Beethoven revealing his despair over the tragic loss of his hearing at a young age. Clip from "Biography" (1970), episode 4 "Beethoven" (Michael Jayston) - Michael Jayston, Judy Parfitt, Edward Hardwicke.
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00:00sleeping he's over the crisis one of my brothers had Clarissa like that when we
00:05were children the breathing was just like that look at them they're so
00:09vulnerable lying asleep well France well are you back or
00:17didn't you go oh I didn't know a bullet through the palm out here broke some
00:28little bones here can you and would it be all right they can't say yet unscathed
00:34shall we I want to talk to Beethoven all your grand gestures working for a new
00:41world I saw men standing with their guts hanging out and screaming I'd never seen
00:47it before you never have I saw a child no older than Stefan with his head blown
00:54clean off no new world is worth that of course it's horrible when the
00:58innocence words Ludwig words you've not seen must look at the wider issues as
01:02well that's the trouble that's exactly what you've been doing and nothing else
01:04birth is not pretty it's bloody and savage and it can only be achieved by force in
01:09this case the enlightened will of one man my dear Ludwig he will go the way of all
01:13the others the pattern is so old a man gains power an idealist because of his
01:18idealism he finds to transform the world he has to adopt more and more the sort of
01:22methods he's overthrown he finishes up indistinguishable from the town as he
01:26rebelled against in the first place no it's true Ludwig read history if that
01:29was so it would negate everything I'm doing and you can hear it is not
01:32negated that is what my music is about it's already happening look at this so
01:37called armistice look what's happening as a sock to us for taking away our
01:40Italian states Bonaparte has proposed that we carve up the defenseless state of
01:44Venice the state without an army innocent independent a state that's had no part
01:48in the war at all and Austria has agreed deplorable yes barbaric but your idealist
01:53proposed it oh we don't know his reasons just because you and I it's a temporary
01:59expedient everyone knows that the war will soon break out again yes but there is an
02:06overwhelming hunger to make a good world I grant you so it must be possible the
02:11Almighty would not set us a problem like this if there were no answer to it your
02:14mighty moves in ways so mysterious at times I doubt if he's only come out of his
02:18sense it's true look at your disability what what possible reason could there be
02:22for such a grotesque thing you of all men
02:27what you must have no I'm sorry it doesn't matter my hearing my hearing is going I'm going
02:43deaf both ears I shall be totally deaf by the time I'm 35 there's a reason for it something I'm
02:55being made to learn everything in my past has been preparing me for what I must do I lie awake and I go
03:04over my life I watch things falling into place gathering momentum and I try and see how my disability could be part of it as a child catching a chill after a swim
03:18or my father striking me here when he was drunk or an insect that crawled into my ear one summer's night so I awoke screaming
03:25why why why should a great hunger be implanted in me a genius to achieve something most specific a task that I have to fulfill that it is my life's function to fulfill without a shadow of a doubt and at the same time be endowed with all the powers and skills and functions to the highest degree necessary to carry it through save one my supreme function the noblest part of my being
03:55my hearing my hearing and moreover not to be deprived of it until I'm well along the course
04:02why should men be allowed to glimpse at paradise when they cannot enter it
04:08do you know what I truly believe to be the worst thing in the world to have a passionate desire a desperate need to achieve something so that it becomes an all-consuming passion but to lack the actual ability to achieve it
04:24quite seen it so often in young musicians writers and many others their souls burn
04:31but they have no genius no skill and they are in agony that they fail
04:36now why should this be it is in them without a doubt they burn with it just as it is in man
04:45well you agree it is in us to create such a world we burn with it like they do
04:52he knows that he sees it burn apart that's why he fights but deafness breaks in
05:00venice that child and your music is so full of joy but it is there in people we are capable
05:08though I did read something quite recently that haunts me though I cannot believe
05:15I read that the people of southern Italy capture singing birds to cage and to keep their song more full and beautiful
05:27they blind them with red-hot needles and you know they stream with song now why should this be why can you conceive that the almighty could do this to man could do this to me so that so that
05:56will stay with us
05:59will stay with us