Musical Insanity Music Written unde the Influence of...

Musical Insanity: Music Written Under the Influence of Syphilis While being of the most famous composers studied today, Schubert was not so loved in his time as a composer; in fact his music wasn’t appreciated until long after he had perished. Can there be a reason for this, and is the reason that he was so unloved be the same reasoning for which he wrote his works? Life experiences are an artist’s greatest muse and one can expect that Schubert was no exception to this rule that has powered composers alike for centuries. What could fuel Schubert to become a great composer and did his health have anything to do with the changes in his writing later in life? It is known that Schubert had Syphilis in his later years of life, but did this really affect his style of writing and if it did, why would it? It is observable that the state of mind of a composer is not always evident when examining his work; however, in the cause of Schubert’s perceived madness, it is ev ident that his music was deeply connected with his raw and altered emotional frame of mind. Treponema pallidum bacterium, commonly known as Syphilis, is a disease that has wrought havoc on enumerable individuals and societies throughout the last millennium and some researchers postulate that its origins lie in the periods of prehistory (12 Lobdell, Johns E. 1974). Many modern theories presently exist in the scientific community in regards to the origins of syphilis and whilst a consensus has not been reached,