Name disease or illnesses that killed past famous composers.

[classicarts]

I know this is kinda of a somber of a question, but I'm curious to how famous composers have  died.  Back in those days, not many people lived a healthy lives nor live long enough to really enjoy life.  I will list a few composures I know of that died of certain disease/illnesses. Schubert died from syphilys, and Rachmaninoff from Cancer, Chopin died from tuberculosis.

[thierry13]

I know this is kinda of a somber of a question, but I'm curious to how famous composures have  died.  Back in those days, not many people lived a healthy lives nor live long enough to really enjoy life.  I will list a few composures I know of that died of certain disease/illnesses. Schubert died from syphilys, and Rachmaninoff from Cancer, Chopin died from tuberculosis.

Beethoven from a liver cirrhosis, they found out lately by an analysis of his remaining hairs.

[quantum]

Scriabin, blood poisoning from a boil on his lip. 

[classicarts]

Thanks for the replys. Keep it up.  This is really interesting to me to know and discuss because it's rarely brought up as a topic. 

[alzado]

Both Erik Satie and Modeste Moussorgsky from acute alcoholism.  Details are fuzzy for me, but I think they both destroyed their livers.

George Butterworth was killed in the trenches in World War I.  A German shell got him, I suppose.

Peter Warlock, the British post-romantic, committed suicide.

---------------------------------

Hope this helps.  (Not the forum's most cheerful topic, is it?)

[dmk]

Bartok died from Leukemia

[g_s_223]

Berg - blood poisoning after an insect sting
Mahler - heart disease
Liszt - pneumonia
Webern - shot by a US soldier
Chausson - bicycle accident

[vladhorwz]

Shostakovich - Lung Cancer
Mendelssohn/Bach - Stroke
Tchaikovsky - suicide

[Bob]

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,10986.0.html

Around and around we go!

I must have read your mind three months into the future.

[presto agitato]

Cesar Franck - Traffic accident  

Max Reger -  Heart attack or żAlcoholism?

Robert Schumann -  Madness and Syphilis.

Feliz Mendelssohn - Sadness.

[contrapunctus]

Beethoven from a liver cirrhosis, they found out lately by an analysis of his remaining hairs.

dude beethoven died from syphyllis, did you not know that? He got around with the ladies if you know what I mean *cough* *cough*


Cesar Franck - Traffic accident       good

Max Reger -  Heart attack or żAlcoholism?      good

Robert Schumann -  Madness and Syphilis.       good

Feliz Mendelssohn - Sadness.       good


Shostakovich - Lung Cancer    good

Mendelssohn/Bach - Stroke     good
Tchaikovsky - suicide        good



Berg - blood poisoning after an insect sting    especially good
Mahler - heart disease     good
Liszt - pneumonia     thats good
Webern - shot by a US soldier        I am proud to be an american
Chausson - bicycle accident       good


Scriabin, blood poisoning from a boil on his lip.  good

 

[brahmsian]

Tchaikovsky - suicide good

I thought Tchaikovsky died from cholera...

[gkatele]

I thought Tchaikovsky died from cholera...

He died just a few days after the premiere of the 6th symphony. At the premiere, as well as at the party afterward, he was in good health. He was enthusiastic with its reception and looked forward to more work.

His death would have been too quick for cholera - an indolent disease that kills via deydration and diarrhea.

The rumor is that he was about to be "outed" in terms of his homosexuality, and that he commited suicide to avoid the shame. The cholera story was convenient.

It's also unlikely that a man who grew up in pre-revolutionary Russia would be careless of what water he drank, having never had cholera before, and suddenly get the disease.

George

[bernhard]

He died just a few days after the premiere of the 6th symphony. At the premiere, as well as at the party afterward, he was in good health. He was enthusiastic with its reception and looked forward to more work.

His death would have been too quick for cholera - an indolent disease that kills via deydration and diarrhea.

The rumor is that he was about to be "outed" in terms of his homosexuality, and that he commited suicide to avoid the shame. The cholera story was convenient.

It's also unlikely that a man who grew up in pre-revolutionary Russia would be careless of what water he drank, having never had cholera before, and suddenly get the disease.

George

The version I heard, he drank water he knew was contaminated (therefore, comminting suicide). However, he did not die of cholera, but of the treatment for it: he was dipped in a bathtupb of scalding boiling water (incidentally, the same way his mother - whom he loved dearly - died).

The whole gruesome episode is depicted in Ken Russel's movie "The music lovers" with Richard Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[shasta]

Granados
-was on the ship Sussex heading to a recital when the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine.

[bernhard]

Granados
-was on the ship Sussex heading to a recital when the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine.

In fact he survived and was in safety on a life boat, but then he saw his wife in the water, and unthinkingly jumped in to save her (unthinkingly because he forgot he could not swim), and then drowned.  (Dangers of marriage no. 32 )

[steve jones]

I hear Beethoven had a particularly grizzly death. Well, I surpose he couldnt have just peacefully could he - wouldnt have been very true to form!

[whynot]

Lully.  Back when conductors thumped out the beat on the floor with a staff, he accidentally thumped through his foot during a concert, got gangrene and died. 

[sevencircles]

Mozart died of Reumatic fever I believe?

[bernhard]

Mozart died of Reumatic fever I believe?

Nah. He was poisoned by Salieri 

[Jacey1973]

Berg - blood poisoning after an insect sting
Mahler - heart disease
Liszt - pneumonia
Webern - shot by a US soldier
Chausson - bicycle accident

Whaaat? How did that happen to poor Webern?

I think Schubert had siphyilis (i read that he caught it from a prostitute - apparently he never went with prostitutes, but his friends got him very drunk on one of his birthdays.....and he was plagued by ill health after that).

According to one of my professors at uni - Tchaikovsky did NOT commit suicide, he's researched it in great depth (my prof is a well known academic and music critic who specialises in Russian music, wrote quite a well known book on a particular Russian composer - he's even in the music dictionary which is a bit weird!) we had a lecture all about it...

[gkatele]

Actually, Bach died of an infection.

In his later years, he developed cataracts, and was losing his eyesight. He had a primitive type of cataract operation performed to remove the opaque lens. Infection set in, and that's what killed him. The terminal event may have been a "stroke," but the root was the infection.

I've heard that eight years later, Handel also had the same operation, and suffered the same fate.

The surgery was performed by the same surgeon!

WHat a legacy! The assassin of Bach and Handel!

[Jacey1973]

I've just had a thought....what is this post doing in repertoire??!! Lol..........classicarts? Ohhhhh....

[arensky]

Maurice Ravel suffered a head injury in a car accident in 1932, and in the next five years slowly lost control of his physical coordination to the point where he could not write down the music he was composing in his head; perhaps worse than death for someone so single minded in their existence... he finally consented to brain surgery in an attempt to correct the condition but died a few days after the operation in 1937...

[arensky]

How did that happen to poor Webern?

After the fall of the Third Reich Webern (apparently apolitical as long as he was allowed to play with his tone rows) was forced to live with his brother in law who was involved in the black market. The American occupying troops knew this and had been watching the house for several days. Webern's wife would not let him smoke indoors, and so the hapless dodecaphonist went onto the front porch and lit a cigarette, apparently after curfew. What happened next is unclear and the subject of controversy. Evidently a patrolling soldier ordered Webern to come down off the porch, and Webern instead went to go back inside. When he disobeyed the order the soldier shot him.

[perfect_pitch]

Lully.  Back when conductors thumped out the beat on the floor with a staff, he accidentally thumped through his foot during a concert, got gangrene and died. 

I hate to say this, but that is the funniest fu**in' thing I have ever heard. Sorry but it's priceless.

[bernhard]

After the fall of the Third Reich Webern (apparently apolitical as long as he was allowed to play with his tone rows) was forced to live with his brother in law who was involved in the black market. The American occupying troops knew this and had been watching the house for several days. Webern's wife would not let him smoke indoors, and so the hapless dodecaphonist went onto the front porch and lit a cigarette, apparently after curfew. What happened next is unclear and the subject of controversy. Evidently a patrolling soldier ordered Webern to come down off the porch, and Webern instead went to go back inside. When he disobeyed the order the soldier shot him.

Dangers of marriage #52.

[arensky]

Dangers of marriage #52.

Heh heh, not to mention smoking..

[ryguillian]

Kaikhosru Sorabji was ninety-seven when he died; what killed him?

—Ryan

[fryc]

Liszt died of congestive heart failure complicated by pneumonia.

Chopin actually died of cor pulmonale, a heart condition brought on by his constant
pulmonary difficulties from tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, and asthma.  Essentially his heart enlarged to compensate for the inefficiency of his lungs as far as it could, then  just wore out.
 
There is some evidence that Mozart actually died of an undiagnosed subdural hematoma complicated by bad medical treatment.   If the skull many believe to be Mozart's is actually his.  (He'd taken a bad fall when intoxicated.)

[pianistimo]

several articles i've read indicate that beethoven had many things that were wrong with him during the last years of his life.  sarcoidosis has been a possible suggestion because it not only covered deafness, but many other difficulties he was having.  apparrently his skin was a very dark color, and many of his internal organs were affected and his stomach was quite bloated at the end.  lead poisoning and the like was possible too, i imagine, since back then they used to put some of it in red wine and he occasionally drank.  i tend to want to believe that beethoven was not as promicuous as some believe him to have been.  as with schubert, beethoven was very idealistic.  he seemed to value fidelity greatly and his opera 'Fidelio' shows that he actually idealized women and faithfulness.  i think his writing to the immortal beloved also shows that many of his dreams were not realized in his lifetime (either because they were already married, or out of his reach).  treatments back in beethoven's time were quite bizarre.  among one of the treatments i remember, was the use of a certain tree bark (wrapped around his arms). 

poor tchaikovsky, with the boiling water.  the cures seem worse than the ailments.

[gkatele]

Bach's infecton may or may not have killed him - according to this web page. However, there's a wealth of information about composers and their diseases here:

https://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/medhum/diseasesofcomposers/bach.cfm

[theodopolis]

Louis Vierne had a stroke and died at the organ of Notre-Dame-de-Paris during his 1750th organ recital and it was to be his last before the cathedral authorities stopped recitals altogether at Notre Dame.
Maurice Durufle played the rest of Vierne's programme.

[apion]

In fact he survived and was in safety on a life boat, but then he saw his wife in the water, and unthinkingly jumped in to save her (unthinkingly because he forgot he could not swim), and then drowned.  (Dangers of marriage no. 32 )

You know, if you're too lazy to learn how to swim, at least have the sense to not dive into the ocean. 

[apion]

Brahms died from either pancreatic or liver cancer (or both).

[gkatele]

And that's what happens when you drink too much

beer,
wine
schaps

whatever....

Why is it that the things we enjoy kill us?

[alzado]

Were any pianists ever SHOT because they played so badly?

[franzliszt2]

I heard that Alkan was crushed by a book shelf with all his piano music on. I also heard that was a lie, but who knows

[athykay]

Didn't Pocarino die of TB?

[ted]

Coleridge-Taylor and William Hurlstone were close friends and had almost identical deaths.

"Strangely, both men collapsed mortally ill at railway stations and died shortly after at their homes. Coleridge-Taylor from pneumonia type symptoms and Hurlstone from the bronchial asthma from which he had suffered since infancy. He was only 29. Delirious and near to the end, they both conducted imaginary performances of their most recent compositions. Music they would no longer have the chance to hear in reality. In thecase of Coleridge-Taylor, we have his violin concerto. But Hurlstone had only began to write his last work, a piece he regarded as his best. He left us around half a dozen completed works for orchestra, about the same number of major works of chamber music, a piano concerto, songs and solo piano music.

In 1930 the Croydon council named Hurlstone Road in his honour. The composer himself had lived in Selhurst Road. Coleridge-Taylor, mysteriously, had a premonition of his own death. He had just began a rare holiday from his normal schedule of extreme overwork. Hurlstone had died some years earlier. Coleridge-Taylor said to his wife 'I had a dream where I met William Hurlstone. We could not shake hands however. This means I will die shortly!' Indeed, within a week he was dead."