Once a devoted admirer, wife of a Vienna pianist, longed for a lock of the composer’s outrageously unkempt hair, and asked a friend to get her one. At his suggestion, Beethoven, who was a practical joker of boorish capabilities, sent her a tuft from the chin of a goat. The trick was discovered, and the scorned woman vented her fury in a letter; the repentant Beethoven made ample apology to her, and spent his wrath on the head of the suggester of the mischief.
Hughes, Rupert (2004) The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, vol. I. Project Guttenburg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10957. Accessed 24 May 2007.
A lock of Beethoven’s hair
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Never bore your listeners
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