Gee, Your Hair Smells Morbific

“At 7 p.m. on May 7, 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven, then 53, strode onto the stage of the magnificent Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna to help conduct the world premiere of his Ninth Symphony, the last he would ever complete. That performance, whose 200th anniversary is on Tuesday, was unforgettable in many ways. But it was marked by an incident at the start of the second movement that revealed to the audience of about 1,800 people how deaf the revered composer had become.” Two hundred years later, we’re beginning to understand why Beethoven lost his hearing. Gina Kolata in the NYT (Gift Article): Locks of Beethoven’s Hair Offer New Clues to the Mystery of His Deafness. “Using powerful technologies, scientists found staggering amounts of lead and other toxic substances in the composer’s hair that may have come from wine, or other sources.” (In addition to everything else, Beethoven invented hair metal.)