Beethoven's Trumpet (With Ear) Opus #131, 2007

John Baldessari
United States, 1931–2020
Beethoven's Trumpet (With Ear) Opus #131, 200
Aluminum, electronics, resin, fiberglass, and bronze, 3/6
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Margo Leavin
M.2015.274a–b

 

After encountering Beethoven’s ear trumpet in a museum in Bonn, the composer’s hometown, Baldessari made an aggrandized replica of the hearing device. When a viewer (a listener?) speaks into the trumpet, the voice triggers short musical phrases from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14, op. 131, which was written when the composer was completely deaf