...To explain his view of Mozart's life and work, Dr. Simkin has taken advantage of being a retired medical man as well as a musician. He has published 60 medical research articles and was also for a time concert master of the Los Angeles Doctors Sympony Orchestra, for which he directed a Mozart work that he "had never heard before!" He was so impressed by the piece that he became one for Mozart's great admirers, most curious and eager to learn as much as he could about Mozart's life. He even decided to read all of Emily aAnderson's revised edition of the 66 Letters of Mozart and His Fmaily and was pleased to gain "startling insights into Mozart's personality." Mozart now appeard to him, for instance, good-natured, a joker, and an admirer of certain women. But sometimes Mozart was depressed, repeated his own words, used coprolalia, and according to Simkin, showed signs suggestive of Tourette syndome....
There is one consideration that, from a technical viewpoint, quite impressed me in Simkin's interesting view of Mozart's story. Whereas most of the literature on Mozart seems a continuous and thrilling story, Simkin's 200 text pages approach a well-written textbook of musical history, which impresses and teaches the reader through its organization. Simkin's books has three parts: "Flowering Genius," "Mozart's Society Music," and "Mozart's Personality Idosyncracies [sic]." These three main parts are in turn divided into smaller sections, so that reading and thinking will help readers understand and appreciate Mozart's complex life and work.
...Another factor that has to be considered is the profound linguistic and attitudinal change that took place during a century that saw profound social change. In considering such changes, it is satisfying to see that Simkin now states that there are "sticking points" in his hypothesis and suggests instead of a "rigidly defined eponymic clinical [Tourette] Syndrom" a "spectrum of disorders based on common mechanisms."
Simkin concludes that the "divine Mozart should be remembered and revered." Who would argue? We can only add that Medical and Musical Byways of Mozartiana makes interesting and educational reading.
K. Aterman, MD, SCc, PhD
University of New Brunswick
Frederiction
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