Tag: Schubert
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John Caius, the polymath who described the sweating sickness
Philip LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States Imagine being a physician in a rural community in England in the mid-sixteenth century, always concerned with the reappearance of the Black Death. Late one summer you are faced with a new strange illness. It begins with cold shivers, headaches, and severe diffuse pains leading to exhaustion, and within a…
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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…
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Schubert, Schumann, and the Spirochete
Their names sound Germanic and are somewhat similar, as are their portraits. They wrote beautiful music and rank high among the great composers of the romantic era. To confuse their names would constitute an unforgivable crime, especially in the eye of music lovers. Yet in 1956 fallible East German authorities issued a stamp featuring an…