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3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Unvoicing Migraine: A Study of the Failing Voice

Unvoicing Migraine: A Study of the Failing Voice

Paperback

Music Instruction: GeneralPain Management

ISBN10: 1685713300
ISBN13: 9781685713300
Publisher: Punctum Books
Published: Aug 20 2026
Pages: 212
Weight: 0.47
Height: 0.45 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English

These writings spring from an observation: When migraine arises, the voice fails. It does so on many levels, ranging from a vocal-technical disintegration to migraine-specific symptoms like dysarthria and aphasia, up to the muteness forced upon the sufferer by stigmatization. As a migraine-suffering singer, Mariske Broeckmeyer witnesses and experiences these alterations. Frequently, routinely, and almost faithfully, she retreats to the blackened bedroom when migraine manifests. Lying in silence, she notices how little of her vocal instrument remains intact and how distorted our relations become under these circumstances. Migraine mutes-it occupies the body and leaves muscles, lungs, larynx, and tongue under its command. In the attempt to describe these sufferings, Broeckmeyer has indeed stammered and fallen silent, unable to name the pain. But could it be that this failure holds some sort of potential? What might vocal failure reveal about the nature of the voice?

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Music Instruction: General