Curse of the ninth

In classical music the curse of the ninth is a fear of a ninth symphony among composers. The evidence of the curse is the surprising number of major composers who died after completing nine symphonies, or even in the course of writing their ninth. Beethoven, Dvořák and Vaughan Williams fall in the former category; Bruckner in the latter. Schubert completed his ninth symphony, but left his eighth unfinished. Schnittke did not finish his ninth symphony, though it was first performed, in unfinished form, less than two months before his death.

Related Topics:
Classical music - Beethoven - Dvořák - Vaughan Williams - Bruckner - Schubert - Ninth symphony - Eighth - Schnittke

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The curse has affected a number of noted composers. Gustav Mahler was so afraid of it that he did not call his ninth symphonic work a symphony, rather labeling it Das Lied von der Erde. He finished this work unscathed, indeed completing a Symphony No. 9 shortly after, only to die while working on his tenth.

Related Topics:
Gustav Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde - Symphony No. 9

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Ludwig Spohr completed nine symphonies. A tenth was left unfinished, but was completed by Eugene Minor. Alexander Glazunov stopped work on his ninth in 1910 supposedly due to fear of the curse and never wrote another symphony. He managed to live another 26 years.

Related Topics:
Ludwig Spohr - Alexander Glazunov - 1910

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The curse may have played a role in the musical paralysis that beset Sibelius later in his life, and which led to the destruction of his 8th Symphony; however Sibelius was plagued by depression and self-doubt, rather than superstition, and the reason for his final 25 years of musical silence has remained a mystery.

Related Topics:
Sibelius - 8th Symphony

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The first really notable composer after Beethoven to complete more than nine symphonies was Dmitri Shostakovich, who lived decades after completing his ninth and wrote six more symphonies in that time. However, less well known composers had broken the "curse" before him: for example, the 19th century composer Joachim Raff, quite well known in his day, wrote eleven symphonies. The less well-known Swedish composer Allan Pettersson wrote seventeen symphonies, although the first and last are lost or destroyed.

Related Topics:
Dmitri Shostakovich - Joachim Raff - Swedish - Allan Pettersson

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The curse still holds weight with a number of modern composers. Malcolm Arnold has no intention of writing another after his ninth. Kurt Atterberg, Egon Joseph Wellesz and Roger Sessions also stopped at nine. Recently, Hans Werner Henze has defied the curse by producing a tenth - and this in spite of his ninth having been a choral symphony.

Related Topics:
Malcolm Arnold - Kurt Atterberg - Egon Joseph Wellesz - Roger Sessions - Hans Werner Henze

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Some symphonies that are now listed as ninth symphonies were originally published under different numbers and have been renumbered by musicologists in recent years. This has nothing to do with the curse of the ninth but simply the order in which they were published rather than the order in which they were written. For example, Schubert's Symphony in C "The Great" was originally published as his seventh, although it postdated his unfinished 8th symphony. Dvořák's Symphony in E minor "From the New World" was originally published as his fifth.

Related Topics:
Symphony in C - Symphony in E minor

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