Heartbreaking tales of these fleeting stars
A native of Bohemia in Austria, Gustav Mahler was one of the great Romantic composers of the age, and also one of the leading conductors of his generation.
Indeed, German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven is arguably the defining figure in the history of Western classical music. His prodigious output spanned the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era in classical music.
Schubert had completed his Symphony No. 9 and was in the process of composing his 10th when he died, likely of typhoid. The piece is an unfinished work that survives in a piano sketch. Along with Beethoven, Schubert's death so soon after completing his ninth symphony helped to perpetuate superstition surrounding the number nine.
Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, and did not complete the first of them until he was 39 years old. His Symphony No. 9 was completed in late 1957 and premiered in April 1958, four months before the composer's death.
Russian composer Alfred Schnittke ranks among the most performed and recorded composers of late 20th-century classical music.
Schnittke is another who many believe fell victim to the curse of the ninth. In 1985, he suffered a stroke, which left him in a coma. Despite being declared clinically dead on several occasions, the Russian made a remarkable recovery and continued to compose. He managed to complete his Symphony No. 9 in 1996, though the manuscript was barely legible due to partial paralysis. He died two years later.
Czech-born Antonín Dvořák has been described as the most versatile composer of his time. He composed his Symphony No. 9 between January and May 1893.
Jean Sibelius is also regarded by academics as one of the great symphonists of his generation.
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer and virtuoso organist best known for his symphonies and sacred music. He was also a renowned teacher.
German composer, violinist, and conductor Louis Spohr enjoyed prominence during his lifetime, successfully transitioning between Classical and Romantic music.
He makes this list by virtue of the fact that while he did write and complete a 10th symphony, he promptly withdrew it. It remains unperformed and unpublished and is today stored in the former Prussian State Library in Berlin.
Mahler is noted for his 10 symphonies, of which Symphony No. 5 is considered his masterpiece. But it was while writing the 10th that the maestro contracted pneumonia. He died in 1911 without fully completing it, thus lending further credence to the curse surrounding the ninth.
Three years after completing his Symphony No. 9—the most epic of his symphonies, both in terms of length and performing forces—Beethoven died. It's said that the curse of the ninth began with his demise.
An Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras, Franz Schubert lived a short but productive life, leaving behind a vast body of work.
Ralph Vaughan Williams ranks among the best-known British symphonists. As a composer, he was influenced by folk and Tudor music, his oeuvre representative of opera, ballet, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces, and orchestral compositions.
Dvořák died in 1904 after a severe attack of influenza, having never composed a 10th symphony and leaving many unfinished works. Interestingly, it was a recording of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 that astronaut Neil Armstrong took to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
A Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods, Sibelius completed seven symphonies during his lifetime. His Symphony No. 8 occupied the aging composer intermittently from the mid-1920s until around 1938, though he never published it (the manuscript is now believed lost). Where does the ninth symphony come in? The unpublished work would be his ninth if you include his previous Kullervo as a symphony, which some do.
Bruckner composed 11 symphonies (they were not all chronologically numbered). It was while writing his Symphony No. 9 that the Austrian succumbed to heart failure. The last movement was incomplete at the time of his death.
Alexander Glazunov was a renowned Russian composer, conductor, and educator who made significant contributions to the late Romantic period in classical music.
Glazunov enjoyed an imposing reputation in a period when his country was in transition and turmoil. Indeed, one of his most notable achievements was the ability to reconcile nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music. He composed eight symphonies but only completed the first movement of his Symphony No. 9. It survives as a piano sketch and takes about 10 minutes to perform in its entirety.
English composer Malcolm Arnold was accomplished in many musical genres, including producing scores for more than 100 films, including 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957), for which he won an Oscar.
His impressive repertoire also included a cycle of nine symphonies—he finished his Symphony No. 9 in 1986. It was during this period that Arnold was formally in the care of the Court of Protection, his health and finances both in serious decline. In his own words, Symphony No. 9 was written while he was going through "hell." He never wrote a 10th.
Niels Gade was the leading Danish musician of his day, in the period known as the Danish Golden Age. A largely self-taught violinist and organist, Gade was also a composer and teacher.
Gade's Symphony No. 8 was composed in 1871 and performed to wide acclaim. After such a rapturous reception he declined to produce a ninth, fearing he wouldn't be able to achieve the same level of success. He lived until the age of 73, so maybe that was for the best!
For many composers, writing a ninth symphony is to reach the very pinnacle of success. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, for example, which premiered in May 1824, changed music forever in that it was the first example of a major composer scoring vocal parts in a symphony.
But Beethoven didn't live to write a 10th symphony. Neither did several other famous figures of classical music. And their deaths propagated a superstition that composers were fated to die during or after writing their ninth symphony.
Finally, there are some composers for whom writing a ninth symphony was seen as a daunting challenge, so overawed were they by the burden of this musical tradition. One such individual was Dmitri Shostakovich.
The Soviet composer had originally conceived his Symphony No. 9 as a celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War. However, seemingly overwhelmed by the scale of such a musical endeavor, he abandoned his first draft and instead created a lightweight piece bearing no relation to the one first envisaged.
Sources: (Classic FM) (Skagit Symphony) (Wise Music Classical) (Hyperion-Records)
See also: The best composers of all time
The "curse of the ninth" is a superstition that tormented some of the most famous classical music composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The eerie phrase refers to a belief that a composer will die after writing his ninth symphony. And incredibly, several symphonists did indeed pass away shortly after completing their number nines! But is there any truth to this musical malediction, and who exactly fell foul of the ninth?
Click through and compose yourself while browsing this list of famous figures who were seemingly cursed...
What is classical music's curse of the ninth?
The superstition that plagued some of the greatest composers of the age
MUSIC History
The "curse of the ninth" is a superstition that tormented some of the most famous classical music composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The eerie phrase refers to a belief that a composer will die after writing his ninth symphony. And incredibly, several symphonists did indeed pass away shortly after completing their number nines! But is there any truth to this musical malediction, and who exactly fell foul of the ninth?
Click through and compose yourself while browsing this list of famous figures who were seemingly cursed...