Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist who moved from Bonn to Vienna in 1792 and spent the rest of his life there. His hearing began to fail in his late twenties, and in his final years he was profoundly deaf, conversing with visitors who wrote their side of the exchange in notebooks. He kept composing throughout, producing the Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis, and the late string quartets after his hearing was largely gone.