Samuel S., an expressive aphasia patient, had a stroke in his late sixties. This caused him to be completely speechless for two years, despite his intensive speech therapy. Sacks writes, “The break for him came when Connie Tomain, the music therapist at our hospital, heard him singing one day outside her clinic—he was singing ‘Ol’ Man River’ very tunefully and with great feeling, but only getting two or three words of the song” (Sacks 214). The music therapist began meeting with Samuel three times a week for half an hour. She would sing with him or accompany him with her accordion. “Mr. S. was soon able, singing along with Connie, to get all the words of ‘Ol’ Man River,’ and then of many other ballads and songs he started to show the beginnings of speech. Within two months, he was making short but appropriate responses to questions” (Sacks 214). A man, who could barely say a word, began speaking with brevity two months later with the help of …show more content…
The famous German composer, Robert Shumann, had severe depression. He had so much sorrow that he had to be put in an asylum isolated from everyone including his beloved wife, Clara. Marin Alsop, conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, said, “He [Shumann] tried to commit suicide, failed, and was institutionalized. Later died in an asylum at the age of 46…The Second Symphony was written after Schumann had a very rough depressive episode. And once he got married, he hoped that maybe there would be some kind of relief for him. And this was the worst episode ever. It lasted a long time. And he gradually crawled his way back really through listening to the music of Bach” (Robert). Shumann was severely sad which created one of his finest pieces, and he used Bach’s music to pull himself through his depression. Aslop also says, “And this is a symphony about his life, telling his listeners I have struggled and I have overcome.” Shumann had a mental illness that was displayed through his