Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Mozart in Person: His Character and Health

Mozart in Person: His Character and Health

Davies, Peter

Hardcover

Series: Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance, Book 14

Biographies GeneralClassical Music

ISBN10: 031326340X
ISBN13: 9780313263408
Publisher: Praeger
Published: Jun 10 1989
Pages: 299
Weight: 1.27
Height: 0.91 Width: 6.34 Depth: 9.54
Language: English

The real key to this distinctive book lies in its subtitle. The book's core is an astonishingly detailed medical history of Mozart, spanning his entire life, compiled with great ingenuity and skill from varied and sometimes surprising sources. Davies, a British physician specializing in internal medicine, has already established his credentials with a series of substantial journal articles concerning Mozart's final illness and death. Here he expands and consolidates his research, offering a presumably definitive account of the intricate cluster of ailments and disabilities, some stretching back over many years, that eventually contributed to Mozart's early death. After reading Davies, one wonders not at Mozart's early end but, rather, how he survived for so long. . . . Davies advances unexpected medical causes for some Mozartean peculiarities of behavior, and surely these ideas will provoke much interest among Mozart scholars. For college or university libraries that already have the basic' Mozart items, here is a unique and most rewarding addition. Choice

There have been many studies of Mozart, but few offer as rich an understanding of the composer's character as this book. Mozart in Person appraises the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of Mozart's health and its effect on his creativity. As Erna Schwerin says in the introduction, Mozart emerges as a human being, realistically perceived with twentieth-century sensibility, yet retrospectively in the light of eighteenth-century mores. This is the first volume to describe all of Mozart's known illnesses and to present a detailed discussion of the controversial cause of his premature death, with a convincing refutation of the alleged poisoning theories. Davies defines Mozart's enigmatic, complex personality, and presents fascinating insights into Mozart's relationships with his pastimes and stresses. The health of Mozart's family, especially the personality, illnesses, and death of his father are discussed. The author explores many of the myths surrounding this great and often misunderstood composer and clarifies our understanding of Mozart's flaws and shortcomings through authentic documentation, thereby eliminating some of the distortions created in recent popular plays and films. There is a detailed review of Mozartian economics, including the composer's debts, extravagance, and gambling proclivities. Yet another highlight of the book is an up-to-date account of exciting recent research on Mozart's skull and the bronze death mask.

The first book in English devoted entirely to Mozart's physical and mental health, Mozart in Person contains a comprehensive bibliography of books and articles from musical and medical literatures. The state of medical knowledge in eighteenth-century Europe and glossary of medical terms are presented. Although suitable for nonspecialist research, this volume will also have wide academic appeal in the study of medicine, psychology, and music, and will be a welcome addition to all general libraries.

Also from

Davies, Peter

View All

Also in

Biographies General

View All