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CHAPTER 13 · Medical Problems of Musical Masters

Neurology of the Musical Masters: The Great American Songbook: Cole Porter and George Gershwin

Phillip L. Pearl, MD, FAES, FACNS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between the neurological afflictions and artistic creativity of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. These two legendary composers from the American Songbook had severe health challenges that shaped their lives and musical careers. Porter suffered severe injuries from a horseback riding incident, which required multiple surgeries, and subsequently resulted in chronic osteomyelitis and persistent pain. Gershwin, despite an illustrious musical career that included iconic works such as Rhapsody in Blue, Porgy, and Bess, and many great standards of the American theater and jazz repertoire, had a tragic turn in life with severe frontotemporal headaches with sensory disturbances, nausea, dizziness, and olfactory hallucinations, which were later found to be caused by a temporal lobe brain tumor. His condition deteriorated until he tragically died at the young age of 38, coinciding with a period marked by intense creativity and emotional turmoil. Despite initial reports that Gershwin’s tumor was highly malignant, later examination of the pathology demonstrated confirmation that this was a low-grade pilocytic astrocytoma, a tumor that would have been readily operable and curable and that he, in fact, succumbed to the mass effect of uncal herniation from the undiagnosed tumor.

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Chapter references below omit unverified page ranges and chapter-specific DOIs.

APA

Pearl, P. L. (2026). Neurology of the Musical Masters: The Great American Songbook: Cole Porter and George Gershwin. In P. L. Pearl & S. Arfaie (Eds.), Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press.

AMA

Pearl PL. Neurology of the Musical Masters: The Great American Songbook: Cole Porter and George Gershwin. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, eds. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Vancouver

Pearl PL. Neurology of the Musical Masters: The Great American Songbook: Cole Porter and George Gershwin. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, editors. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Chicago

Pearl, Phillip L.. “Neurology of the Musical Masters: The Great American Songbook: Cole Porter and George Gershwin.” In Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity, edited by Phillip L. Pearl and Saman Arfaie. Cambridge University Press, 2026.

BibTeX

@incollection{chapter13_2026,
  author = {Pearl, Phillip L},
  title = {Neurology of the Musical Masters: The Great American Songbook: Cole Porter and George Gershwin},
  booktitle = {Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity},
  editor = {Pearl, Phillip L. and Arfaie, Saman},
  publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
  year = {2026}
}

Harvard

Pearl, P. L. (2026) “Neurology of the Musical Masters: The Great American Songbook: Cole Porter and George Gershwin”, in Pearl, P.L. and Arfaie, S. (eds.) Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Phillip L. Pearl

Phillip L. Pearl

MD, FAES, FACNS

Director of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology | Boston Children’s HospitalWilliam G. Lennox Chair and Professor of Neurology | Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School · Boston Children’s Hospital

Profile

Phillip L. Pearl is Director of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology at Boston Children’s Hospital and William G. Lennox Chair and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He studied at Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music before attending the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His research focuses on inherited metabolic epilepsies, particularly disorders of GABA metabolism. A physician and musician, he has published extensively at the intersection of music and medicine and is Co-Editor in Chief of the seventh edition of Swaiman’s Pediatric Neurology.

Scholarship & professional background

His postgraduate training included a pediatric neurology residency at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, followed by fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital. Alongside his work on GABA-related disorders, he has developed educational projects connecting neurology with art and music, including Neurology Through Art and Time. His own musical practice encompasses jazz piano, vibraphone, and drums, informing a sustained interest in how musical experience and clinical neuroscience illuminate one another.

He also serves as Co-Director of the Epilepsy Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society and of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, and a past president of both the Child Neurology Society and the Professors of Child Neurology. His honours include the American Epilepsy Society’s 2024 Fritz E. Dreifuss Award.

Selected work & perspectives

Phillip L. Pearl · Boston Children’s HospitalSwaiman’s Pediatric Neurology: Principles and Practice · Seventh editionNeuro-Logic: A Primer on LocalizationInherited Metabolic Epilepsies · Second editionResearch, publications, and clinical neuroscienceMusic, epilepsy, and the brain · International League Against EpilepsyFellowship and Fritz E. Dreifuss Award · American Epilepsy SocietyClinical neurophysiology credentials and pediatric EEG guidelines