Maurice Ravel's dementia: the silence of a genius

Abstract

Maurice Ravel is one of the most important French musicians. In the last years of his life, Ravel was victim of a dementia of uncertain etiology that caused aphasia, apraxia, agraphia and amusia. The artistic brain of the author of eternal musical compositions was progressively silenced due to his neurodegenerative disease. On the 90th anniversary of Boléro, this historical note revisits Ravel's case and discusses the relationship of his dementia to his artistic production. It illustrates the intimacy that can exist between art, music, creativity, and neurology.

The neurology behind three wounded French artists during the great world war

“…After the trauma, he painted several watercolors depicting personal scenes, still lives, war activities, and poetic topics 3 . This shift towards a new form of artistic creativity has already been reported in certain cases of neurological disorders occurring in artists 4,5 .…”

Congenital amusia—pathology of musical disorder

“…He has suffered from amusia in the last 5 years of his life, as a consequence of car accident. That time, the impairment was not classified as a disease but now it would be diagnosed as acquired amusia (remaining outside the frame of the review) (Vitturi & Sanvito 2019 ).…”

Post-stroke aphasia in famous writers: when Neurology left geniuses speechless

“…Aphasia is a frequent and devastating stroke complication 1 . Many famous writers have not escaped this condition 2,3,4 . In these cases, not only one of the highest cognitive functions is suddenly lost but also the act of bringing beauty into the world.…”