MD Joseph W. Lewis Jr. - What Killed the Great and Not So Great Composers?

What Killed the Great and Not So Great Composers?

Joseph W. Lewis, Jr., M.D.

Illustrations by Marie B. Lewis, M.A.

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2010 Joseph W. Lewis, Jr., M.D.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 5/14/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4490-7584-2 (sc)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

For Dorothy and Harry

Contents

Illustrations

Chapter 2. George Frideric Handel

Chapter 3. Johann Sebastian Bach

Chapter 4. Joseph Haydn

Chapter 5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Mozart ear

Chapter 6. Ludwig van Beethoven

Chapter 7. Niccol Paganini; Paganinis left hand finger span

Chapter 8. Carl Maria von Weber

Chapter 9. Gioachino Rossini

Chapter 10. Franz Schubert

Chapter 11. Hector Berlioz

Chapter 12. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Berry aneurysm

Chapter 13. Fryderyk Chopin

Chapter 14. Robert Schumann

Chapter 15. Franz Liszt

Chapter 16. Richard Wagner

Chapter 17. Johannes Brahms

Chapter 18. Georges Bizet

Chapter 19. Modest Mussorgsky

Chapter 20. Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Chapter 21. Gustav Mahler

Chapter 22. Sergei Rachmaninoff

Chapter 23. Maurice Ravel

Chapter 24. Igor Stravinsky

Chapter 25. George Gershwin

Chapter 26. Dmitri Shostakovich

Chapter 27. Benjamin Britten

Acknowledgements

During the years spent researching and assembling material for this book, I have received help and encouragement from many people in the musical and medical communities. I would like to thank Marian Horowitz for her excellent editorial counseling and Christopher S. Coffey, PhD for his invaluable statistical help. I also wish to thank Sidney Beck, M.D., Jeffrey Chace, Les Fillmer, Joseph Forbes, Nicole Groux, P.A.C., MPAS, Myron Kopin, M.D., Gale Kramer, Ph.D., Amelia Lewis, Joseph W. Lewis, III, Fadi Matta, M.D., Robert Bruce McClelland, Lawrence Mitchell, M.D., Jennifer Richardson, William Sanders, M.D., Michael Simoff, M.D., Paul Stein, M.D., Marilynn Sultana-Gallick M.D. and Charles Wood who helped bring this book to fruition. A special vote of thanks goes to Ralph Stillwell and Marie Lewis, without whose support this endeavor would not have been completed.

Introduction

What killed Mozart? What caused Beethovens deafness? Did Schubert die of advanced syphilis? Was Gershwins brain tumor malignant? These and similar questions have been raised about various illnesses suffered by some of the great classical musicians, but surprisingly, many remain unanswered. Why should this be such a continuing problem?

Recollections of past events, unless carefully documented and verified, often have a tendency to blur, fade and even disappear with time. To put together the medical histories of composers who lived hundreds of years ago, one must contend with missing or destroyed factual material, statements no longer verifiable and the general ignorance of medical matters prevalent in earlier times. Retrospectively constructing a medical history is akin to piecing together a complicated jigsaw puzzle. If all pieces are present, a bit of skill and patience eventually allows assembly of individual parts into a recognizable picture of a composers ailments. However, lost or distorted factual material and the difficulty of sorting out historical details can lead to a skewed or erroneous view of a subjects medical story. When sifting through the maze of available historical material, the old admonition caveat emptor should be invoked but modified to convey a slightly different warning: let the reader (and writer) beware of unsubstantiated facts.

While primitive recordings of medical matters can be traced back to cave graffiti from the Upper Paleolithic Period (between 40,000 to 10,000 years ago), systematic patient-oriented medical records were not widely accepted or used until the 20th century. Many illnesses experienced before this time were treated at home, where little or no permanent documentation of methods or outcomes survived. Most information about ailments of composers who lived centuries ago has been pieced together from available letters, memoirs, diaries or other pertinent documents. Prior to the advancement of medical technology in the mid-to-late 19th century, physicians relied primarily on their physical diagnostic ability, a skill frequently limited by inconsistency and error. Autopsies performed in earlier times often were restricted by the expertise of individual prosectors and the technological advancements available to them. Some of these post mortem examinations, because of these shortcomings, generated as much controversy as enlightenment.

Fortunately, a good number of musicians carried on a lively correspondence with relatives and acquaintances, penning in detail their indispositions and injuries. Occasionally, descriptions of illnesses were recorded decades after the fact, raising the possibility that time distorted some of the memories. In a number of instances, details appear to have been significantly altered to either enhance or detract from the perception of a composers stature or to exaggerate the writers association with that person. During the last decade of Ludwig van Beethovens life, questions and comments from friends and colleagues were written in conversation books to facilitate communication with the deaf composer (see Chapter 6). After Beethovens death, his biographer and sometime valet Anton Schindler destroyed a number of these volumes (some say as many as half) and altered others so that a somewhat idealized portrait of his employer might be perceived from the extant copies. Barry Cooper in his Beethoven Compendium writes that ... [Schindlers] propensity for inaccuracy and fabrication was so great that virtually nothing he has recorded can be relied on unless it is supported by other evidence...

To cloud the picture further, descriptions of potential factors responsible for Beethovens terminal illness seemed to vary from individual to individual. The composer died of liver failure complicating cirrhosis, a disease often associated with alcohol abuse. Although many factors contribute to liver injury, the degree of alcohol consumption, if pertinent, also becomes a major issue in the progression of the disease. Karl Holz, one of the composers friends, commented: ... he drank a great deal of wine at table, but could stand a great deal, and in merry company he sometimes became tipsy. In an 1827 conversation book entry, Schindler countered: [Holz] said that you always drink more than a quart of wine at lunch, and other untruths. Dr. Andreas Wawruch (1773-1842), who attended the composer in his last days, stated: ... At no time accustomed to taking medical advice seriously, [Beethoven] began to develop a liking for spirituous beverages, in order to stimulate his decreasing loss of appetite and to aid his stomachic weakness by excessive use of strong punch and iced drinks... The valet apparently removed some of the unflattering entries made by Wawruch during the final stages of the composers illness. Schindler influenced Franz Wegeler, Beethovens boyhood friend from Bonn, to write: By and large Beethoven lived very moderately, and as far as I know, not one of his friends and acquaintances ever saw him intoxicated. Was Beethoven an alcoholic whose destructive habit resulted in cirrhosis, or did he drink in moderation, dying from an otherwise indiscernible injury to the liver? The answer probably never will be known with any certainty. The truth undoubtedly lies somewhere between these two extremes. Similarly disputed or altered details littering other composers medical histories must raise flags of caution when they are used to bolster pet hypotheses about causes of illness and death.