Music and Illness

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The discussion of LvB Op. 132 got me thinking on this morbid but interesting topic. What pieces have been inspired by illness, and how have the specifics of an illness been reflected in music?

I can think of -

The aforementioned Op. 132 and its Heiliger Dankgesang, expressing gratitude for recovery (though I've forgotten from what specifically);
Schoenberg's String Trio, which depicts his heart attack and convalescence in a hospital;

and some which are a bit more speculative -

Nielsen's 6th Symphony supposedly depicts his heart attack in the climax of the first movement;
Schumann's 2nd Symphony was apparently written as a way to fight a bout of depression (accompanied by general ill health);
Mahler's 9th Symphony opens with a motif said by some to reflect the composer's faltering heartbeat, and ends with life slowly slipping away;
Shostakovich's 13th Quartet, in the opinion of some, reflects the heavily drugged and sedated composer fighting a range of terminal health problems;
and much of Schnittke's late music (like the 8th Symphony), in its bleak stasis and parsimony of notes, reflects his slow decline due to a series of strokes.

Any others?

[DavidRoss]

As usual I must drag Sibelius into the mix:  His 4th Symphony, composed while he was battling cancer of the throat (he won and went on to live another half-century).

[nut-job]

Strauss Tod und Verklarung (Death and Configuration) is an obvious example. 

Sibelius Swan of Tuonela and Valse Triste also have death related themes. Lemminkainen in Tuonela less directly so.

I remember reading the linear notes of a Petterson symphony that said it was a depiction of kidney disease.  Matched perfectly with the impression it made on me. 

Probably you can include almost anything by Rachmaninoff.

[alkan]

Shostakovich's 15th symphony.    The end of it really is THE END ..... death. 

I seem to remember that one of Smetana's string quartets was based on his approaching hearing disorder ... not actually deafness, but high pitched sounds.

[CRCulver]

I can think of Pärt's Variations for the Healing of Arinushka. Schumann's late works are supposedly the product of a deranged mind.

[orbital]

I seem to remember that one of Smetana's string quartets was based on his approaching hearing disorder ... not actually deafness, but high pitched sounds.

The first one in e minor, also called "from my life". It is a beautiful piece, and there is a high pitch sustained note in e for the violin in the last movement which mimics his oncoming deafness.

[sul G]

Suk's deeply moving piano cycle About Mother, written following the illness and death of his wife - an event more famously and monumentally memorialised in the Asrael Symphony but more initimately recalled here - includes a movement which depicts her failing heart (in a similar way to the same image in Strauss's Tod und Verklarung) and last breaths. It's really an unbearably poignant piece, this individual movement and the cycle as a whole.

[Frumaster]

Beethoven's 2nd Symphony

[alkan]

The first one in e minor, also called "from my life". It is a beautiful piece, and there is a high pitch sustained note in e for the violin in the last movement which mimics his oncoming deafness.

Yes, that's the one I was thinking of ... thanks

[flyingdutchman]

Schumann's 2nd was used to represent his continuing depression and the tinnitus that was afflicting him.  I have read that tinnitus was just one thing that contributed to his mental illness.

[snyprrr]

the pettersson is No.10...maybe 11 also...where it is said that he wrote parts on medical compresses!

Schnittke Piano Qnt...for his dead mum

adultery?- Schoenberg qrt No.2=Zemlinsky qrt No.2

does anyone have a list of Stravinsky memorials?  There's a cd on MDG...plus Milhaud's qrt "Hommage a I.S.".  But that's another thread...

Mental illness seems hard to qualify in 20th century artists, though...am I right? If you think about it, most post 50s music "sounds" like crazy people (to a "normal", unbiased person (if there is one)).

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

adultery?-

I was referring to physical illness, not moral 

[Jay F]

Schumann's 2nd was used to represent his continuing depression and the tinnitus that was afflicting him.  I have read that tinnitus was just one thing that contributed to his mental illness.

I have tinnitus and depression, plus chemical sensitivities, all of which combine to make me feel mentally ill at times. I should listen to this again. Mostly I listen to Schumann's chamber music.

[Kullervo]

Some of Chopin's preludes seem to be written by someone in a feverish delirium (esp. No. 2 with its weird dissonances).

[Solitary Wanderer]

I would thing Schuberts late piano sonatas, string quartets and song cycle Winterriese all qualify as he was very sick for years - especially in the last couple of years.

[owlice]

Schnittke Piano Qnt...for his dead mum

Such an exquisitely sad work.

[Joe Barron]

Charles Ives's masterful little song "Like a Sick Eagle" was apparently inspired by his wife's miscarriage and hysterectomy. Another song of Ives's -- - less important, and the title escapes me at the moment --- deals with the loss directly.

Some of the choices listed above deal more with death than illness, and death in classical music is a much, much bigger subject.

[matti]

As usual I must drag Sibelius into the mix:  His 4th Symphony, composed while he was battling cancer of the throat (he won and went on to live another half-century).

It was not a cancer, but a tumor in the larynx:

A quote from Tawaststjerna's biography (my approximate translation):
"In the 1930´s  Sibelius told about his operation: 'Doctor X examined me in detail and found out that it was not a cancer, but a tumor that would be easy to cut off."
Sibelius said that the very old doctor tried thirteen times, unsuccesfully, to remove the tumor. Finally, a young assistant was fetched to the theatre. 'He pushed the instrument deep in my throat [sic! ] and hit the painful spot. A strong pull, a jubilant cry: "Jetzt hab' ich's!" He pulled the instrument out. I had gotten rid of my nuisance. After the operation doctors were for a long time uncertain if the ailment would return and whether it might possibly develop into the illness that I had been initially feared of."

I'm no expert in medical history, but I think there was no cure for cancer in 1908 when he was operated. He started composing the 4th symphony during Christmas 1909, a year and a half after the throat operation. He was still worried about his health, but there were also other matters that made his mood pessimistic - mainly monetary, he did not see a way out of his many debts.