indeed of medical interest. His lifestyle, though, is already well documented by numerous contemporary witnesses. Sources agree on his being an alcoholic (and in those times when alcohol consumption was more common than today, he must have been a really heavy, heavy drinker) --- but this doesn't automatically mean he died of cirrhosis. I know heavy drinkers who get drunk on a daily basis whose liver is as strong as steel and people who drank only moderately and I've never seen drunk yet died of cirrhosis. In this respect you are right, if DNA analysis can settle the matter, I'm all for it. What I doubt is the certainty of the whole thing, which stands or falls with those tufts being really his.

[Florestan]

I wonder if he had other offspring who were composers? Who knows there may more Beethovens out there.

Btw, what do we know about his sexual life? Is there incontrovertible evidence that he ever had intercourse? We can only speculate on this matter, as in all others. 

[Florestan]

It suggests Beethoven died of liver failure, rather than alcoholism

 I missed that part, too. Well, alcoholism by itself is never a cause of death. Liver failure is --- and liver failure is often, though not always (see my post above), an effect of alcoholism.

[Brian]

Btw, what do we know about his sexual life? Is there incontrovertible evidence that he ever had intercourse? We can only speculate on this matter, as in all others. 

The original New York Times article said that we know very little about the subject. Hepatitis B can be contracted from sexual activity or from childbirth from the mother.

That area is, as you say, forever a mystery.

[Florestan]

The original New York Times article said that we know very little about the subject. Hepatitis B can be contracted from sexual activity or from childbirth from the mother.

That area is, as you say, forever a mystery.

Actually, that would make for an interesting topic: The Sexual Life of Famous Composers. 

There are the documented, incontrovertible heterosexuals, such as Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Berlioz, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Debussy, Richard Strauss etc.

There are the documented, incontrovertible homosexuals, such as Tchaikovsky, Barber, Britten, Menotti, Copland, Ned Rorem, Poulenc etc.

Then there are those whose sexual life is a matter of speculation: Corelli, Handel, Schubert, Chopin, Bellini, Ravel etc (although in this case I don't know who the etcs are).

And then there is... Beethoven: we don't even know whether he had any sexual life altogether.

[Todd]

Actually, that would make for an interesting topic: The Sexual Life of Famous Composers.

It would make for lurid gossip. It would end up with hundreds of posts.

[Florestan]

It would make for lurid gossip. It would end up with hundreds of posts.

So did the Covid thread. So did the War in Ukraine thread. People have opinions about everything --- and they will defend them until they are blue in the face the thread is locked. 

[Todd]

So did the Covid thread. So did the War in Ukraine thread. People have opinions about everything --- and they will defend them until they are blue in the face the thread is locked. 

Start the thread, see what happens.  Other people's sex lives bore me, so I will read only occasionally.