Kiel/London, December 12, 2013. Chronic migraines were the composer Richard Wagner's "main torment" of his life. Researchers at the Kiel Pain Clinic have now been able to demonstrate for the first time that his experience of this suffering is clearly reflected in his most famous works. The study will be published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on December 12, 2013.
“The experience of suffering and pain is addressed and made tangible in Wagner’s works with unparalleled precision throughout music history,” says Prof. Dr. Hartmut Göbel, migraine specialist and head physician of the Kiel Pain Clinic. And this is by no means a coincidence. In a study, Göbel and his co-authors have succeeded in demonstrating that the composer was plagued by severe migraine attacks lasting for days – and his suffering from them flowed into his compositions. “Richard Wagner translated his experience of pain into music, poetry, and staging as a total work of art. Subsequent generations can thus directly experience Richard Wagner’s feelings and perceptions,” says Göbel.
The study demonstrates this, among other things, using the example of the beginning of the first act of Wagner's opera Siegfried: a swelling hum, the intensification to a pulsating, throbbing rhythm with shrill hammering, then the singer's exclamation: "Compulsive torment! Toil without purpose!" For pain researchers, there is no doubt that Wagner here set the onset of a migraine attack to music. From the announcement with a dull throbbing to the pulsing of pain at the peak of the attack: the classic course of a migraine attack can be traced bar by bar in the music. The experts even found passages in which Wagner musically depicted and scenically realized an aura—the neurological accompanying symptoms of a migraine with flickering before the eyes—in a shimmering, flickering melodic line with a zigzag pattern. The experimental flicker frequency in the research laboratory during a migraine aura corresponds to the musical tempo chosen by Wagner.
Cosima Wagner (née Liszt), Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, and Hans von Wolzogen at Villa Wahnfried, Bayreuth, Upper Franconia, Germany. Richard Wagner usually wore a hat even indoors, which was considered standard practice in his time to prevent headaches. Painting by Wilhelm Beckmann, 1881. Source: Richard Wagner Museum, Lucerne.
Richard Wagner's severe headaches are described in detail in his memoirs and letters, as well as in the diary entries of his second wife, Cosima Wagner. The composer himself complained extensively about his "nervous headaches" while working on the composition of the opera Siegfried.
In analyzing Wagner's notes and correspondence, scholars discovered that while his work was indeed inspired by his suffering in many places, migraines often made composing entirely impossible. At times, the pain was so intense that he "couldn't write a single bar." In fact, the composer interrupted his work on the Siegfriedopera and the Ring cycle for more than a decade.
“In Wagner’s time, there was no effective therapy for migraines,” says Hartmut Göbel. “Today, we could treat him effectively.” Presumably, Wagner could then have written significantly more and even more complex works. But the question also remains: “What would they have sounded like?”
In a video accompanying the publication, the researchers use musical examples from Anthony Pilavachi's highly acclaimed 2009 production of the opera Siegfried at the Theater Lübeck to explain how Richard Wagner incorporated migraine into his work
Link to the German-language video about the publication
The original study by authors Carl Göbel, Anna Göbel and Hartmut Göbel will be published on Friday, December 13, 2013, in the prestigious Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal:
Göbel CH, Göbel A, Göbel H: "Compulsive plague! Pain without end!" How Richard Wagner played out his migraine in the opera Siegfried. BMJ 2013;347:6952
Public link to paper: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.f6952
Link to english video abstract: http://youtu.be/Mg1z9RoZR50
Link to BMJ Press Release
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Göbel,
Kiel Pain Clinic, Migraine and Headache Center,
Heikendorfer Weg 9-27, 24149 Kiel, Germany,
Tel.: +49 431-20099150,
Email: hg@schmerzklinik.de,
Web: https://schmerzklinik.de
Great and very commendable.
I was at the pain clinic in February 2012 and have had my migraines under control ever since; I can't thank Prof. Göbel enough for that!