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Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved
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About Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical
Product Description The basis for the movie of the same name, an astonishing tale of one lock of hair and its amazing travels--from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century America. When Ludwig van Beethoven lay dying in 1827, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects to the great composer, snipping a lock of Beethoven's hair as a keepsake--as was custom at the time--in the process. For a century, the lock of hair was a treasured Hiller family relic, until it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to help save hundreds of hunted and frightened Jews. After Fremming's death, his daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually consigned it for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others instituted a series of complex forensic tests in the hope of finding the probable causes of the composer's chronically bad health, his deafness, and the final demise that Ferdinand Hiller had witnessed all those years ago. The results, revealed for the first time here, are the most compelling explanation yet offered for why one of the foremost musicians the world has ever known was forced to spend much of his life in silence. In Beethoven's Hair, Russell Martin has created a rich historical treasure hunt, a tale of false leads, amazing breakthroughs, and incredible revelations. This unique and fascinating book is a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of the Resistance movement, and the brilliance of molecular science. Review "A terrific story—odd, suspenseful, controversial and ultimately revealing." —Denver Post"Russell Martin's brilliant tale about a long-treasured and peripatetic lock of Beethoven's hair paints a compelling portrait of the immortal composer's life, the high drama of Nazi persecution during World War II, and the mysterious world of contemporary forensic science, which is filled with subtle miracles." —Todd Siler, author of Think Like a Genius"An engrossing tale . . . When, toward the end of the book, the author writes of DNA tests on the hair that reveal new answers to the causes of Beethoven's deafness and death, even the skeptic will share his enthusiasm for this peculiar subject. First-class history, and a fascinating exposition of forensic science." —Kirkus Reviews"A wonderful contemplation of how relics can become bridges between people separated by time, culture and death . . . an inspiring look at passion in several forms." —Cleveland Plain Dealer About the Author Russell Martin is the author of several works of nonfiction, including the highly acclaimed Out of Silence, and a novel. He lives in Colorado. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Boy Who Snipped the Lock It was not until 1871 that Kapellmeister Ferdinand Hiller, the corpulent dean of music in the Rhine-side city of Cologne, first described for fascinated German readers what it had been like to meet Ludwig van Beethoven and what, in fact, the circumstances of the master composer's final days had been. "I can scarcely blame myself, much as I regret it, for not taking down more extended notes than I did," sixty-year-old Hiller wrote. "Indeed, I rejoice that a lad of fifteen years who found himself in a great city for the first time was self-possessed enough to regard any details. [But] I can vouch with the best conscience for the perfect accuracy of all that I am able to repeat." Ferdinand Hiller had made the snow-slowed journey from Weimar to musical, magical Vienna with his piano and composition instructor, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, in the early spring of 1827 because Hummel had heard the now far-flung news that his old friend and musical rival was dying. He had wanted to see and embrace Beethoven ag
