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Musical Phrenology and the Case of the Missing Composers’ Skulls
Classical music lovers celebrate the life and legacy of titans such as Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Mahler, and many others by listening to and performing their music. We study their lives and musical legacies to try and learn more about their ideas and inspirations. Some people take other routes. Throughout history, people have tried to study the human body to learn more about how it works. As you might imagine, the bodies of famous people were considered highly valuable in hopes of learning more about their intellect. Which is what led to the theft and displacement of several skulls of classical musicians. Phrenology is the pseudoscience of studying human skulls in…