Billroth, Theodor
Billroth, Theodor
Billroth, Theodor, eminent German surgeon and amateur musician; b. Bergen, on the island of Rugen, April 26, 1829; d. Abazzia, Feb. 6, 1894. He received a thorough musical education, and was an intimate friend of Hanslick and Brahms. The musical soirees at his home in Vienna were famous. Almost all the chamber music of Brahms was played there (with Billroth as violist) before a public performance. He wrote the treatise Wer ist musikalisch? (1896, ed. by Hanslick). Billroth originated two crucial intestinal surgical operations, known in medical literature as Billroth I and Billroth II.
Bibliography
I. Fischer, T. B. und seine Zeitgenossen (1929); A. Frankel, T B. (1931); O-G. Gottlieb, B. una Brahms im Briefwechsel (1935).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire