>From a report in the German weekly "Der Spiegel":

   Q:  Mrs Schielke [38, Neurologist], you have just done a check-up
   on a 57 years old patient who suffered from a rare kind of musical
   hallucination.  What did the man hear?

   A:  He heard folk songs, sung by mens and childrens choirs, sometimes
   several at the same time.  The reason was a suppurative focus at a
   certain spot of the brainstorm.  After having antibiotics for eleven
   weeks, the abscess and the hallucinations went away.

   Q:  What about other patients with musical hallucinations, do they
   all hear folk music?

   A:  They hear what they are accustomed to.  A French patient heard
   Verdi and Mozart, but also chansons.  A Japanese who got sick during
   a journey through China, heard Chinese folk music.

   Q:  Are these hallucinations unpleasant?

   A:  For some it is a nuisance because they hear several melodies at
   the same time.  Others think it is a nice diversion.  I had a patient
   ten years ago who first heard an Italian opera tenor singing very
   loud and pretty out of tune.  After some days it changed to arias
   from "Madama Butterfly" which he found much more agreeable.

Robert Peters
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