The Medical Sonata
The hunt continues for diagnostic clues to Beethoven’s gifts and griefs June 2007
When Ludwig van Beethoven died in March 1827 he was acknowledged as the pre-eminent composer of his generation. Twenty thousand people attended his funeral to honour his memory. Unfortunately, his mortal remains were not treated with quite the same dignity. His body was subjected to a disfiguring autopsy in an effort to evaluate his organs of…