# A Musical Death



## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Here's an interesting story I found in this fascinating place we call the interwebz:

A guy by the name of Rudi Wittgenstein (brother of the philosopher) walks into a bar and tells the pianist in the bar to play a certain piece. As the music begins, Rudi sits down and mixes himself a drink of milk and potassium cyanide, which he drinks until he suddenly can no longer hear the music, mainly because all that he can feel now is the excruciating pain in his lungs, which soon disappears along with everything else. In other words, he has a Musical Death.

I guess you get the point: do you know other stories of people committing suicide or dying or being killed to music?

And to quench your curiosity, the piece that Rudi requested for his death was "Verlassen, verlassen, verlassen bin ich" by Thomas Koschat:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

What a drama queen....


In the film, "Le Roi Danse" - with Lully as central character - that composer, on his deathbed, uttered this last gasp before shutting off, "Mon Dieu! Le Silence!"

On another tack relative to suicide: on an open forum, with those who are admittedly bi-polar / depressive / social anxiety - in short a host of disorders which could be 'volatie,' is the subject of suicide, whether by a dry intellectual or an agonized Vincent van Gogh, appropriate for such a forum - considering what we know of some of its members?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

PetrB said:


> On another tack relative to suicide: on an open forum, with those who are admittedly bi-polar / depressive / social anxiety - in short a host of disorders which could be 'volatie,' is the subject of suicide, whether by a dry intellectual or an agonized Vincent van Gogh, appropriate for such a forum - considering what we know of some of its members?


I am depressive and I have OCD. I don't really see any problem with discussing this subject.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Dodecaplex said:


> I am depressive and I have OCD. I don't really see any problem with discussing this subject.


It is not the OP that I would worry about...


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

PetrB said:


> What a drama queen....
> 
> In the film, "Le Roi Danse" - with Lully as central character - that composer, on his deathbed, uttered this last gasp before shutting off, "Mon Dieu! Le Silence!"
> 
> On another tack relative to suicide: on an open forum, with those who are admittedly bi-polar / depressive / social anxiety - in short a host of disorders which could be 'volatie,' is the subject of suicide, whether by a dry intellectual or an agonized Vincent van Gogh, appropriate for such a forum - considering what we know of some of its members?


I really don't know about anyone here, but as a teacher I have put thought into how to deal with the subject of suicide - especially with Korean kids, who have a particularly high suicide rate, and I've decided it's best to talk about it openly.


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

I don't see nothing wrong with discussing the subject. To be honest, I don't find the question so interesting, but I can say that a musical suicide must be even worse than a silent one.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

science said:


> I really don't know about anyone here, but as a teacher I have put thought into how to deal with the subject of suicide - especially with Korean kids, who have a particularly high suicide rate, and I've decided it's best to talk about it openly.


I fully agree - live, where the speaker / initiator can observe the real people.

In writing, on an open forum, where you have no idea who is reading it, what their frame of mind is? Very Bad Idea, I think. You have no idea what it will trigger, especially as disembodied letters floating in the ether of the internetz...

As far as the 'more eccentric' suicide mentioned by the OP, well, just about anywhere outside a hospital is a preferred place to die.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

It would have been VERY ironic if the suicide Wittgenstein had asked for Ravel's "Piano Concerto for the Left Hand"...


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