The neighbors complained because he sang and shouted and walked the floor so wildly. The servants left because he refused his food, then raged at them for letting it get cold. For nearly five years Ludwig van Beethoven stormed thus at life and music. He was spending his last great powers on a Mass, struggling to keep the mighty contents within the liturgical framework. He was too deaf to know the noise he made at home, too deaf to hear any of his music at the first Vienna performance in 1824. Nevertheless he...
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