Many Unique Composers: Composers Who Died in Unusual Ways

Since we are born, death will eventually come to everyone.

However, compared to the moment of birth, one cannot help but feel how complex and varied the form of death can be.

Some pass away young, while others live to a ripe old age and wither away quietly like a dead tree.

Some suffer through long illnesses before passing, while others vanish in an instant due to accidents; some die in the sky, while others sink into the sea and disappear.

It is not a great comparison, but the variety is like looking through a kaleidoscope.

The world of musicians is the same.

When looking at their final moments, it is a fact that many had various ways of dying—not just from illness, but from strange circumstances, bad luck, or causes that seem unbelievable—which often piques our interest in the works they left behind.

What kind of ways did people die?

In this article, I would like to summarize and introduce those who had particularly unusual deaths.

First, Jean-Baptiste Lully, a French composer of the Baroque era, died from a strange cause that makes you think, 'No way?'

He was actually killed by his own baton.

We are talking about the baton used by orchestra conductors, but since we only know the ones used today, it might be hard to imagine.

In fact, in Lully's time, they used a long staff-like stick, thumping it against the floor to keep time and give cues.

One time, as the music reached its climax, he struck the floor with great emotion and force.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the floor he hit, but his own right big toe.

With intense pain, the toe swelled up in no time, and eventually, he was infected by bacteria that entered through the wound and died quite unexpectedly.

Even more unfortunate is Anton Webern, who died in a small village near Austria in 1945, the year World War II ended.

He had gone outside to smoke a black-market cigarette he had received from his son-in-law, and the moment he lit it, he was shot and killed by an American military policeman who had mistaken him for someone else while watching his son-in-law.

The war had ended.

Just like in Japan in the past, the American military was stationed in Austria, monitoring those who were smuggling their supplies.

Speaking of war-related misfortune, the same can be said for the Spanish modernist Enrique Granados.

In January 1916, on his way home from the premiere of his opera 'Goyescas' in New York, the passenger ship he was on was attacked by a German submarine in the English Channel, and he and his wife vanished into the sea.

World War I had already begun.

Furthermore, there is Edelmann, who joined a political party to ensure his own safety, only for that party to be overthrown in a revolution and for him to be beheaded.

The three who died in traffic accidents: Chausson, Franck, and Ravel.

Those who committed suicide: Warlock, Clarke, and Tchaikovsky.

Those who died in madness: Schumann and Smetana.

Perhaps you are surprised by how varied the ends of these composers were, such as Mozart, who died while composing music for his own funeral.