Journal
ARCHIV FUR MUSIKWISSENSCHAFT
Volume 78, Issue 3, Pages 201-212Publisher
FRANZ STEINER VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.25162/afmw-2021-0011
Keywords
hearing; hearing loss; pathography; syphilis; tinnitus
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By the beginning of his fourth decade, Robert Schumann suffered from hearing disorders and vertigo, which were previously regarded independently and possibly linked to a psychological/functional disorder, as well as syphilis. This essay examines the medical plausibility and musicological significance of a presumed otosyphilis in Schumann, drawing on diary entries, letters, and contemporary accounts.
By the beginning of his fourth decade, if not before, Robert Schumann suffered from hearing disorders and vertigo. In Schumann's pathography, the associated symptoms have usually been regarded independently and are thought to have been caused by a psychological/functional disorder; in view of a suspected syphilis in Schumann, vertigo attacks and hearing disorders can also be explained by a syphilitic affection of the inner ear (otosyphilis). Within the framework of this hypothesis, the symptoms of an inner ear disorder can not only be attributed to a hitherto rarely considered joint cause, but, beyond that, to a primarily somatic disease. This essay examines the medical plausibility and musicological significance of a presumed otosyphilis in Schumann, drawing on diary entries, letters, and contemporary accounts.
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