Almost two centuries after his death, Ludwig van Beethoven is still one of the most outstanding figures in our artistic heritage. This brilliant composer continues to arouse keen interest among modern historians, particularly among our Germanic neighbors. Recently, researchers at the very renowned Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have tried again to unravel the threads of his story. And if they didn’t quite achieve their goal, they still stumbled upon an amazing family secret.
Originally, the authors of this work were concerned with the health of those affected. In fact, the author of the legendary Moonlight Sonata notoriously suffered from progressive hearing loss. His illness made him completely deaf from 1818 and forced him to give up playing the piano, which he loved so much.
While his deafness is now well documented, there are still many gray areas about how this condition came about. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute hoped to trace its precise origin directly to its genetic heritage by working on the DNA contained in several strands of hair.
A complex biochemical puzzle
They first had to collect and authenticate several such samples. These are obviously rare, precious and subject to counterfeit historical objects, making the process significantly more difficult. Overall, the researchers identified only five “almost certainly authentic” tufts of hair.
They then had to do genetic sequencing. And again it wasn’t easy. The problem is that the main reservoir of hair DNA is at the roots. However, these deteriorate rapidly over time. And it was therefore impossible to use them in this work.
A lock of hair that belonged to Ludwig van Beethoven. © Kevin Brown via The Conversation
A lock of hair that belonged to Ludwig van Beethoven. © Kevin Brown via The ConversationThe researchers therefore had to find a way to work with it short and degraded DNA fragments that are in the hair itself. To reconstruct Beethoven’s genome, they relied on new highly specialized software tools that attempt to somehow reconstruct this immense molecular puzzle.
Several leads, but no certainty
Due to the complexity of the process, the analysis was not entirely meaningful. No identifiable genetic factor alone could explain the problems the composer suffered. “We have not been able to find a clear cause for Beethoven’s deafness,” summarizes Johannes Krause, researcher at the Max Planck Institute and first author of the study.
On the other hand, by pushing this work further, they still found some very interesting answers. First, they determined that Beethoven suffered from a genetic predisposition to liver disease. Examination of the samples also suggested he had hepatitis B in the months leading up to his death, consistent with his well-documented alcohol addiction.
“Between his genetic predisposition and his widely recognized alcohol consumption, these are plausible explanations for the severe liver disease that led to Beethoven’s death,” the authors say.
The trail of lead poisoning questioned
They also investigated another popular trail. In fact, earlier work claimed to have found traces of lead in other hair samples. This suggests poisoning known as lead poisoning.
At a time when the tremendous toxicity of lead was not yet recognized, it was a fairly common affliction, and this situation can actually lead to complete deafness. The problem is that the hair used in this study… belonged to a woman! They are absolutely not by Beethoven. In summary, this work neither confirms nor invalidates the hypothesis of lead poisoning.
Anthropologists are used to these disappointments; it’s a somewhat thankless discipline, because you often have to do a pharaonic amount of work without guaranteed to achieve a usable result. But at least this time they could console themselves with a discovery as unusual as it was unexpected, well hidden in the genius’ genetic heritage.
A strange fork in the family tree
In fact, as part of the authentication process, the researchers also analyzed DNA samples from five contemporary descendants of Beethoven who have volunteered. All shared markers on the Y chromosome, the marker of male sex passed from father to offspring.
By tracking these markers, they identified the common ancestor of these five people. This is Aert van Beethoven, an ancestor of the composer who lived from 1535 to 1609. The problem is that Ludwig’s hair tufts showed significant differences at the Y chromosome level ! This inconsistency suggests that a Somewhere in the seven generations that separated Aert from Ludwig, someone crept in from outside the line.
© Sangharsh Lohakare – Unsplash
Unfortunately, the researchers could not determine exactly which generation it was. They also have no idea of the connections. They only suggest that the reasons for this change are certainly “social and legal”. So it could be a dark case of an extramarital relationship with the birth of an illegitimate child. But it is impossible to verify it at the moment.
Until the technology advances, the study authors will first publish the results of their sequencing. This will allow other teams to re-contextualize these items should new information emerge.
In the meantime, they will not pursue the famous composer. In his column published on The Conversation, co-author Robert Attenborough explains that successfully extracting information from such an elusive source of DNA will open many doors for his team.
Researchers now want to reuse this technique to answer more questions about the past of important people. They haven’t identified their next target yet. But you should check out their future releases because they could contain fascinating news about another big name in history.