“Curious” cases of preservation of music compositional ability in the presence of organic brain disease: historical examples

Abstract In this chapter, we offer a short historical perspective in which we compiled a series of cases of seven composers whose musical creativity was apparently preserved during the progress of neurodegenerative disease—Orlando di Lasso, Hugo Wolf, Frederick Delius, Maurice Ravel, Aaron Copland, Alfred Shnittke, and Vissarion Shebalin. Cognitive, including linguistic, decline was noted by their contemporaries, but musical creativity was maintained (aphasia without amusia), thus providing historical perspective on the clinical evidence supporting the power of music. Limitations of the historical approach are presented along with its importance as a context for current neuroscientific research.