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Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#31

Post by windowsrookie »

elevaet wrote: post #13
dukeofdoom wrote: post #7

Just curious how do modern humans compare. I think most people have this notion that sewage treatment removes everything. I know the local creek that the local water treatment plant empties out into, and the creek smells like sewage. The water intake is maybe km away down river. Aside from obvious chemicals like paint that people might flush. All kinds of medical/drug chemicals they're on are also peed out as well. A…

I think we tend to have a lot less heavy metal poisoning in general than we did at different times in the past. It's only fairly recently that we realized how dangerous these metals are and started removing them from things like plumbing (that word comes from french/latin for lead), fuels, paints, even eating-wares. I think north america was using leaded gasoline up until the end of the 70s or so.

And small engined airplanes still use leaded fuel.

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#32

Post by Stratoscope »

amatecha wrote: post #17

"It was so incredibly tragic that he couldn’t hear this majestic music that he created." He couldn't physically hear the performance of it, but it's possible he could "hear" what it would sound like - and he very possibly heard it in his head before writing a single note down on paper (or however he recorded his music). I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literal…

Many years ago a friend was looking at a new recipe to cook, and she asked me, "Can you taste a recipe?"

My first thought was "Huh? What?" My second thought was "Yes, I can taste a recipe." So I read it, imagined cooking it, and tasted it in my mind.

It tasted good, and of course I had a couple of minor suggestions. Maybe one was more garlic, but I always want more garlic.

She agreed with my ideas and had a couple of improvements of her own. When she made the dish, it was very very good, and tasted even better in real life than the original recipe tasted in our minds.

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#33

Post by bananenpubs »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #7

Just curious how do modern humans compare. I think most people have this notion that sewage treatment removes everything. I know the local creek that the local water treatment plant empties out into, and the creek smells like sewage. The water intake is maybe km away down river. Aside from obvious chemicals like paint that people might flush. All kinds of medical/drug chemicals they're on are also peed out as well. A…

[dead]

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#34

Post by telesilla »

amatecha wrote: post #17

"It was so incredibly tragic that he couldn’t hear this majestic music that he created." He couldn't physically hear the performance of it, but it's possible he could "hear" what it would sound like - and he very possibly heard it in his head before writing a single note down on paper (or however he recorded his music). I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literal…

A trained or otherwise skilled composer can hear music in their mind by reading the score (and while he wrote it). For sure, Beethoven knew how powerful his music was. He also intimately knew theory and how music 'worked' and aside from inventing a great number of things in music, he applied theory expertly. Modern day composers in the conservatory track are expected to have the same set of skills. A trained conductor can do the same.

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#35

Post by aristus »

lambdaba wrote: post #28
amatecha wrote: post #17

"It was so incredibly tragic that he couldn’t hear this majestic music that he created." He couldn't physically hear the performance of it, but it's possible he could "hear" what it would sound like - and he very possibly heard it in his head before writing a single note down on paper (or however he recorded his music). I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literal…

I can't find a quote I remember reading, attributed to Beethoven, something along the lines of "if people could hear what I hear in my mind, they wouldn't care about my music". Does that ring a bell (!) with anybody? I could not get any language model to help.

Try "the music of the spheres". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica_universalis

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#36

Post by [deleted] »

amatecha wrote: post #17

"It was so incredibly tragic that he couldn’t hear this majestic music that he created." He couldn't physically hear the performance of it, but it's possible he could "hear" what it would sound like - and he very possibly heard it in his head before writing a single note down on paper (or however he recorded his music). I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literal…

[deleted]

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#37

Post by odyssey7 »

amatecha wrote: post #17

"It was so incredibly tragic that he couldn’t hear this majestic music that he created." He couldn't physically hear the performance of it, but it's possible he could "hear" what it would sound like - and he very possibly heard it in his head before writing a single note down on paper (or however he recorded his music). I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literal…

A term for this is the mind’s ear. You hear the mind’s eye used more often.

You can generalize the construction to any sense you can imagine.

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#38

Post by guyomes »

louthy wrote: post #29
amatecha wrote: post #17

"It was so incredibly tragic that he couldn’t hear this majestic music that he created." He couldn't physically hear the performance of it, but it's possible he could "hear" what it would sound like - and he very possibly heard it in his head before writing a single note down on paper (or however he recorded his music). I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literal…

> I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literally hear it before I even try to create it or play it. My memory of sound is REALLY strong I’m the same. Details in sound is the same as details in vision for me, I can remember the fine details of complete songs seemingly forever (yet my memory for everything else is terrible). And I have the same thing where I have th…

> I can remember the fine details of complete songs seemingly forever

If you didn't buy the song, does it count as an illegal recording? /s

This was the main subject of a science fiction short story, unfortunately I cannot remember its title or author.

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#39

Post by grugagag »

gramie wrote: post #19
amatecha wrote: post #17

"It was so incredibly tragic that he couldn’t hear this majestic music that he created." He couldn't physically hear the performance of it, but it's possible he could "hear" what it would sound like - and he very possibly heard it in his head before writing a single note down on paper (or however he recorded his music). I'm not sure everyone has this ability, but whenever I've written/recorded music, I almost literal…

My son is a composer, and he told me that he doesn't even need a keyboard any more, when he composes (he composes on paper, then transfers it to music notation software when it's ready to distribute). He also, sometimes, has a photographic memory for music. In university he had a listening test on a piece of classical music. He was able to visualize the score that he had studied when in high school, and identify the…

It’s probably like writing. Writing by hand to avoid distractions then import into editing software

Re: Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair

#40

Post by darby_eight »

chasd00 wrote: post #12
lioeters wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure that he heard his majestic music in his head as he was composing it.

there are people without an inner monologue, that little voice inside your head. If you don't have that voice then i wonder if you can imagine or hear music inside your head like you would "that little voice". edit: here's a old article about people who lack an inner monologue https://www.iflscience.com/people-with-no-internal-monologue...

TBH I never thought to even call the speech processing in my a head a "little voice" until someone accused me of not having an inner monologue. I don't perceive it as audio at all unless I put effort into it.

Meanwhile music plays in my head constantly, so I don't think they're related.

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