Text Box:  8. Let’s head north to Germany where the megastar…Ludwig van Beethoven was born. He is ranked #3 by Goulding. He, of course, is ultra famous for his Fifth Symphony… the first four notes of which are the most well-known sounds in western society…”Da da, da daaa”. . Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770 and died in 1827 in Vienna at age 56. He began going deaf by the age of thirty, and in order to compensate, would cut the legs off his pianos. Then, by putting his head against the floor, he could feel the vibrations as he pounded on the keys. Needless to say, this did little to endear him to the many landlords he was forced to have…but, musically it surely worked for him…for arguably, his greatest works were written while he was deaf or going deaf. When composing, he often became so engrossed, that he didn’t even bother to sleep, and would pour cold water over his head to stay awake .