Most people know that Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer, a musical prodigy whose Symphony No. 5 is recognizable the world over from its opening four notes. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he was almost completely deaf for nearly half his life; that his father would often lie about when Beethoven was born to make his talents seem even more astonishing; that he wrote a sonata to be played with building implements and called...