On May 8th, Dr. Richard Kogan gave a combination lecture and recital, “The Mind and Music of Beethoven” as part of “A Heaping Dose of Creativity: Medicine and the Arts.” Arranged by Dr. Audrey Shafer of the Arts, Humanities, and Medicine Program within the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and supported by the Stanford Arts Institute and the Stanford Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, the program attempted to place medicine and the arts in a dialogue that would transcend the customary boundaries between the disciplines.
Kogan aspires to heal by using both medical and musical instruments. A practicing psychiatrist and concert pianist, he has combined his parallel careers in an exploration of the influence of mental illness on the creative processes of famous composers. While at Stanford he explored Beethoven’s biography, speculated on how psychological factors appeared in his music, and then played pieces from Beethoven’s early, middle, and late periods.
“Very central to his story is an illness, specifically deafness, that had a profound impact on his creative process. I want people to think about the connection in music and medicine as I talk about Beethoven,” said Kogan. The three sonatas from opuses 10, 57, and 110 illustrated how momentous events in Beethoven’s life impacted his compositions, and Kogan offered insightful interpretations and listening tips before sitting down at the Steinway grand on Bing’s center stage.
The Psychology of Musical Genius
Opus 10. Beethoven began to lose his hearing in his late twenties. “Deafness is a hardship for anyone,” said Kogan,” but for a musician it is catastrophic.” Pushed almost to the brink of suicide, Beethoven eventually decided that he had a creative destiny to fulfill before his demise. Kogan explained that Sonata No. 6 in F major echoes the intense struggle of his youth, ending in triumph.
Opus 57. The same celebratory exclamations at the end of Sonata No. 6 would come to characterize Beethoven’s middle period. Sonata No. 23 in F minor, called ‘Appassionata,’ had unprecedented technical demands, representing Beethoven’s aggressive personality.
Opus 110. Beethoven’s late period constitutes another radical change. At this point, Beethoven was completely deaf, and his pieces during the last period of his life were an attempt to establish an intimacy and connection with the world. Written after an attack of abdominal pain, the four movements of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A flat major “disclose a lifetime of suffering.” After the third moment, known as the Song of Lament, Beethoven depicts his return to life chord by chord. The piece ends with an ecstatic conclusion.
The Art of Healing
Kogan believes that both his practice and his playing have improved as a result of his cross-disciplinary research. By understanding the minds of composers, he is better able to interpret their music, and he has found that many composers have life stories similar to those of his patients. Music has helped him realize that he wants his patients reach their creative peak and be emotionally expressive. “The whole has been better for me than the sum of its parts,” he said. “Learning about composers’ minds really helped me in terms of interpreting and playing their music, and I found that my work with music ended up helping my work as a physician.”
For Kogan, music should be used in conjunction with medicine in healing. “I think it’s really important for healthcare professionals to not lose sight of the fact that music has unparalleled capacity to ease pain, to soothe anxiety and lift spirits. When all the scientific findings come in, I think there’s potential for the explosion in the use of music in medical centers.”
https://artsinstitute.stanford.edu/m...-to-beethoven/
Kogan aspires to heal by using both medical and musical instruments. A practicing psychiatrist and concert pianist, he has combined his parallel careers in an exploration of the influence of mental illness on the creative processes of famous composers. While at Stanford he explored Beethoven’s biography, speculated on how psychological factors appeared in his music, and then played pieces from Beethoven’s early, middle, and late periods.
“Very central to his story is an illness, specifically deafness, that had a profound impact on his creative process. I want people to think about the connection in music and medicine as I talk about Beethoven,” said Kogan. The three sonatas from opuses 10, 57, and 110 illustrated how momentous events in Beethoven’s life impacted his compositions, and Kogan offered insightful interpretations and listening tips before sitting down at the Steinway grand on Bing’s center stage.
The Psychology of Musical Genius
Opus 10. Beethoven began to lose his hearing in his late twenties. “Deafness is a hardship for anyone,” said Kogan,” but for a musician it is catastrophic.” Pushed almost to the brink of suicide, Beethoven eventually decided that he had a creative destiny to fulfill before his demise. Kogan explained that Sonata No. 6 in F major echoes the intense struggle of his youth, ending in triumph.
Opus 57. The same celebratory exclamations at the end of Sonata No. 6 would come to characterize Beethoven’s middle period. Sonata No. 23 in F minor, called ‘Appassionata,’ had unprecedented technical demands, representing Beethoven’s aggressive personality.
Opus 110. Beethoven’s late period constitutes another radical change. At this point, Beethoven was completely deaf, and his pieces during the last period of his life were an attempt to establish an intimacy and connection with the world. Written after an attack of abdominal pain, the four movements of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A flat major “disclose a lifetime of suffering.” After the third moment, known as the Song of Lament, Beethoven depicts his return to life chord by chord. The piece ends with an ecstatic conclusion.
The Art of Healing
Kogan believes that both his practice and his playing have improved as a result of his cross-disciplinary research. By understanding the minds of composers, he is better able to interpret their music, and he has found that many composers have life stories similar to those of his patients. Music has helped him realize that he wants his patients reach their creative peak and be emotionally expressive. “The whole has been better for me than the sum of its parts,” he said. “Learning about composers’ minds really helped me in terms of interpreting and playing their music, and I found that my work with music ended up helping my work as a physician.”
For Kogan, music should be used in conjunction with medicine in healing. “I think it’s really important for healthcare professionals to not lose sight of the fact that music has unparalleled capacity to ease pain, to soothe anxiety and lift spirits. When all the scientific findings come in, I think there’s potential for the explosion in the use of music in medical centers.”
https://artsinstitute.stanford.edu/m...-to-beethoven/
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