Although Beethoven could sit down and compose easily, his really great compo

Although Beethoven could sit down and compose easily, his really great compositions did not come easily at all. They cost him a great deal of hard work and he always found it hard to satisfy himself.
    When he was 28, he began to notice a strange noise in his ears. As it grew worse, he went to see doctors, and was told that he was going deaf. This was too much for any composer to hear. Beethoven was in despair; he was sure that he was going to die. He went to the countryside where he wrote a long farewell letter to his brothers, describing how sad and lonely his deafness made him. He longed to die, and said to death, "Come when you will, I shall meet you bravely."
    In fact, Beethoven did something braver than dying. He gathered his courage and went on writing music, though he could hear what he wrote more and more faintly. He wrote the music for which we remember him best after he became deaf. This music was very different from any that had been composed before. Instead of the elegant and grand music that earlier composers had written for their wealthy listeners, Beethoven wrote stormy, exciting music, which reminds us of his troubled and courageous life. His Heroic Symphony and Fifth Symphony both show his courage in struggling with his fate.
    In time he went completely deaf, but he wrote more gloriously than ever, for he could "hear" his music in his mind. He was lonely and often unhappy, but in spite of this, he often wrote joyful music, such as his last symphony, the Ninth. Because of his courage and strong will to overcome, his music has given joy and inspiration to millions of people.