Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), the famous composer, suffered throughout his adult life from bipolar disorder.  He also had impaired hearing and knew that it was incurable and sure to worsen.

Around age 28 he started to become deaf, a calamity which led him for some time to contemplate suicide.  He never married although he was attracted to unattainable (married or aristocratic) women, whom he idealized.  He quarreled, often bitterly, with his relatives and others, and frequently behaved badly.   He moved often from dwelling to dwelling, and had strange personal habits such as wearing filthy clothing while washing compulsively. He often had financial troubles.

In early December 1826, Beethoven returned to Vienna and the journey had brought the composer down with pneumonia. He recovered, but only to be laid low again with cirrhosis of the liver. His condition had deteriorated dramatically. By the beginning of March 1827, and, sensing the worst, his friends rallied round his bed.

 Beethoven's final moments, if a report by Schubert's friend, Huttenbrenner, is to be believed, were dramatic in the extreme. As a storm raged at 5:45 p.m. March 26, 1827,  Beethoven's room was suddenly filled with light and shaken with thunder:  

"Beethoven's eyes opened and he lifted his right fist for several seconds, a serious, threatening expression on his face. When his head fell back, he half closed his eyes.” Not another word, not another heartbeat.”