# Composers who died too early - what if they had lived?



## Retrograde Inversion (Nov 27, 2016)

Throughout music history there have been many composers who died before their time. I'm interested in hearing speculation about what might have been the case if a a given composer had liven on some while longer. Three questions in particular strike me as being of interest:

1. What would the completed versions of works they left unfinished be like? E.g. Mozart's Requiem, Bruckner's 9th, Mahler's 10th, etc.

2. How might their music have developed? Would they have continued writing in much the same vein, or headed off in new directions?

3. How might musical history have been affected?


----------



## Francis Poulenc (Nov 6, 2016)

Mahler was obviously heading towards atonalism, but I doubt he would have ever fully embraced it.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

All the three great composers died too early.

Bach at 65. Another 5-10 years would have been terrific. A third book of WTC, perhaps?

Beethoven at 57. Come on! Another 15 years with penicillin tablets! What treasures we may have had! 5 more symphonies and 10 more piano sonatas? An alternate purely orchestral 4th movement to the 9th symphony, after receiving numerous complaints in his conversation books about "those damn voices!"

Mozart at 35. The saddest of all. Some theorize he was already burned out at 35. Give me a break! No way! Imagine another 40 years of Mozart treasures. I can't bear thinking about this; it is so sad!

Keeping the string of Mozart's masterpiece keyboard concertos, perhaps another 10 of these; a couple of more string quintets; a solo viola concerto; a finished Great Mass in C minor; a few more terrific operas; a second clarinet concerto.

And of course the additional treasures would open up so many more TC polls as we march on ad nauseam into our inevitable oblivion.


----------



## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Hans Rott, aged 25.
Vincenzo Bellini, aged 33.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Azol said:


> Vincenzo Bellini, aged 33.


Horrible, imagine how many more operas he could have composed


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I think it was John Harbison who noted that there were probably more musical masterpeice composed in the 19 months between Beethoven's death and Schubert's that in any other equivalent interval in histoory I'm all for giving old Franz even another five years.


----------



## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Mozart at 35. The saddest of all. Some theorize he was already burned out at 35.


I wonder who could theorize that, when he was composing in 1791 alone (the year of his death) works such as Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito, the Requiem, the Clarinet Concerto, the Ave Verum Corpus, among others. I think if he was burned out was by illness and not by musical inspiration/genius.

I agree with you, it would have been terrific these 3 great masters lived longer!


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

jdec said:


> I wonder who could theorize that, when he was composing in 1791 alone (the year of his death) works such as Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito, the Requiem, the Clarinet Concerto, the Ave Verum Corpus, among others. I think if we has burned out was by illness and not by musical inspiration/genius.
> 
> I agree with you, it would have been terrific these 3 great masters lived longer!


I agree. Illness took its toll. A super-genius like that would have done much more.

The 27th Piano Concerto has such a tinge of sadness about it; similar in style to the Clarinet Concerto. 
Mozart seemed to know his life was to be a short one.
The biggest tragedy in classical music. Dead at 35.


----------



## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Schubert might have finished the 8th symphony but it wouldn't be called "The Unfinished"!


----------



## Medtnaculus (May 13, 2015)

Scriabin and Ravel. Who knows what they could have achieved had they lived to the age Florent Schmitt did.


----------



## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

What about Mendelssohn? He died at 38. It could have changed music history if he lived longer.


----------



## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Mozart (35), Schubert (31), Chopin (39), Scriabin (43). These are the four composers I immediately think of. If I could give another 5 years to any of them I would have a very tough time deciding.


----------



## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

Only the good die young.....


----------



## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I think Schubert would have produced some wonderful works assuming you can keep him focused.
He may even have produced works that hpowders would enjoy


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Haydn man said:


> I think Schubert would have produced some wonderful works assuming you can keep him focused.
> He may even have produced works that hpowders would enjoy


Well, if you've been subscribing to my posting lately, I did write that I believe his last string quartet, the G Major, is the greatest string quartet ever written. So I do give credit when it's due.

When I think of Schubert, I'm always reminded of that Burgess Meredith Twilight Zone episode where the librarian is the last person left on earth after a nuclear war and he finally has time to read all those library books and then he drops and breaks his glasses!


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

You only hear about the good dying young when they do.


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

jdec said:


> I wonder who could theorize that, when he was composing in 1791 alone (the year of his death) works such as Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito, the Requiem, the Clarinet Concerto, the Ave Verum Corpus, among others. I think if he was burned out was by illness and not by musical inspiration/genius.


Some recent medical sleuthing which has been backed up by letters written by Mozart shortly before his death, indicate that he died of trichinosis, i.e. from eating contaminated, inadequately cooked pork. Certainly the symptoms matched and notes in his letters actually refer to a pork meal that he had a few weeks prior to his death, the right amount of time for development of the disease.


----------



## Francis Poulenc (Nov 6, 2016)

Schubert is a real tragedy, even more than Mozart in my opinion. The D960 piano sonata is one of the most moving works I've ever heard, one can only imagine what he could have done had he lived longer.


----------



## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

Hans Rott he died 25 years old.

He would have been the next Mahler. The one symphony he wrote says it all.


----------



## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

George Gershwin- at 38 this brilliant composer died way too young. If he had lived? I see more operas out of him, even better than Porgy and Bess, and more commercially successful at that. If successful enough, he might have even pioneered a new, jazzy sub-genre of classical opera altogether. He was a remarkably capable classical composer, and was skilled at using atonality and tone rows, so I can also see him writing perhaps symphonies or tone poems which fuse jazz and Schoenberg-esque atonality, and later on serialism. It would have been absolutely fascinating to hear and study. 

On the topic of alternate scenarios, I have been considering writing a story about a world in which Tchaikovsky did not die of cholera (or whatever!) in 1893, and had lived into the 20th century, writing several additional symphonies and ballets. He would have been very personally affected by Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese war, and would have begun to lose faith in the monarchy (and written some great music). By World War I he would have started writing Impressionist music (which would also have been incredible), but after the October Revolution he might have fled Russia, most likely to the United States because of the war in Europe. Here he would have written his final works, likely inspired by the scenery and culture of his new home. I'll give him a generously long life, let's say, 1840-1922. I sincerely feel that at the time of his death he had yet to come into his own as a composer. 20th century works by Tchaikovsky would have been remarkable.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Judith said:


> Schubert might have finished the 8th symphony but it wouldn't be called "The Unfinished"!


Very wise words indeed.


----------



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Beethoven at 57. Come on! Another 15 years with penicillin tablets! What treasures we may have had! 5 more symphonies and 10 more piano sonatas? An alternate purely orchestral 4th movement to the 9th symphony, after receiving numerous complaints in his conversation books about "those damn voices!"


Or perhaps, after swearing a bit, would have promised to compose a new symphony without voices, sold it to three different publishers before writing a note and ended up writing a cello concerto with voices instead. And if you don't like it you can go %^#%#.

Two obscure candidates:










Julian Scriabin. Son of another famous Scriabin. Showed immense promise; died aged 11.










Charles Filtsch. Showed immense promise, died aged 15.

One wonders how many other such we lost over the centuries.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Handel was blind for the last ten years (or about) of his life, composing little/no new music because of the handicap. If here was not blind, then maybe another ten quality "Messiah" oratorios.


----------

