Beethoven's Hair: The Historical Fog and Musical Mystery of its Reappearance

Author: (American) Russell Martin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-04-01
Features: In the 1990s, Russell Martin read in The Denver Post about an auction at Sotheby's where a bundle of Beethoven's hair was being sold. He decided to track it down. This unique and detailed book is the result of his pursuit. After being cut, the hair's journey passed through the musical circles of Vienna, through Nazi-occupied Denmark, and endured hardships along the way before arriving at Sotheby's and eventually ending up in laboratories across the United States. Scientists conducted DNA tests on the hair and its attached follicles, uncovering the true reasons behind Beethoven's long-term physical decline, deafness, and terminal illness. This extraordinary book in your hands is more real than other biographies of Beethoven, as this precious hair is the only thing that allows us to connect with his life. At the same time, it is a highly intricate and dramatic legend, more thrilling than any adventure film, because every person who once owned this hair was inseparably linked to music and suffering. Those extraordinary journeys ultimately proved that Beethoven's hair, as the most precious memento in their lives, completely transformed their lives. Everything that happened around Beethoven's hair profoundly demonstrates people's reverence for him. It is a determination to keep the hero and great music immortal. In 1827, as Beethoven lay dying, a young musician, Ferdinand Siller, came to his bedside to pay his final respects to his revered master. After Beethoven's death, following custom, Siller cut a lock of his hair as a keepsake. During World War II, this lock of hair miraculously ended up in Nazi-occupied Denmark, becoming the collection of Dr. Chi Frenken, a physician in the city of Gilleje. At the time, Dr. Frenken was secretly helping Jews escape Nazi persecution. Who gave Dr. Frenken the lock of hair? Why him? What was the reason that kept Dr. Frenken silent about what happened during the war after the war? After Dr. Frenken's death, his daughter became the inheritor of the lock of hair and brought it to Sotheby's auction. In 1994, at an auction, two Beethoven admirers, Ella Briland and "Che" Guevara, purchased the lock of hair. Through DNA testing, they eventually revealed what truly caused Beethoven's long-term chronic illness, his later deafness, and his eventual death.