What a Lock of Hair Uncovered About Beethoven

How the Composer Returned to Live Among Us

Does genius die?

A maestro’s heart might stop beating; the rise and fall of their chest could halt. The fact that a human ceases to be alive does not mean they’ve gone away from us. We might not hear their voice, but by means of the art that they created, they will always speak to us.

Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the figures in history whose story is so tragic that one would be forgiven for questioning whether it was real. He began to lose his hearing at a young age. In spite of this impediment, his music improved with the passage of time.

Ludwig van Beethoven, 1815

It’s known that, when a person loses one of their five senses, they adapt with those which remain. In this way, they can continue to live fulfilling lives.

In spite of this, we can be forgiven for marveling at the story of this great composer. He became legendary, yet could not hear the audience as they applauded his famous works.

Clipping a Sacred Relic

Beethoven’s Hair by Russell Martin recounts how, centuries after the maestro’s death, he found himself once more among the living—physically. This presence was small and unassuming.

He returned in the form of a lock of hair that had been snipped from Beethoven’s body in the year of 1827.

The composer had battled mysterious ailments for most of his life. 1827 proved to be the year when it all became too much. In spite of his talents, Beethoven was human. All of us will one day face the time to go.

It was common in those days to take locks of hair from the deceased. These became mementos, ways of preserving the memory of the deceased, much like death photography—which we consider today to be morbid.

It’s unlikely that when Ferdinand Hiller, a teenage musical aspirant, took that lock of hair, he was thinking ahead. He probably couldn’t imagine how valuable it would be centuries later to historians and scientists.

All Hiller was thinking about, when he took that lock, was that his hero had moved on to a new existence where he no longer suffered. Beethoven, in spirit form, would no longer rely on words written on paper to know what was being said to him. His digestive issues would no longer plague him.

He would be free, as his music had made other people free.

In the mires of grief, Hiller asked Beethoven’s brother, Johann, if he might take a lock of the composer’s hair. Johann agreed. Hiller was not the only person to have taken hair from that venerable head; his was the lock that would later become famous.