# Were there any disabled composers? physical or otherwise?



## Yombie (Jun 16, 2016)

I'm very curious about this, I know Beethoven became deaf at the end of his life, but is there anyone else out there who had physical disabilities or perhaps others with psychological/neurological disabilities?

I severed tendons in my left hand a while ago on a guitar and cannot use all my fingers to play with. I suppose I'm asking to find a composer to relate to in order to give me something to aspire to.

Thanks


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Louis Vierne and Joaquin Rodrigo were blind.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Delius was paralyzed and blind in his last years, but still turned out some great works (A Song of Summer, Songs of Farewell).


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Not many people know this, but Mussorgsky's teeth were made of pasta.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Both Bach and Handel went blind after eye surgeries performed by, I seem to remember, the same doctor.

Smetana was profoundly deaf (more so than Beethoven) when he wrote his works most popular today.


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## Yombie (Jun 16, 2016)

Thanks folks for the replies, kinda strange to have teeth made of pasta.... I wonder if he had to swap em out at all


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Schumann had a disability on his right hand since his twenties so he had to stop playing piano.

Scriabin injured his right hand while practicing and was told he would never use it again but recovered.

Fauré had severe hearing problems towards the end of his life.

Antonio de Cabezón was blind from childhood.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Antonio Smareglia was blind for the last 29 years of his life.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Francesco Landini was blind from childhood due to smallpox.

Adam de la Halle was known as "le Bossu" but was not, in fact, a hunchback.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Yombie said:


> Thanks folks for the replies, kinda strange to have teeth made of pasta.... I wonder if he had to swap em out at all


They were surprisingly resilient, but he would renew them periodically... usually after hot drinks.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Mercadante was also blind.
Donizetti went mad.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> Not many people know this, but Mussorgsky's teeth were made of pasta.


Wasn't Mussorgsky also an alcoholic? Which while not a disability, certainly could be disabling.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Schumann battled mental illness from the age of 23 until his death at 46.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

In his later years Wagner required silk underwear and rose-scented incense to compose. Is there a name for that?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

This thread is about composers with disabilities. Because of the sensitive subject matter, tasteless jokes and comments about other posters are not acceptable.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Classical Composers and Their Maladies

http://www.allmusic.com/blog/post/classical-composers-and-their-maladies


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Post I was responding to has been deleted.


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## Yombie (Jun 16, 2016)

Seems like I missed out on some action 
Thanks folks for the help, gonna give a listen to some of these artists from here on out.

I have nine working fingers, my left index is messed up so I haven't been able to enjoy guitar at all.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> Mercadante was also blind.
> Donizetti went mad.


That's why the " Mad scene"


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> Donizetti went mad.


He had syphilis like Schumann who also went mad.


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## Yombie (Jun 16, 2016)

Sloe said:


> He had syphilis like Schumann who also went mad.


so, he was like van gogh... van gogh expressed syphilis visually through those spirals he always painted. (i often wonder if he saw them straight).

How did schumaan and donizetti express syphilis through music? any recommended listening?


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Sloe said:


> He had syphilis like Schumann who also went mad.


Syphilis was a 'thing' back then. You weren't somebody unless you had the syphilis! Yes Suh!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Yombie said:


> Seems like I missed out on some action
> Thanks folks for the help, gonna give a listen to some of these artists from here on out.
> 
> I have nine working fingers, my left index is messed up so I haven't been able to enjoy guitar at all.


Don't forget Django Reinhardt, to quote wiki:



> Reinhardt is regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time; he was the first important European jazz musician who made major contributions to the development of the guitar genre. After his third and fourth fingers were paralyzed when he suffered burns in a fire, Reinhardt used only the index and middle finger of his left hand on his solos.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Florestan said:


> Wasn't Mussorgsky also an alcoholic? Which while not a disability, certainly could be disabling.


Mussorgsky did indeed suffer from alcoholism, of a particularly extreme form.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Yombie said:


> How did schumaan and donizetti express syphilis through music? any recommended listening?


I don't know if Schumann expressed the disease specifically, but his Violin Concerto was suppressed for many years as supposedly being a product of his madness.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Syphilis is only speculated to be the cause of Schumann's mental deterioration. There are other possible causes put forward.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Darius Milhaud spent a fair part of his adulthood in a wheelchair but it didn't seem to impede either his creativity or his zest for life - he lived to the age of 81.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Does anyone think that any composers were actually more inspired because of their disability? That's to say, their disability gave them insights and visions which manifested itself in their art. 

Did any composers actually explore their disabilities in music? Maybe explore deafness or blindness or disabling psychological conditions.


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## John T (May 5, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> In his later years Wagner required silk underwear and rose-scented incense to compose. Is there a name for that?


"Yes, packing; our King sent Herr Loud and Silky Wagner packing".

(Tony Palmer's film _Wagner_)


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Woodduck, Wagner suffered for much of his life from shingles, so he had to wear very soft silken underwear . Regular underwear would have been extremely uncomfortable .
Smetana went deaf later in life , apparently because of syphilis and also suffered from dementia and deafness .


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

superhorn said:


> Woodduck, Wagner suffered for much of his life from shingles.


I thought it was erysipelas? Perhaps it was that and shingles? Anyway, you're quite correct in pointing out that Wagner's skin condition may well have affected his superficially kinky choice of garments.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Mandryka said:


> Did any composers actually explore their disabilities in music?


Smetana. There's a poignant passage halfway through the 4th movement of his 1st String Quartet, where the first violin plays an agonising, high-pitched "E", depicting the sudden onset of tinnitus which preceded his deafness. This high "E" is followed by dramatic chords and a recitative-like passage which is slightly reminiscent of "O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!" ("O friends, no more these sounds!") from Beethoven's 9th symphony. Unless I'm reading too much into it, that's another pair of subtle references to Smetana's condition.


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

According to contemporary sources, William Billings - one of the earliest American composers - had a short leg, one eye, and a withered arm.

The 15th century German organist Conrad Paumann was born blind. Not only he was among the very best keyboard players of his time, but he also managed to secretly flee from his native city (where the city authorities weren't very keen on his desire to learn and develop his art) to seek employment elsewhere, and succeeded.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

superhorn said:


> Woodduck, Wagner suffered for much of his life from shingles, so he had to wear very soft silken underwear . Regular underwear would have been extremely uncomfortable .
> Smetana went deaf later in life , apparently because of syphilis and also suffered from dementia and deafness .


I know he had sensitive skin and needed smooth and delicate garments against it to be comfortable. That doesn't explain the silk that he hung all over the walls and ceiling and his reported pleasure in stroking it. He was unquestionably a sensualist, and his faculties were stimulated by touch and scent. I guess that's only a disability if you can't get the fabrics you love. (The press of the time, by the way, was cruel when it discovered his love of silk garments. Anything "scandalous" about him was good copy.)


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

Leonard Bernstein asserted that a recurring rhythm in the first movement of Mahler 9 was a depiction of Mahler's irregular heartbeat.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Mandryka said:


> Does anyone think that any composers were actually more inspired because of their disability? That's to say, their disability gave them insights and visions which manifested itself in their art.
> 
> Did any composers actually explore their disabilities in music? Maybe explore deafness or blindness or disabling psychological conditions.


Probably not what you're asking, but the left hand piano concerto made by Ravel was inspired by a disability.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Smetana also went blind at the end of his life.

Schumann was bi-polar, which can get worse over time and deteriorate the mind. Perhaps that was responsible?

Rimsky-Korsakov had an enigmatic case of anxiety, angina, and even "neurasthemia" for a time. The latter supposedly was cured after Tchaikovsky's death, becoming more prolific as a composer than any other time in his life... yes, a truly enigmatic, incredible case, one of music history's strangest accounts...

People who died of tuberculosis (consumption) also would lose their minds in the last stages. "Tuberculosis of the brain," not just the lungs. Arensky supposedly died in this tragic condition. 

I also consider alcohol addiction (as well as other addictions) as a kind of disability. Especially back then when people didn't really treat such things as problems but more as unfortunate weaknesses that nothing could be done about.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

R3PL4Y said:


> Leonard Bernstein asserted that a recurring rhythm in the first movement of Mahler 9 was a depiction of Mahler's irregular heartbeat.


Fascinating! I had read that Mahler suffered from arrhythmia and would often stop and feel his pulse. This is especially interesting to me because I get irregular heartbeats quite a bit.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

R3PL4Y said:


> Leonard Bernstein asserted that a recurring rhythm in the first movement of Mahler 9 was a depiction of Mahler's irregular heartbeat.


Bernstein's documentary "Four Ways to Say Farewell" explains this theory:




Explanation starts at 3:25


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Schumann was bi-polar, which can get worse over time and deteriorate the mind. Perhaps that was responsible?


I prefer to believe he went mad because he was in the last stages of syphilis. It is more spectacular.


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