Beethoven Exhibition at the British Library

Abstract

Of particular note was a leaf of Beethoven's transcriptions from the poetry of Herder alongside his own personal reflections on the power of nature, written first in pencil – apparently outdoors – before being inked over (Zweig MS 15). Visitors could place their elbows on a wooden panel and clasp their hands over their ears, allowing the vibrations created by the music to be conveyed from the panel via bones in the elbow and upper arm to the inner ear, thus bypassing the ear canal. Franz Xaver Stöber's engraving of Beethoven's funeral procession provided a striking visual representation of the unprecedented scale of and public interest in the event.