> I wonder: Is it an exaggeration to say that composers after Beethoven, the vast majority of them hearing, were forever changed by a deaf aesthetic?
I’ve heard it expressed that when a user interface is designed with accessibility needs in mind, it tends to serve all users better.
A contemporary analogue might be: are design choices that were originally made for accessibility reasons becoming broadly popular with users who don’t have those needs? Personally, I think the answer is yes.
Is it because I’ve become familiar with those patterns? Or is it because those patterns appeal to my senses more easily (hence, more accessible) and therefore it’s easy to come to like them?
Were these more accessible compositions more popular because Beethoven was already an esteemed composer, or because they resonated better with audience members, or perhaps some of both?
I struggle a bit with the analogy of Beethoven and accessibility. By his day European music had swung from Bach's contrapuntal intricacies towards lighter playful elegance of Mozart's time. To me, Beethoven represents the start of the long climb towards epic, architectural monumentalism in music - which I could accept someone wants to call "deaf aesthetic", although I think Beethoven's particular condition had little to do with.
His work was epic and monumental at times, though the author mentions some stylistic developments that are more subtle as well.
> If you look at his piano sonatas, in that first one in F Minor, the hands are very close together and the physical choreographies of the left and right hands are not that dissimilar. As he gets older, the activity of the hands become more dissimilar in his piano work, and farther apart.
To me the higher contrast between the hands’ parts is analogous to having higher contrast in a visual design. The details of the work are easier to follow, potentially reaching more listeners.
I’ve heard it expressed that when a user interface is designed with accessibility needs in mind, it tends to serve all users better.
A contemporary analogue might be: are design choices that were originally made for accessibility reasons becoming broadly popular with users who don’t have those needs? Personally, I think the answer is yes.
Is it because I’ve become familiar with those patterns? Or is it because those patterns appeal to my senses more easily (hence, more accessible) and therefore it’s easy to come to like them?
Were these more accessible compositions more popular because Beethoven was already an esteemed composer, or because they resonated better with audience members, or perhaps some of both?