The New York Times released an article last month that consulted Kent State Professor Emeritus Theodore Albrecht on his study of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Albrecht has been looking into and making a translation of the books owned by Beethoven, which contain written conversations from his later years after he went deaf.

“The last 10 years of his life, he carried around blank books with him, and people could write in their parts, and he answered out loud,” Albrecht said. “There are 139 of these booklets that have survived, and so I’m making a translation of them.”

Through translating his conversations, Albrecht has come to know a lot of Beethoven’s habits, which led to his contributions to the New York Times article.

The article, which focused on myths surrounding Beethoven, analyzed DNA gathered from samples of his hair and delved deeper into the mysteries of his life.

One of the questions looked into why Beethoven likely died from liver disease and the circulating rumor that he suffered from alcoholism.

Albrecht was able to access scattered information regarding Beethoven’s drinking patterns through the translated books.

“I’ve been able to kind of keep track of how much wine Beethoven drank and when he bought wine, and how much,” Albrecht said.

The books did not prove the theories about Beethoven’s drinking but rather showed that he may have consumed alcohol because of its easy accessibility.

“He wasn’t an alcoholic the way we think of somebody being an alcoholic,” Albrecht said. “What we found is, he isn’t drinking any more than anybody else. So much of the water was contaminated. And so, when you’re not sure, the best place to go for pure or unadulterated water is either wine or beer.”

Despite his music existing for nearly three centuries, people today are still widely interested in the life of Beethoven. Albrecht tracks this up to the impact Beethoven’s music has on emotions, including through his Ninth Symphony.

“It’s one of those melodies that’s simple and repeats itself, and people find themselves just singing right along,” he said. “They’ve used it to open and close the Olympics. It’s that well-known and well-loved around the world, and there’s just something about Beethoven’s music that grabs you both in the rhythm and the harmony.”

For Albrecht, the impact Beethoven has on him started early in his youth.

“It goes back to the fifth grade in elementary school,” he said. “That was back when Elvis was on the rise, and I didn’t much like Elvis. I just happened to hear Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and that grabbed me.”

Currently, Albrecht is planning on returning to Vienna during the summer for his annual trip with his wife, while they research singers and orchestral players during Beethoven’s time.

As for the conversation books, Albrecht said they might take him until at least age 100 to finish translating, but in the meantime, he is beginning to write a book inspired by Beethoven’s written dialogues.

“His conversation books record enough of the conversations going into that, that you can actually reconstruct what happened at the first rehearsal and performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in May of 1824,” he said.

Albrecht has found through his research of Beethoven’s daily life that he embodied kindness and generosity to the people that knew him, despite the common portrayal of him as an angry man in the media.

“He really ends up being, even as a person, a hero who’s worth studying and worth getting to know a little better,” he said.

Kayla Gleason is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].