Deryk Barker wrote, quoting me:

>>The crudeness that Amadeaus pins on Mozart is based on some dubious
>>extrapolations from private letters that he wrote to some of his intimates.
>>As far as I've been able to determine, there is no reliable evidence that
>>he ever publicly used inappropriate language, that he was ever drunk at a
>
>Really? Wasnt there considerable medical speculation a few years back that
>he sufffered from Tourette's Syndrome, one symptom of which is scatological
>language.  Was this simply based on those letters too? Does anyone know?

In answer to your last question, no I don't know.  But let me share some
impressions from my imperfect memory of the speculation.  Tourette's became
the syndrome du jour a few years ago and doctors who were particularly up
on it were much in the press.  I do recall reading an article by one such
doctor who said that _if_ Mozart were as he was portrayed in Amadeus or in
Wolfgang Hildesheimer's biography, Tourette's syndrome _might_ account for
it.  On the other hand, this doctor went on to say that, aside from the
scatological language Mozart may have used, he was unaware of any
cooberating symptoms.

It was inevitable that, with this kind of speculation around, some people
would begin to pass the word that doctors had discovered that Mozart had
Tourette's.  So that must mean that he really was foul-mouthed and
obstreperous, right?

Of course, it's possible that a more substantial reason has arisen to
accept the Tourette's theory.  I'd like to know.  Until I hear of such a
reason, though, I'm inclined to think that the syndrome has been proposed
as an explanation of a spurious "fact."

Richard, who invites you to visit his music, outdoors and other WWW sites
at: http://infoweb.magi.com/~richard/