Copying Beethoven - Artistic License

Artistic License

The working manuscript of the score is attributed to two copyists, both of whom were male, not a single female as depicted in the film.

The actual copyists neither contributed to nor altered the score, and as shown in the film were berated by Beethoven for any deviation that occurred from the original score.

The movie is set in 1824 during the composition of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Throughout the movie Beethoven is shown to be hard of hearing but quite capable of understanding people who speak loudly. In reality, Beethoven had lost much of his hearing seven years earlier (1817). Beethoven never experienced permanent deafness; his condition fluctuated between total silence and terrible tinnitus. The Ninth Symphony was composed at a time when Beethoven's hearing had deteriorated severely. At this point in his life, most of Beethoven's conversations were facilitated by the use of notebooks. It can be argued, however, that he was also able to read people's lips, evidenced by his insistence that people face him when they spoke to him.

In the film, Beethoven makes an allusion to the Moonlight Sonata. This is an anachronism as the Sonata No. 14 "quasi una fantasia" was not referred to as "Moonlight" until 5 years after his death. The reference to the Appassionata piano sonata in the same scene is similarly anachronistic.