Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia

On 3 May 2022 we read from Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia (London, Picador, 2012), in particular the pages about Tony Cicoria (“A Bolt from the Blue: Sudden Musicophilia,” pp. 3-8).

This was the first time we read non-fiction, but the stories of Sacks’ neurological patients are so incredible, that they do, in fact, sound like fictional accounts; not to say that Sacks is a great writer, and the mix of medical precision and stylistic elegance makes his pages as fascinating as a piece of literature can be.

Tony Cicoria is an American doctor specialising in orthopaedic medicine, who, after being struck by lightning in 1994, developed a sudden, insatiable love for music. You can read about him on Wikipedia, but don’t: apart from a few more pieces of information about his life and qualifications, you will just find Sacks’ story made into small pieces and reassembled: it’s a pity, because the effect is not the same, and yet you recognise the source and can see the difference. So, if you have never read about Tony Cicoria before, go for Sacks’ original text: its precision, line of development, and breath will captivate you.

On YouTube you can also find Cicoria’s compositions. Yes, because his sudden love for music took the form not only of an insatiable desire to listen to music  — piano music, in particular — but also to let the music he felt inside come out: in other words, he wanted to be a vessel for the “music from heaven” he felt inside.

There are so many interesting things in this story as it is told by Sacks: first the lightning struck and the feeling of well-being and pure ecstasy, of being a soul without a body, that Cicoria experienced. Then, when he was brought back to life through CPR, his becoming very spiritual and feeling a special mission: that he had to translate, or compose, this “music from heaven” that came to him.

What is inspiration? How do you feel inspired? Cicoria felt “ ‘an absolute torrent’ of notes, with no breaks, no rests, between them, and he would have to give it shape and form.”