Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Beethoven

  • How did deafness affect the creativity of Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827)?

    Ting-Hsian (Denis) Chen Newcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom Introduction Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) is one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music despite the onset of hearing loss early in his career.1,2 Beethoven’s works are traditionally categorized into three periods: early, middle, and late. Increasing deafness forced adaptation and eventually propelled Beethoven’s work from…

  • Piano lessons

    James StemmleWest Virginia, United States The piano teacher was angry, irritable, incontinent, and in pain. Dying of cancer, she eventually went home with hospice care. The hospice lady asked, “What would a good day look like?” They rigged things in her home to live at least one good day: a bed on the first floor…

  • Medical and literary coupling

    Stephen FinnSouth Africa (To be read aloud, with gusto and with a strong beat) When you’re so busy in the middle of a ward,Or you’re doing the usual and feeling quite bored,Just think of your fellows who healed the sick,So many doctors, and what’d give them a kick. Denizens of medicine they all certainly were,But…

  • The life and death of Franz Schubert

    Nicolas RoblesBadajoz, Spain Born on 31 January 1797, Franz Peter Schubert was the twelfth of fourteen children, one of only five who survived infancy. His father was an enterprising schoolmaster and amateur cellist. Born in the Himmelpfortgrund suburb of Vienna, Schubert showed uncommon gifts for music from an early age. His father gave him his…

  • Rage against the machine

    Kaitlin KanVillanova, Pennsylvania, United States It was almost as if the neuromodulation clinic was the machine itself. The entire ward was U-shaped, with each arm housing preparation and recovery and the treatment suite nestled in the middle. Each patient was scheduled to the moment; nurses were on a constant cycle of ushering in and wheeling…

  • Ludwig van Beethoven: music and medicine

    Michael YafiChaden YafiHouston, Texas, United States December 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. The causes of the composer’s deafness and his death at the age of fifty-six have remained unknown, even after an autopsy carried out soon after his death. Beethoven was also known to have mood swings, which…

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff: The dichotomy of life and music

    Michael YafiChaden YafiHouston, Texas, United States Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), a Russian composer, was known for having very large hands. With a span that covered twelve white keys on the keyboard (the interval of a thirteenth), he could play a left-hand chord of C, E flat, G, C, and G.1 This has led some medical experts…

  • “Moonlight” and silence

    Anne JacobsonOak Park, Illinois, United States At seventeen, I knew little about the limitations or losses that might cause a person to second-guess a vocation, deeply held belief, or identity. Perhaps those questions about the unknowable future inhabit the soul of a teenager under the guise of general angst and anxiety, or alternatively are tamped…

  • Medicine, musically

    Willem BloisHalifax, Nova Scotia I sat on the piano bench, head down, staring at the space between middle C and the key above it. I could see my teacher out of the corner of my eye, sitting forward in her chair, no longer relaxed nor casually listening to the first movement of a Haydn piano…