The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-09
PIANO PLAYING AND NERVES.
A Showing Which should Discourage
Everlasting P~racticing.
New York Evening Sun.

New York Evening Sun.
A physician of Berlin has been investi-
eating the question OF piano-playing and
its effect upon the nervous system of the
performers, and in a dispatch published
this morning the results are given with the
conclusions drawn from them by the
learned investigator. The method employed
was statistical He did not form a squad
after the pattern Of Or. Wiley's tobacco
squad, however. or prescribe a course of
scales and hve-fnger exercises, noting the
pulse, temperature and respiration before
and after each dose. What he wanted TO
ascertain was not the symptoms produced
by a debauch. but what may be called the.
chronic effects of repeated and ~long-con-
tinued indulgence. We suspect that what
he wanted to prove was that piano-pla ying
was destructive to the nerves of the young.
So he went out In search of habitual melo-
maniacs, and collected the histories of LOCO
girls who had begun to pound the keys be-
fore they were fourteen years old. Then he
managed to find another thousand who had
never touched a piano-a more difficult
task in Berlin, we should think. The re-
suits are certainly alarming. OF the alb
stainers only 100 suffered from nervous
complaints, while of those addicted to the
piano habit no less than 600 were the vic
Tins of some neurosis or other.
The conclusion drawn is this, that piano
playing is highly injurious to the immature,
and that If INDUCED in at all it ought at
least TO be forbidden to all persons under
the age of sixteen. TIE professor, however,
seems to overlook certain circumstances
WHICH hucl ullQutSllOudDiy COHll ~
the ~portentous contrast shown in his COM
parative tables. In the first place his piano.
players were doubtless culled in large
measure from the leisurely classes, living
lives or comparative ease and luxury,
whereas We presume hat In Germany.
where music is endemic, we must go to the
homes of peasants and farmhands 10 find
pianoless inhabitations. and this class is
VIGOROUSLY free from nervous disorders.
And then IL must be that the
genius of Germany expends itself largely
In music, that the born musical genius is
bound, as the history of the art proves. TO
that consequently the players include I'm
all probability a far larger number OF ge-
muses. than the nonplayers. The conclu-
sion Is obvious, when We remember how
clearly Professor Nordeau demonstrated
the neurotic tendencies of all genfuses-the
p~iano-playing energies as a symptom, not
as a cause of the disease. Nevertheless.
We trust that the German professor Will
continue his Investigations and produce
more OF his alarming statistics. We would
gladly see an inquiry into the dangerous
effects OF singing lessons In cities and the
disastrous consequences Of amateur paint
els and tales of the civil war might also be
considered as an astrological factor In neu-
rasthenia. And then, were II not invidious.
some one might investigate the question OF
p~iano-playing, not as IL affects the player,
but In the light of its wider and more dis
astrous effect on the unfortunate ~neighbors.
We are inclined 10 belssve that the Berlin
physician Is a music lover. not wholly dis
interested in proving the dangers of piano.
playing. but we sympathize none the less
with his earnest e~ndeavors.