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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

#41

Post by prvc »

w-m wrote: post #20

I'm quite confused. I learned 20+ years ago that lead poisining from the wine was the cause, or at least the suspected cause of Beethovens deafness. It's great that they found lead in his hair (again?), but thoroughly weird that they don't mention that it was the go-to theory already. On a large tangent, I tried asking GPT-4o to check the article whether it mentions that previously that theory already existed (could…

That particular sample was shown to have been a fake last year when multiple purported hair samples were compared.

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

#42

Post by fallingfrog »

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 a musician too, and: yep, same. Many of my best songs occurred to me at work, or doing something else, and I grab a napkin or piece of paper and write down the chords and a melody and a few notes so that I can recall the idea later. But I don’t need an instrument in my hands to do this.

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

#43

Post by senkora »

odyssey7 wrote: post #37
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.

Thank you for putting the idea of the mind’s tongue into my nightmares.

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

#44

Post by lioeters »

jorgesborges wrote: post #30

Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers that he never sent but it’s often referred to as a suicide note. It’s interesting — apparently he hid his bad hearing for a long time and considered it a humiliation. From the letter it also sounds like he was a real dick to people around him as a result, but they weren’t aware. So it serves as a sort of confession, apology and goodbye. You can read it here it’s pretty short.…

That is heart-breaking, and will probably make me cry the next time I listen to his music.

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

#45

Post by rjzzleep »

odyssey7 wrote: post #37
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.

There’s a French show called le prochain grand pâtissier.

In one season there a guy who dislikes sweets (or sugar I can’t remember) but said he could taste it by smelling. The chefs didn’t believe him, but I think they were proven wrong.

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

#46

Post by odyssey7 »

senkora wrote: post #43
odyssey7 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thank you for putting the idea of the mind’s tongue into my nightmares.

It could be an important faculty in some professions.

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

#47

Post by busymom0 »

jorgesborges wrote: post #30

Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers that he never sent but it’s often referred to as a suicide note. It’s interesting — apparently he hid his bad hearing for a long time and considered it a humiliation. From the letter it also sounds like he was a real dick to people around him as a result, but they weren’t aware. So it serves as a sort of confession, apology and goodbye. You can read it here it’s pretty short.…

Any reason why there's no periods in it?

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

#48

Post by TylerE »

rjzzleep wrote: post #45
odyssey7 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There’s a French show called le prochain grand pâtissier. In one season there a guy who dislikes sweets (or sugar I can’t remember) but said he could taste it by smelling. The chefs didn’t believe him, but I think they were proven wrong.

That’s really surprising that chefs would think that - you’d think they of all people would know that smell is actually more of perceived taste than actual taste is.

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

#49

Post by solumunus »

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…

Hmm. I can easily play songs in my head and imagine new ones, yet I have absolutely no musical background. I’m now wishing I had more time available so I could mess around on fruity loops.

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

#50

Post by solumunus »

grugagag wrote: post #39
gramie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Well yes, but doing that with writing requires no special ability. If you can’t generate music accurately in your head then this simply wouldn’t be an option for you.
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