Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Pathological Handel

Read this interesting article on Handel's eating disorder. A portion of it here:

David Hunter, a Handel specialist and curator at the Fine Arts Library of the University of Texas in Houston, is more sympathetic. George Frideric Handel, celebrated not only for his glorious Baroque music but also as an interpreter of human character, was, he says, not a moral reprobate but the victim of a pathological condition - a compulsion to eat. That in turn resulted in chronic lead poisoning - chiefly from the quantity of wine he imbibed - which influenced the course of his musical development.

For many years until his death he was blind, suffered paralytic attacks, severe gout and difficulties with speaking and thinking. He was also severely overweight, a rarity among 18th-century musicians.

What was the cause? From a study of the portraits and contemporary descriptions of the composer, Dr Hunter believes he was suffering from binge-eating disorder.

He said: "Handel became obese and it is likely that he could not control his appetite. During his travels in Europe he incurred huge food bills and his first biographer noted that he was 'habituated to an uncommon portion of food and nourishment'. The evidence suggests he suffered from what we would now call a binge-eating disorder, defined in his day as an 'extraordinary appetite' and an 'inordinate extravagant hunger'.


Read the whole article here.

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