Musical Deafness
Historical document, translated for reference. It reflects medical knowledge of the 1920s–30s and is not medical advice.
Summary
Musical deafness is a disorder of musical perception in educated individuals. It is characterized by an inability to recognize written musical signs (notes) despite intact vision, rendering them meaningless to the musician, who cannot correctly play any musical line. The condition is a sensory component of amusia, which shares forms with aphasia and may occur independently or simultaneously.
Encyclopedia article (1928–1936)
Musical Deafness, Blindness (cecite, surdite musicale; surditas musicalis), a disorder in the area of musical perceptions in persons who are musically educated. Musical deafness is characterized by an inability, with vision preserved, to recognize written musical signs (notes), which have lost all meaning for the musician, so that he is unable to correctly play any musical line. In musical deafness the patient does not recognize individual notes, arias, motifs, previously familiar to him, but at the same time distinguishes the sounds of all instruments. Musical deafness and deafness are sensory components of amusia (see), which has the same forms as aphasia (see), and is observed either simultaneously with it or quite independently. Musical deafness and deafness are still not sufficiently studied; it is still unknown where the center is located, the lesion of which causes musical deafness and deafness; there is a hypothesis that it is located in the vicinity of the center, the disease of which causes aphasia.
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“Musical Deafness.” Soviet Medical Encyclopedia. English translation of Bolshaya Meditsinskaya Entsiklopediya, 1st ed. (Moscow, 1928–1936), ed. N. A. Semashko. https://sovietmedicalencyclopedia.pages.dev/article/musical-deafness/