7 Famous Composers Who Suffered From Pain
Chronic pain holding you back? Don't let it. Historians believe these seven composers all dealt with pain -- sometimes debilitating pain -- throughout their lives, but they still produced some of the most famous classical compositions of all time. From Beethoven to Chopin, these masters of music rocked out, even while pain wracked their bodies. Check out their stories.
Beethoven: Super-Sensitive Hearing
Historians believe Ludwig van Beethoven may have had a painful sensitivity to sound called hyperacusis. This condition is a double-whammy: It lowers your ability to hear soft sounds and tolerate louder ones. Beethoven was essentially deaf to normal conversation, but anything too loud drove him crazy, according to a study published by the International Musicological Society. The musician also "suffered from chronic ill health: abdominal pains and diarrhea, headaches, recurrent infections, eye and skin problems, and cirrhosis of the liver, which precipitated his death," the study said.
Mozart: Migraine Headaches
The man who brought us Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro also had migraines, according to a study published in Acta Musicologica. Mozart suffered a skull fracture, which researchers think caused the severe headaches he experienced later in life. Since he died at age 35 in 1791, the cause has been hotly debated. One of the most prominent theories is that he had Henoch-Schoenlein Purpura, a disease that causes gastrointestinal and joint pain.
Delius: Aches and Pains
Though he was relatively healthy for most of his life, Frederick Delius suffered from syphilis — a sexually transmitted disease that was common in the 1800s and caused him significant pain, according to a study published in Acta Musicologica. Delius, who is best known for the compositions Over the Hills and Far Away, A Village Romeoand Juliet, and Songs of Sunset, was eventually paralyzed by the disease and went blind, but he continued to compose.
Gershwin: Headaches and Brain Tumor
George Gershwin was the composer behind the jazz-infused classic Rhapsody in Blue, and the famous American opera Porgy and Bess. In 1937, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor that caused "blackouts, painful headaches, and bizarre distortions in the composer's sense of smell," and it eventually killed him, according to a study published in Acta Musicologica. Gershwin posthumously won a Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to American music.
Chopin: Chest Pain
Frederic Chopin, composer of Funeral March and Fantaisie Impromptu, died at just 39 after a lifetime of respiratory illnesses probably caused by tuberculosis, according to a study published in Acta Musicologica. He also may have had cystic fibrosis, which most likely ended his life prematurely. Despite his many ailments, Chopin produced a remarkable body of work in a very short period of time, publishing 20 nocturnes, 25 preludes, 17 waltzes, 15 polonaises, 58 mazurkas and 27 etudes.
Wagner: Migraine Headaches
The German composer Richard Wagner, best known for the four operas known collectively asThe Ring of the Nibelung, may have suffered from excruciating migraines, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. In 1857 the musician wrote, "I was literally not able to write a single bar without being driven away from my work by most tremulous headaches." Migraines were such a part of his life that he may have included them in many of his works. In one of the Ring cycle operas, Siegfried, the main character shouts, "Compulsive plague! Pain without end!" which experts believe is a reference to Wagner's own pain, according to a study published in Acta Musicologica.
- Last Updated: 12/18/13
- Last Updated: 12/18/13