Did you know that Johann Sebastian Bach, among all the great in music, is one of the few who got to enjoy a long life? He was 65 years old when he passed.
Mozart it is said was buried in an unnamed grave as a pauper. What is not as well known is the reason why nobody went to his funeral and he was thrown in a common grave covered with lime. At the time, there was a cholera epidemic in Vienna and the directive of the city was that anybody who passed had to be buried without ceremony. The fact that Wolfgang Amadeus was in a common grave was because that was all that was available since the cemeteries were full. Mozart was young at the time of his passing: 35 years old.
Beethoven thought of himself as alone because his deafness had affected his social life tremendously. He died at 57 years old. He was wrong though about his popularity, as his casket was followed by as near as makes no difference the whole city of Vienna who came to cry for the great man.
Schubert was even younger than Mozart when he succumbed: 31 years old. He was born 27 years after Beethoven but died just one year after him. Beethoven got to enjoy both the classical and the romantic period while Schubert is firmly planted in the romantic era.
As for where Beethoven and Schubert are buried, their body were exhumed and according to the description of these reburial published in the same year, the initiators wanted to protect Beethoven and Franz Schubert from “further decomposition” and to restore their resting place in a “dignified manner”. Their tombs are now close to each other.
Frederic Chopin lived his adult life in France although he was from Poland originally. That is the reason why his body is buried in Paris but his heart is kept in Warsaw.
I know I could have done this macabre piece of Trivia on Halloween, but, contrary to the French who use the end of October to go visit the grave(s) of deceased friends and family, in the Anglo-Saxon world everybody dresses up and parties. So, this deadly knowledge falls in the middle of the summer.
The picture is a representation of Beethoven’s burial.
