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Mozart´s Left Ear by Peter Kjærulff Article first published at http://www.djo-venner.dk/pages/mozart_oere.asp on May 15th 2006 According to Constanze´s second husband, the Danish Councillor of State Georg Nikolaus Nissen, Mozart had a malformed ear. In his Mozart biography from 1828 is found a drawing of Mozart´s left ear, and the text says that Mozart´s youngest son Franz Xaver Wolfgang had inherited this malformation from his father. [See illustration below.] Those researchers who mention the ear, all agree that only the left ear shows the malformation: the cartilaginous structure (tragus) which normal human beings have on the side of the ear closest to the head, is missing. Instead we here see almost the exact contrary: the auditory canal is laid bare. Normally, the cartilaginous structure protects the auditory canal against direct pollution from the outside. So, without this detail the ear becomes more vulnerable, and this is used as an explanation of the fact that as a child Mozart did not like the sound of a trumpet. Nissen also suggests that the deformity is connected with musicality (“Mozart´s youngest son, who is known to also have dedicated himself to the art of music, had the same ear shape”). At the beginning of the 18th century a rumour spread that Constanze´s youngest son was not Mozart´s child, but the result of infidelity with Franz Xaver Süssmeyer after whom the child was named. Researchers debate whether it is possible that Nissen and Constanze agreed between them to stop these rumours by including the drawing and the comment in the Mozart biography. 1) According to present medical science, deformities or particular ear characteristics are not hereditary, because the shape of the ear is just as individual as fingerprints, which are not hereditary either. Furthermore, we do not really have at hand a “characteristic ear shape” – but an actual malformation. Malformations are not hereditary, unless the deformity is caused by a hereditary disease. Various small malformations may be owing to the movements of the fetus during the pregnancy, when blood vessels may have been squeezed, etc. 2) Hereditary diseases that deform the ear, such as the Treacher Collins Syndrome and the Waardenburg Syndrome, cause many additional and rather conspicuous deformities to the ear (perhaps both ears) as well as the rest of the face. Those facial characteristics we know from portraits of Mozart do not justify any assumption that he may have been suffering from one of the mentioned diseases. 3) Especially as a child, Mozart was repeatedly examined “like a pig” from head to foot, because it was assumed that it was impossible for a child to be such an accomplished musician. So, he had to be a dwarf. No notes exist where any kind of an ear malformation is mentioned whatsoever. In the Nissen biography we see a most peculiar ear – with characteristics that cannot be ignored. Especially so, if only a malformation of the left ear is in question – a trait which, according to Nissen, is passed on to Mozart´s younger son. 4) If the ear malformation had been a hereditary trait, the problem would have been genetically transmitted in such a way as to concern both ears. From Hans Hansen´s portrait from 1798 of the two boys, we know that Franz Xaver´s right ear was perfectly normal. 5) No portraits exist of Mozart´s left ear, as his hair covers the ear in all portraits. Nissen never saw Mozart. This gives rise to the idea that the drawing represents the ear of the son and not that of the father. So, Nissen has drawn a “backwards” conclusion. Whether we accept the idea of Constanze´s infidelity or not, the drawing of the ear cannot be applied as proof against an act of infidelity. If Constanze and Nissen make up the story in order to stop the rumours that haunt them, they are up against the fact that no scientific research proves that such a heredity exists – and this leads the story about Mozart´s ear in the direction of pure fabrication. In their own time they of course could not know that future scientific research results would be at odds with their version.
If we prefer to believe in the rumour of Constanze´s
unfaithfulness and construct the story on the proof which actually exists, a
detail is added to her own and Nissen´s attempt at deflating the rumour, which
rather confirms the liaison with Süssmeyer. Why not make a drawing of the whole
person of the son (like in Hans Hansen´s portrait), and then in a parenthesis
add that his father had had the same ear deformity – if there had been nothing
to hide?
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