The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies (1985\u20132016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Project Chair: William Meredith, Beethoven Center<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abstract:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nIn 1994 four members of the American Beethoven Society purchased a lock of hair at an auction at Sotheby\u2019s, London, that was said to have come from Beethoven. When the lock arrived in the United States, a small committee was formed to proceed with the Ferdinand Hiller Lock Authentication Project, because the committee wanted to make strands of the locks available for scientific research to see what could be discovered about the composer\u2019s health. A number of research projects followed, but the DNA in the hair could not be analyzed because the field of extracting \u201cancient DNA\u201d from hair had not yet advanced to the stage where it was possible and genomic sequencing was not yet possible. (Next Generation Sequencing would not become available for at least another ten years.) Part of the Hiller Authentication Project involved the successful search for three fragments of a skull that had been stated as coming from Beethoven in a book published by two Viennese pathologists in 1987.[1] Material from one of these fragments was also tested for genetic material, but the meager results were similarly incomplete and inaccurate. The amazing history of the provenance of the Hiller lock of hair was written by Russell Martin, whose book Beethoven\u2019s Hair<\/em> was published in 2000 by Broadway Books, New York. A documentary film of the same title was produced in 2005 that also contained advanced testing of one of the bone fragments. In 2012 it was discovered, however, that the skull fragments could not have come from Beethoven\u2019s skull for morphological reasons. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/beethovenscholar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/hiller-both-1024x607.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>The Ferdinand Hiller Lock purchased by Dr. Alfredo Guevara, Ira F. Brilliant, Carolyn Crummey, and Dr. Thomas Wendel in 1994. Dr. Guevara kept a portion of the lock for his own collection and future testing, and he and the other three individuals donated the remainder of the lock and the frame to the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
(PHOTO CREDIT: William Meredith; permission to reprint this photo must be obtained from the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jos\u00e9 State University)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because advances in genomic testing had made great strides since the Hiller Project began, in 2014 Tristan Begg approached me as director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies and the Executive Director of the American Beethoven Society to inquire if the Center and Society would allow for samples from its locks supposedly from Beethoven to be studied based on these advances in genomic research. I readily agreed, as we did not want to display locks if they were not authentic. Meanwhile, a longtime ABS board member, Kevin Brown, joined the team and helped acquire three additional locks for analysis. By October 2016 Tristan Begg discovered, as part of his Masters work in Archaeological Sciences, focusing on Paleogenetics, at the University of T\u00fcbingen, that the Hiller Lock was also not from Beethoven, but most likely from a Jewish woman of Ashkenazi heritage. Thus, according to scientific experts, any results obtained from the Hiller Lock and the bone fragments do not relate to Beethoven.<\/strong> The American Beethoven Society continued to support the ongoing project that has resulted in the new release of data on Beethoven\u2019s genome. That report was the result of a collaboration among thirty-two researchers and historians at Cambridge University, the Max Planck Institute, the University of Leuven, the University of Bonn, the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jos\u00e9 State University, FamilyTreeDNA, and the Beethoven-Haus. As of 2022, the American Beethoven Society has contributed $176,000 in grants towards this research.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCollaborators and Contributors<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n- Ira F. Brilliant, SJSU Beethoven Center founder, Phoenix, Arizona<\/li>\n
- Dr. Alfredo Guevara, urologist, Nogales, Arizona<\/li>\n
- Dr. Thomas Wendel, then president of the American Beethoven Society, Campbell, California<\/li>\n
- Caroline Crummey, American Beethoven Society member, San Jos\u00e9, California<\/li>\n
- Russell Martin, author of Beethoven\u2019s Hair <\/em>(published in 2000 by Broadway Books, New York)<\/li>\n
- Paul Kaufmann, businessman, Danville, California<\/li>\n
- Kevin Brown, ABS Executive Board, ABS member since 1999<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Scientists<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nFor hair non-DNA tests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Dr. Werner Baumgartner, head, Psychemedics Corporation, Culver, California (hair radioimmunoassay, 1996)[2]<\/li>\n
- Dr. Walter McCrone, McCrone Research Institute, Chicago (hair scanning electron microscope energy dispersion spectronomy, SEM\/EDS, and scanning ion microscope mass spectrometry, SIMS, 1997)[3]<\/li>\n
- Dr. William Walsh, Health Research Institute, Napierville, Illinois (hair trace-metal analysis, 1996-2000)[4]<\/li>\n
- Ken Kemner, Environmental Research Division, Department of Energy\u2019s Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory (2000) (the Argonne tests are documented in the film Beethoven\u2019s Hair)<\/em><\/li>\n
- Francesco Di Carlo, Experimental Facilities Division, Department of Energy\u2019s Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory (2000)<\/li>\n
- Derrick Mancini, Experimental Facilities Division, Department of Energy\u2019s Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory (2000)<\/li>\n
- Dr. Christian Reiter, Zentrum f\u00fcr Gerichtsmedizin (Department for Forensic Medicine), Medizinische Universit\u00e4t Wien (2007, 2021)[5]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
For genetic testing (these results were only communicated to the owners in brief reports whose contents are contained below):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Dr. Marcia Eisenberg, LabCorp of America, Research Triangle Park (PCR and Sanger Sequencing based analysis of hypervariable regions I and II of the mitochondrial genome, 1999)<\/li>\n
- Dr. Bernd Brinkmann, Director, Institute of Legal Medicine, M\u00fcnster University (bone fragment DNA analysis, 2005), with Dr. Carsten Hohoff, M\u00fcnster University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
For skull fragment lead test:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Dr. Andrew Todd, School of Medicine, Mt. Sinai, New York (2010)[6]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Please note: For more information on some of the scientific tests listed above, please see (1) Russell Martin\u2019s book <\/strong>Beethoven\u2019s Hair, <\/em><\/strong>(2) the movie<\/strong> Beethoven\u2019s Hair <\/em><\/strong>(produced in 2005 by the BBC, CBC, and the Canadian Television and Cable Production Fund License), and (3) information on the web. Martin\u2019s book does not contain an index, so I have provided page numbers in the endnotes on the studies listed above.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFor osteology identification tests (all of these are discussed in an article cited below):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Dr. Timothy White, University of California, Berkeley (osteological examination of fragment, February 17, 2012)<\/li>\n
- Dr. Mark Griffin, Bioanthropology Laboratory, San Francisco State University (June 2012)<\/li>\n
- Dr. Patrick Willey and Dr. Eric Bartelink, Human Identification Laboratory, California State University, Chico (July 2012)<\/li>\n
- Dr. Alison Galloway, Forensic Osteological Investigations Laboratory, University of California, Santa Cruz (August 2012)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Summary:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nAs noted below in the history of the Hiller Authentication Project, the two samples that were studied\u2014the Hiller lock of hair and two of the three Adalbert Seligmann bone fragments\u2014were subsequently proven not to have come from Beethoven. <\/em>The two bone fragments were publicized and misidentified in 1987 by two Viennese doctors at the University of Vienna (Dr. Hans Bankl and Dr. Hans Jesserer) but found to be unauthentic in February 2012 through analysis by Dr. Timothy White, University of California, Berkeley, a finding that was subsequently confirmed by four osteologists in the summer of 2012. (The remaining large fragment, a piece of occipital bone, cannot be ruled out on the basis that it would have been \u201cbisected by the autopsy report,\u201d according to Dr. Galloway, but its appearance suggests that it could have come from the same skull.) The Hiller Lock was found to be unauthentic during the new Beethoven Genome Project in 2016 by Tristan Begg, then earning his masters in Archaeological Science, focusing in Paleogenetics, at the University of T\u00fcbingen. The analysis of the Hiller Lock was part of the larger project\u2019s work on authenticating Beethoven\u2019s genome by testing eight samples purportedly said to have come from Beethoven.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThus, all the evidence obtained from testing strands from the Hiller Lock and the Seligmann fragment, including the finding that Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning, relate not to Beethoven but to other individuals.[7]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is critical to note that all of the research on the Hiller lock and Seligmann bone fragments was done in good faith before the lock of hair and bone fragments were discovered to be from someone other than Beethoven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
History:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nIn December 1994 Sotheby\u2019s, London, held an auction with the sale of a lock of hair that was claimed to be from Beethoven. It had first been offered to the Christie\u2019s auction house office in Copenhagen in the late 1970s, but the owner (Marta Fremming) was told that, even if the lock was authentic, the value would be \u201cquite small.\u201d The lock was in a small oval black frame and contained an attestation underneath glass on the back that (1) it had been cut from Beethoven\u2019s head the day after his death by Ferdinand Hiller (1811\u20131885), who was visiting Beethoven with his teacher Hummel, and (2) that it was subsequently given to Paul Hiller, Ferdinand\u2019s son, on May 1, 1883, for his thirtieth birthday. In April 1994 a second attempt to sell the lock was made at the Sotheby\u2019s office in Copenhagen, which passed on the information to the London office. Stephen Roe, then head of the Books and Manuscripts Department, believed the lock was authentic because its wooden frame was consistent with early 19th-century German frames and the fact that it was well documented that Hiller had made several visits to Beethoven when he was on his deathbed and afterwards. He offered to include it in the December auction of \u201cMusic and Continental Books.\u201d The hair became lot 33 in the December 1 auction, where it was purchased by antiquarian dealer Richard Macnutt for 3,600 pounds ($5,640, not including fees), somewhat above the estimate of 2,000-3,000 pounds, on behalf of four members of the American Beethoven Society.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/beethovenscholar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/hiller-both.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>(PHOTO CREDIT: William Meredith; permission to reprint this photo must be obtained from the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jos\u00e9 State University)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because advances in genomic testing had made great strides since the Hiller Project began, in 2014 Tristan Begg approached me as director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies and the Executive Director of the American Beethoven Society to inquire if the Center and Society would allow for samples from its locks supposedly from Beethoven to be studied based on these advances in genomic research. I readily agreed, as we did not want to display locks if they were not authentic. Meanwhile, a longtime ABS board member, Kevin Brown, joined the team and helped acquire three additional locks for analysis. By October 2016 Tristan Begg discovered, as part of his Masters work in Archaeological Sciences, focusing on Paleogenetics, at the University of T\u00fcbingen, that the Hiller Lock was also not from Beethoven, but most likely from a Jewish woman of Ashkenazi heritage. Thus, according to scientific experts, any results obtained from the Hiller Lock and the bone fragments do not relate to Beethoven.<\/strong> The American Beethoven Society continued to support the ongoing project that has resulted in the new release of data on Beethoven\u2019s genome. That report was the result of a collaboration among thirty-two researchers and historians at Cambridge University, the Max Planck Institute, the University of Leuven, the University of Bonn, the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jos\u00e9 State University, FamilyTreeDNA, and the Beethoven-Haus. As of 2022, the American Beethoven Society has contributed $176,000 in grants towards this research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For hair non-DNA tests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For genetic testing (these results were only communicated to the owners in brief reports whose contents are contained below):<\/p>\n\n\n\n For skull fragment lead test:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please note: For more information on some of the scientific tests listed above, please see (1) Russell Martin\u2019s book <\/strong>Beethoven\u2019s Hair, <\/em><\/strong>(2) the movie<\/strong> Beethoven\u2019s Hair <\/em><\/strong>(produced in 2005 by the BBC, CBC, and the Canadian Television and Cable Production Fund License), and (3) information on the web. Martin\u2019s book does not contain an index, so I have provided page numbers in the endnotes on the studies listed above.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For osteology identification tests (all of these are discussed in an article cited below):<\/p>\n\n\n\n As noted below in the history of the Hiller Authentication Project, the two samples that were studied\u2014the Hiller lock of hair and two of the three Adalbert Seligmann bone fragments\u2014were subsequently proven not to have come from Beethoven. <\/em>The two bone fragments were publicized and misidentified in 1987 by two Viennese doctors at the University of Vienna (Dr. Hans Bankl and Dr. Hans Jesserer) but found to be unauthentic in February 2012 through analysis by Dr. Timothy White, University of California, Berkeley, a finding that was subsequently confirmed by four osteologists in the summer of 2012. (The remaining large fragment, a piece of occipital bone, cannot be ruled out on the basis that it would have been \u201cbisected by the autopsy report,\u201d according to Dr. Galloway, but its appearance suggests that it could have come from the same skull.) The Hiller Lock was found to be unauthentic during the new Beethoven Genome Project in 2016 by Tristan Begg, then earning his masters in Archaeological Science, focusing in Paleogenetics, at the University of T\u00fcbingen. The analysis of the Hiller Lock was part of the larger project\u2019s work on authenticating Beethoven\u2019s genome by testing eight samples purportedly said to have come from Beethoven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, all the evidence obtained from testing strands from the Hiller Lock and the Seligmann fragment, including the finding that Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning, relate not to Beethoven but to other individuals.[7]<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is critical to note that all of the research on the Hiller lock and Seligmann bone fragments was done in good faith before the lock of hair and bone fragments were discovered to be from someone other than Beethoven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In December 1994 Sotheby\u2019s, London, held an auction with the sale of a lock of hair that was claimed to be from Beethoven. It had first been offered to the Christie\u2019s auction house office in Copenhagen in the late 1970s, but the owner (Marta Fremming) was told that, even if the lock was authentic, the value would be \u201cquite small.\u201d The lock was in a small oval black frame and contained an attestation underneath glass on the back that (1) it had been cut from Beethoven\u2019s head the day after his death by Ferdinand Hiller (1811\u20131885), who was visiting Beethoven with his teacher Hummel, and (2) that it was subsequently given to Paul Hiller, Ferdinand\u2019s son, on May 1, 1883, for his thirtieth birthday. In April 1994 a second attempt to sell the lock was made at the Sotheby\u2019s office in Copenhagen, which passed on the information to the London office. Stephen Roe, then head of the Books and Manuscripts Department, believed the lock was authentic because its wooden frame was consistent with early 19th-century German frames and the fact that it was well documented that Hiller had made several visits to Beethoven when he was on his deathbed and afterwards. He offered to include it in the December auction of \u201cMusic and Continental Books.\u201d The hair became lot 33 in the December 1 auction, where it was purchased by antiquarian dealer Richard Macnutt for 3,600 pounds ($5,640, not including fees), somewhat above the estimate of 2,000-3,000 pounds, on behalf of four members of the American Beethoven Society.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nCollaborators and Contributors<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Scientists<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Summary:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
History:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n