Music and Medicine: Haydn Mozart Beethoven Schubert: Notes on Their Lives, Works, and Medical Histories

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Summary: A thought-provoking look at the composers' lives and health.
Review: Anyone with an interest in classical music will find this book fascinating, especially if you've heard stories about Beethoven's deafness, and Schubert's syphilis, stories that have been repeated so often they are taken for fact. Dr. Neumayr read copious letters and notes about the 4 composers, and came to his own conclusions about their medical histories, giving us background as to what medical practices were at the time, and what would have been standard treatments and understandings of health. Even if you're horrified by what you read (Beethoven being punctured to relieve his abdominal swelling due to fluid retention) you'll come away with renewed compassion for not just the composers, but all people who lived and died in the 18-19th centuries. You'll love the music of these masters even more when you find out what their lives were really like!