Musical Ear Syndrome - History

History

Musical hallucinations and MES have only become widely recognizable in the last few decades of research, but there are indications throughout history that have described symptoms of musical hallucinations. The Romantic composer Robert Schumann was said to have heard entire symphonies in his head from which he drew as inspiration for his music, but later in his life this phenomenon had diminished to just an A note that played ceaselessly within his head. An alternative explanation is that his symptoms were caused by syphilis or mercury poisoning used for its treatment. The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was also recorded as experiencing music hallucinations after some shrapnel was removed from his skull.

Read more about this topic:  Musical Ear Syndrome

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
    —Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”
    —Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)

    “There are two great unknown forces to-day, electricity and woman, but men can reckon much better on electricity than they can on woman.”
    —Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)