DId Beethovens deafness contribute to his ability to create more harmonically complex pieces?
In some ways, Beethoven’s deafness impeded his ability. In his later works, there is a marked revisitation of counterpoint and other principles that he learnt earlier in his career. Having said that his deafness may have forced him to extend those principles and increased harmonic complexity may have been the result. It is always difficult for us mere mortals to truly understand the mind of the genius.
