Conference Booklet - Music - National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Abstracts
Friday, 21 October 2011
Session 1.1 SCHUBERT AND SYPHILIS
Desmond O’Neill (Trinity College Dublin)
Maturity, Illness and Creativity
The pathography of composers is an area of increasing interest in the biomedical literature.
However, enthusiasm and speculation has often forged ahead of a firm theoretical framework
or cogent methodologies for exploring the association between illness and the creative process,
with often chaotic effect. Schubert has not escaped this attention, with a variety of illnesses and
conditions explored in terms of their potential contribution to stylistic developments of his late
creativity. The challenge inherent in approaching this literature is to rise above the temptation
to focus on the symptoms and biological changes in the illness, and to be mindful of the
personal growth that accompanies most illnesses. It is likely also that that the pathology of the
illness is less important than the psychological impacts, and contemporary social constructs of
the illness – their ‗reception history‘.
Helpful insights can be gleaned from new concepts in gerontology and psychology, as
well as from creativity itself – from the images of Frida Kahlo to the string quartets of Smetana –
which may help us to enrich our understanding of the background to the extraordinary and
varied late creativity of Schubert without leaving us tied to intellectual or artistic hostages to
fortune that would prove subsequently to be neither durable nor valid.
Jean Walker (National University of Ireland Maynooth)
Syphilis and Society in Vienna 1800–1830
In 1823 Schubert was hospitalised at the General Hospital Vienna. This was a period in medical
history when the hospitalisation of people of means for medical treatment was not yet the
norm, unless it was for the treatment of diseases which could not be easily attended with an
element of discretion such as venereal diseases. It is to be expected that these were the reasons
why Schubert left the Vienna apartment he shared with Schober to return to his father‘s home,
and for his attendance at the General hospital, Vienna.
This paper aims to explore popular attitudes to venereal disease across geographic
barriers throughout Europe and to demonstrate its prevalence across all social classes in the
early nineteenth century. It will pose the question as to wh y – although prostitution was
regulated in Paris from 1811 onwards with those found to have venereal diseases being treated
at L‘hopital des Veneriens – there was no comparable public regulation of venereal disease in
Vienna until the 1850s even though Schubert‘s Vienna was subject to Metternich‘s severe moral
control during that time.
This paper will also throw light on the development of the General Hospital in Vienna
where Schubert was treated. This hospital had accommodation for up to 1600 patients at any
one time and – like other hospitals constructed under government auspices in the late
eighteenth century spirit of the Enlightenment – made the transition from poorhouse to general
hospital possible, where male and female patients of syphilis were accommodated in Lock
wards.