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Beethoven's Hair (Hardcover)

by Russell Martin (Author) "BEETHOVEN'S HAIR, SHELTERED FOR NEARLY two centuries inside a glass locket, was about to become the subject of rapt attention on a warm December morning..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (6 Nov 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747548455
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747548454
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 173,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #19 in  Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Composers & Musicians > Classical Music > Beethoven
    #49 in  Books > Reference > Genealogy > Family History

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
As Ferdinand Hiller stood beside Beethoven's coffin he asked whether he could cut off a lock of the master composer's hair. In the days before the invention of photography this was not an unusual request; in fact it was common for people to keep locks of hair as remembrances of those who had died. The historical keepsake continued to be passed down subsequent generations of the Hiller family, until years later the heirloom (pun intended) mysteriously came into the possession of a Danish doctor who had been involved in helping hundreds of Jews forced into hiding from the Gestapo during World War II. Who handed the antiquity to the doctor, and why, is just one of the riddles thrown up by a treasure trail that spans two centuries and touches countless lives.

Beethoven's Hair is a historical jigsaw painstakingly pieced together by Russell Martin (author of the highly acclaimed Out of Silence who discovers that as the macabre memento travels through time it has a profound effect on the people who become intrinsically linked by its existence. Revered by Beethoven enthusiasts around the world, the historical lock is considered a true relic that keeps "the spirit of [Beethoven] present and somehow wonderfully alive". As does Martin's book, by sporadically transporting the reader back to 19th-century Vienna for a colourful glimpse of the great composer's life. And now, thanks to modern-day DNA testing, previously unknown secrets about the man who became a musical genius can be revealed. This is a fascinating read. --Christopher Kelly

Product Description
As Ludwig van Beethoven lay dying in 1827, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects to the great composer. In the days after Beethoven's death, Hiller snipped a lock of his hair as a keepsake. This lock was passed down for more than a century through Hiller's family, until, during World War II, it found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, involved in the effort to give aid to hundreds of frightened and hunted Jews. Who gave him the hair, and why? And what made Dr Fremming so reticent to speak about those terrible war years? After his death, Fremming's daughter inherited the lock, and eventually put it up for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others have instituted DNA and other tests in the hope of revealing the probable causes of the composer's famously bad health, his deafness, and his final demise. This work looks at this inriguing journey through time.

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"BEETHOVEN'S HAIR, SHELTERED FOR NEARLY two centuries inside a glass locket, was about to become the subject of rapt attention on a warm December morning in 1995." Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A must for all Beethoven fans, 22 Jul 2001
By sup8rnova@hotmail.com (London, England) - See all my reviews
As the name of the book suggests, this is a tale of a very special lock of hair, a lock that was cut from the great composer, Ludwig Van Beethoven in his deathbed. The book reveals an adventurous journey on a pilgrimage lasting 174 years since the composer's death.

The quest begins with a lock of hair attested by its owner as Beethoven's hair. It was put on sale by the auction house Sotheby's in London and almost by conciliation, it was purchased by a real estate developer named Ira Brilliant along with his friend, Dr Alfredo Che Guevara, an Urologist. Both devoted fans of the immortal composer, Ira Brilliant had also established the American Beethoven Society in San Jose University, collecting the music and items belonging to Beethoven. After acquiring the hair, it was decided that some of it would be tested through modern forensics. This was going to give the world an insight into the life and health of the composer. It will also settle the divided opinions on matters relating to the composer's hearing loss and his constant abdominal pain, which eventually robbed his life.

Being a great fan of Beethoven's music, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and was fascinated by the numerous new insights on the composer's life and death. However, the most captivating was to learn how Beethoven had transformed the paths of so many people. Beginning with the love of his music, a twist of fate would bring their lives together and the lock of hair became a treasure to all those who admired him. His music and his controversial life were immortal.

I found the book quite easy to pick up although at times, I felt the author might have been too meticulous with explanations and details that dampen my interest a little. An example would be the chapter, second to last, where crucial test results of the hair were explained and analysed. At times, the attention to detail was very helpful, especially on medical terms and conditions. However, I had to read the chapter twice and really concentrate before I fully grasped all the information.

Overall, I had really enjoyed reading it and I would recommend the book to all readers. A must for all Beethoven fans!

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, it would be so lovely to live a thousand lives, 21 Nov 2002
By taking a rest - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
The quote is from Ludwig Van Beethoven, which was a part of a letter to Franz Wegeler.

Mr. Russell Martin has crafted a beautiful piece of work that is much more complex than it initially appears. The difference between writing a book on a subject this narrowly defined and having it succeed, and producing nothing more than a mind numbing recitation of facts, is extremely fine. In this case the author did a brilliant job. My only wish is that a few photographs were included, as they would have added to the work. This criticism is very minor, and the book is outstanding.

To have written as narrowly on a subject as suggested by the title would have never merited a book. Mr. Russell gently sways the time frame from the current year, and then as far back as Beethoven's years as a child, and the transitions are seamless. He builds the book in layers, Beethoven's life, illnesses, loves, and his introduction to Mozart. He narrates the custom of taking a lock of hair as a memento, in this case Beethoven's, from days after the great man's death, to the most sophisticated forensic examinations currently available. He writes of the men who purchased the relic, the passion that catalyzed their purchase and all that resulted from it.

All of this joyfully fascinates, until the great mystery of the hand off of the relic to a Doctor, who risked his life saving Jews from the Nazis darkly enters the story. And it is here the Author transforms the book from a documentation of a historical curiosity, to an important work, by including the remarkable events in Gilleleje Denmark.

The events that surrounded the relics' travels all illustrate the veneration this man and his music have had, and will continue to have for as long as we have a future. His music was played for the amusement of concentration camp staff, the vermin that were Hitler's creatures. The hideous ironies of the music being played by those that were condemned to die, cause a sane mind pain. Can you imagine a scene where a group that knows death is their only future plays a requiem, a requiem that literally is to be theirs? I cannot.

His most recognizable symphonic opening was used by the allies because of what it translated into, using...but that would be a spoiler.

The quote that begins these comments is probably the greatest irony of all. When you read of how ill this man was, the decades of pain and barely imaginable discomfort, the deafness many know of seems minor by comparison. The contemporary part of this tale puts myths about his death to rest, provides evidence of what may have been responsible for the misery that was his "health", and ponders what his horrendous health had to do with what he wrote.

The premise of the book does not indicate just how much lies within. It is a biography of a man, of musical and human history, and of scientific marvels. It is the examination of why this man's music resonates uniquely to this day.

I cannot think of any reader who would not enjoy this work.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating read, 5 Dec 2006
By William J. Bale "WJB" (South Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Beethoven's Hair (Paperback)
Quite simply this is one of the most intriquing books I have ever read. It follows the story of an investigation into the remarkeable story of how locks of Beethoven's hair, cut from the deceased composer's head, journeyed from one place to another as it changed hands thorughout the early half of the twentieth century. The context of this remarkable story is largely WWII nazi germany in which the lcoks of hair were in the ownership of Jews desperately trying to survive the anti-semitic hitler regime. Ultimately the locks fell into the posession of a doctor, who amongst others aided many jewish people to escape persecution. The mystery that this investigation attempts to solve is how the locks of hair came to be in the doctor's possession and who owned them before him.

This is transpersed with how scientific testing reveals some very intersting insights into why Beethoven was plagued with illness thorughout his lifetime, including his most famous ailment.
In my humble this story is far superior to any fictional Dan Brown novel and is worthy of being made into a film or documentary, though to my knowledge it has not recieved any such adaptation as yet. This is one story so unbelievable that one things that you couldn't make this sort of thing up. But apparently it is a true story. Shame its not as easy to purchase as your average trashy novel.
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