Beethoven's Symphony No 9 in D-minor

EyeDoc's note: This is a supplement to Tsunami hit northeast Japan, originally posted here.

It is a well-known story: When his 9th (the Choral) Symphony premiered on May 7, 1824, in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, the audience went wild. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) by then, however, was totally deaf. Contralto soloist, Karoline Unger, had to help turn him around to face the cheering crowd. There were 5 ovations all together, the ultimate respect for a common man (the police stopped further ovations in deference to the royalties who customarily were accorded three). It must have been quite a moving sight.

Beethoven indeed had put all his heart and soul into this symphony. In fact, despite the common belief that the vocal part of the 4th movement, Ode to Joy, was a poem borrowed from Frederich Schiller (1759-1805), Beethoven himself actually wrote portions of it. For example, at the very beginning of the vocal part, i.e., the baritone solo starting on bar 216:

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!

Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,

und freudenvollere.

Freude! Freude!

This symphony is of course remembered forever for its 4th movement. However, IMHO, the 3rd movement beginning with Adagio molto e cantabile is positively celestial that deserves even more attention.

Something about Beethoven's eyes? Ah, yes, we are just coming around to that.

The etiology of Beethoven's deafness has never been clear. Several possibilities have been put forth including otosclerosis, syphilis, noise trauma, Paget’s disease, sarcoidosis, and otitis media. None of them was conclusive, however.

It is known that Beethoven suffered from digestive diseases plus rheumatism, various skin abscesses and recurrent infections, ophthalmia, jaundice, and anemia. Ophthalmia? An old term for inflammation of the membranes/coats of the eye, i.e., iritis/uveitis. This, plus Beethoven's own admission of "constant belly aches, diarrhea and bloody stools" suggests that he might have a bad case of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease - both of which are associated episodically with deafness.

So the best guess is then: Beethoven's deafness was an immunopathic manifestation of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). And iritis/uveitis no doubt flared up from time to time. Unfortunately, after the autopsy, the coroner's report concentrated on the liver and the abdominal fluid, with nothing on the intestines. So we'll never know for sure.

There is a lesson here, though: Patients with IBD need to have their eyes (especially the retina) and ears (at least the hearing) examined regularly - particularly for musicians and composers.

The entire symphony is here:

Tamsui Peace Park (TPP) - update 3

A few years after the initial conceptualization, a sculpture in honor of those Tamsui-lang who perished during the Pacific War has actually be completed. It is located within Tamsui Peace Park.

The mother-holding-a-baby theme is based on the autobiography of Eyedoc's mother, who had  received an unexpected notification from Township Office to collect ashes of her husband Dr Tze-Chang Cheng, and in mourning, had gone to the shore of Tamsui River with her baby to look at Guanyin Mountain, in total shock, facing an unknown future at the same time...

In search of descendants of General Sun and Hunan Braves

A presentation entitled 台灣淡水在地看 清法戰爭 (a local perspective of the Battle of Fisherman's Wharf) was delivered by EyeDoc on March 2 at Harvard YenChing Library 燕京圖書館 to visiting scholars from China. It is hoped that the descendants from General Sun KaiHua孫開華提督 and/or Hunan Braves湖南勇 could be located, through publicity, so that their valiant efforts in defending Tamsui in the 1884 Sino-French War can be properly and officially honored.

Annual Clearwater Master procession

Beware of traffic control, bus lines will be re-routed or even canceled. If coming from Taipei, please do not drive, take the MRT instead. 

Have a great time in Tamsui!

Wrong mountain and river, 1938

A friend posted in facebook this 1938 postcard. Very nice photo indeed except it is not the mountain and river that we Tamsui-lang know of. Not only the mountain profile is entirely wrong, we have never seen corrosion of the mountain to this extent. Plus (1) on the far right, another mountain looms behind while no such mountain exists in Tamsui, (2) the river delta, a prominent landmark, is also gone, and (3) no small fishing sampans in Tamsui River were ever equipped with a sail (only transports with a mid-ship canopy and those from Foochow did).

Even though the caption reads Guyanyin Mountain and Tamsui River, this ain't it.

Tamsui 1960s

The three photos below were taken at the same location (source: Taipics.com) that must be viewed together. A close inspection reveals that they depict Chung-Jian Street 重建街of the 1960s:

Looking to the right with Guan-Yin Mountain looming in the background

Chung-Jian Street is on the left side, barely seen. In the middle of this photo is the Red Castle 紅樓with its flat roof.

Looking straight down Chung-Jian Street

Looking left

This is Chin-Shui Street 清水街, parallel to Chung-Jian Street. In the far background is the Guang-Du 關渡 Gorge, before construction of the Guang-Du Bridge that links Tamsui with Ba-li.

Chung-Jian means re-construction, even though this is the oldest street, once the center of commerce, of Tamsui.

Cheng Zhi-Long honored in Tainan

Source: here

Koxinga's father, Cheng Zhi-long 鄭芝龍 (1604-1661), finally is honored in 鎮門宮. This temple overlooks 鹿耳門 (Lakjemuyse), where Koxinga's fleet sailed through at high tide into Taibay and quickly surrounded Ft Provincia (1661). This tiny temple has two bare-footed Dutchmen as its gate keepers, or door-gods (see a previous post, here).

For almost four hundred years, 鄭芝龍 has been portrayed by historians as a pirate and a traitor, a one-sided erroneous description that has persisted to this day. Within the Cheng Clan, Koxinga's falling out with his father over the loyalty to Ming Emperor was also a factor. In fact, in Tainan, the seat of power of the Ming Cheng Kingdom, memorial to 鄭芝龍 is nowhere to be found.

We now know that 鄭芝龍 was forced to yield, not by the military might of the Qing, but by a great famine at that time when it was no longer possible to maintain a sizable force without confiscating foodstuff from the general public. Not wishing to do that and after a life-time of fighting enemies from within and without China, he was truly tired looking forward to a peaceful resolution. Only he himself was detained at a meeting with Qing officials. And three of his sons and daughter-in-laws were later ordered to Beijing. All were put to death in 1661. After learning the demise of his father and brothers, a crestfallen Koxinga passed away soon after.

In this temple in Tainan, the father finally took his rightful place with his son Konxiga and his wife Lady Weng.