Curse of the ninth
Encyclopedia
The curse of the ninth is a superstition
connected with the history of classical music
. In essence, it is the belief that a "ninth symphony" is destined to be a composer's last; i.e. that he or she will be "fated
" to die after writing it, or before completing a "tenth". To those who give credence to the notion, a composer who produces a ninth symphony has reached a decisive landmark -- and to then embark on a tenth is a challenge to "fate".
The idea is really a folk-notion that persists in popular journalism, and is not supported in musicology or serious music criticism. Though composers can indeed be found who died after achieving nine symphonies (the most famous example being Ludwig van Beethoven
), "nine" is not a statistically predominant total in the history of the symphony. In addition, while some very prominent composers (e.g. Schubert
, Dvořák
, Bruckner
, Mahler
, and Vaughan Williams
) are regularly adduced as examples, the fact is that several of them are only credited with having "composed nine symphonies" as a result of error or over-simplification (see below).
, this superstition began with Mahler, who, after writing his Eighth Symphony
, wrote Das Lied von der Erde
. Then he wrote his Ninth Symphony
and thought he had beaten the curse, but died with his Tenth Symphony
incomplete.
In an essay about Mahler, Schoenberg wrote: "It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. It seems as if something might be imparted to us in the Tenth which we ought not yet to know, for which we are not ready. Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter."
The difficulties with this analysis are obvious. From Mahler's point of view, the only important victim of any "curse of the ninth" (Mahler is not known to have used the term) would have been Beethoven. Even Bruckner (with whom Mahler had been closely associated) fails to qualify: Bruckner died before completing the work that is now played as his (unfinished) "Ninth Symphony", with the result that his symphonic total is eight if only the completed canonical works are counted -- and ten if the list includes the early F minor Symphony
and the D minor Symphony now known as "No. 0"
-- both of them withdrawn by the composer. Bruckner was in fact superstitious about his own Ninth Symphony; but this was not because of any belief in a "curse of the ninth", but because it was in the same key as Beethoven's Ninth.
Schubert's inclusion in any list is similarly problematic. Mahler would not even have considered Schubert to have written nine symphonies, as the Great C major Symphony
was reckoned as "No. 7" in Mahler's time. And while that symphony is now numbered as a ninth (and was followed by a tenth that remained uncompleted), this reckoning includes a "seventh symphony" that never progressed beyond an un-orchestrated sketch -- and assumes that the composer's long-sought-after "Gmunden-Gastein Symphony" is merely a fable.
Similarly, Dvorak's "New World" Symphony would not have been considered a "ninth" in Mahler's time, as the work was published as "No.5", with four of Dvorak's earlier symphonies appearing only after his death. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Dvořák considered the score of his early C minor Symphony lost.
, Elie Siegmeister
, Alfred Schnittke
, Roger Sessions
, Egon Wellesz
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
, Peter Mennin
and Malcolm Arnold
. However many of these examples have elements which tend to work against the superstition: Schnittke wrote his Ninth and last symphony with his left hand while virtually paralysed and unable to speak from a series of strokes; the authenticity of the work finally performed as an interpretation of his manuscript is problematic. In any case a "Symphony No. 0" by Schnittke has been performed and recorded, so his total should be ten. Alexander Glazunov
completed the first movement of his Ninth but worked on it no further for the 26 more years he lived. In an interview recorded at the time of its premiere, Malcolm Arnold stated that he intended his Ninth Symphony (his op. 128) to be his last; it proved to be so, but he was to live for another twenty years, reaching opus 142. Jean Sibelius
is not usually cited as an example, although if one were to count Kullervo
as his first symphony, the ill-fated Eighth
was the ninth he worked on.
(15); Andrzej Panufnik
(10; if one includes two early lost symphonies, 12); Hans Werner Henze
(10; his ninth symphony was actually choral
), Eduard Tubin
(10, died writing his eleventh symphony), William Schuman
(10; his first two were withdrawn), Alun Hoddinott
(10), David Diamond
(11), Edmund Rubbra
(11; his ninth symphony was choral), Robert Simpson
(11; his planned final 12th symphony was to be choral), Heitor Villa-Lobos
and Darius Milhaud
(12 each), Vagn Holmboe
(13, as well as four additional symphonies for strings alone), Roy Harris
(13; he was more superstitious about the number 13 than the number 9, and so labelled his 13th as 14th), Glenn Branca
(14, although Branca's definition of "symphony" is somewhat untraditional), Gloria Coates
(15, although she only recognized and numbered her first six symphonies as "symphonies" after completing her 7th), Rued Langgaard
(16 plus an unnumbered choral symphony, Sinfonia Interna), Henry Cowell
(17), Allan Pettersson
(17), Lev Knipper
(20), Jānis Ivanovs
(21), Moisei Vainberg (22), Nikolai Myaskovsky
(27), Havergal Brian
(32), Alan Hovhaness
(67), and Leif Segerstam
(244). Composers before Beethoven, such as Joseph Haydn
(104) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(41), are not considered relevant to this superstition.
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
connected with the history of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. In essence, it is the belief that a "ninth symphony" is destined to be a composer's last; i.e. that he or she will be "fated
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
" to die after writing it, or before completing a "tenth". To those who give credence to the notion, a composer who produces a ninth symphony has reached a decisive landmark -- and to then embark on a tenth is a challenge to "fate".
The idea is really a folk-notion that persists in popular journalism, and is not supported in musicology or serious music criticism. Though composers can indeed be found who died after achieving nine symphonies (the most famous example being Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
), "nine" is not a statistically predominant total in the history of the symphony. In addition, while some very prominent composers (e.g. Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
, Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, and Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
) are regularly adduced as examples, the fact is that several of them are only credited with having "composed nine symphonies" as a result of error or over-simplification (see below).
Beginnings
According to Arnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, this superstition began with Mahler, who, after writing his Eighth Symphony
Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is often performed with fewer than a...
, wrote Das Lied von der Erde
Das Lied von der Erde
Das Lied von der Erde is a large-scale work for two vocal soloists and orchestra by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler...
. Then he wrote his Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1909 and 1910, and was the last symphony that he completed.Though the work is often described as being in the key of D major, the tonal scheme of the symphony as whole is progressive...
and thought he had beaten the curse, but died with his Tenth Symphony
Symphony No. 10 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 10 by Gustav Mahler was written in the summer of 1910, and was his final composition. At the time of Mahler's death the composition was substantially complete in the form of a continuous draft; but not being fully elaborated at every point, and mostly not orchestrated, it was not...
incomplete.
In an essay about Mahler, Schoenberg wrote: "It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. It seems as if something might be imparted to us in the Tenth which we ought not yet to know, for which we are not ready. Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter."
The difficulties with this analysis are obvious. From Mahler's point of view, the only important victim of any "curse of the ninth" (Mahler is not known to have used the term) would have been Beethoven. Even Bruckner (with whom Mahler had been closely associated) fails to qualify: Bruckner died before completing the work that is now played as his (unfinished) "Ninth Symphony", with the result that his symphonic total is eight if only the completed canonical works are counted -- and ten if the list includes the early F minor Symphony
Study Symphony
Anton Bruckner's Study Symphony in F minor, , or simply Symphony in F minor, WAB 99, was written in 1863 as an exercise under Otto Kitzler's instruction in form and orchestration. Scholars at first believed that the next symphony Bruckner wrote was Symphony No. 0 in D minor, thus this symphony is...
and the D minor Symphony now known as "No. 0"
Symphony No. 0 (Bruckner)
This Symphony in D minor composed by Anton Bruckner was not assigned a number by its composer, and has subsequently become known by the German designation Die Nullte .-Composition:...
-- both of them withdrawn by the composer. Bruckner was in fact superstitious about his own Ninth Symphony; but this was not because of any belief in a "curse of the ninth", but because it was in the same key as Beethoven's Ninth.
Schubert's inclusion in any list is similarly problematic. Mahler would not even have considered Schubert to have written nine symphonies, as the Great C major Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)
The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, known as the Great , is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. Nicknamed The Great C major originally to distinguish it from his Symphony No...
was reckoned as "No. 7" in Mahler's time. And while that symphony is now numbered as a ninth (and was followed by a tenth that remained uncompleted), this reckoning includes a "seventh symphony" that never progressed beyond an un-orchestrated sketch -- and assumes that the composer's long-sought-after "Gmunden-Gastein Symphony" is merely a fable.
Similarly, Dvorak's "New World" Symphony would not have been considered a "ninth" in Mahler's time, as the work was published as "No.5", with four of Dvorak's earlier symphonies appearing only after his death. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Dvořák considered the score of his early C minor Symphony lost.
Others
After Mahler, some composers used as examples of the curse include: Kurt AtterbergKurt Atterberg
Kurt Magnus Atterberg was a Swedish composer. He is best known for his symphonies, operas and ballets. Atterberg once said that: "The Russians, Brahms, Reger were my ideals." His music combines their influences with Swedish folk tunes.-Biography:Atterberg was born in Gothenburg as the son of the...
, Elie Siegmeister
Elie Siegmeister
Elie Siegmeister was an American composer, educator and author.His varied musical output showed his concern with the development of an authentic American musical vocabulary...
, Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Schnittke ; November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Russian and Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony and First Concerto Grosso...
, Roger Sessions
Roger Sessions
Roger Huntington Sessions was an American composer, critic, and teacher of music.-Life:Sessions was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution. His mother, Ruth Huntington Sessions, was a direct descendent of Samuel Huntington, a signer of...
, Egon Wellesz
Egon Wellesz
Egon Joseph Wellesz was an Austrian-born British composer, teacher and musicologist, notable particularly in the field of Byzantine music.- Life :...
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, Peter Mennin
Peter Mennin
Peter Mennin was an American composer and teacher. He directed the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, then for many years ran the Juilliard School, succeeding William Schuman in this role...
and Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
. However many of these examples have elements which tend to work against the superstition: Schnittke wrote his Ninth and last symphony with his left hand while virtually paralysed and unable to speak from a series of strokes; the authenticity of the work finally performed as an interpretation of his manuscript is problematic. In any case a "Symphony No. 0" by Schnittke has been performed and recorded, so his total should be ten. Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
completed the first movement of his Ninth but worked on it no further for the 26 more years he lived. In an interview recorded at the time of its premiere, Malcolm Arnold stated that he intended his Ninth Symphony (his op. 128) to be his last; it proved to be so, but he was to live for another twenty years, reaching opus 142. Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
is not usually cited as an example, although if one were to count Kullervo
Kullervo (Sibelius)
Kullervo, Op. 7 is an early symphonic poem for soloists, chorus and orchestra, written by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.The work, based on the character of Kullervo from the epic poem Kalevala, premiered to great critical acclaim on 28 April 1892. The soloists at the premiere were Emmy Achté...
as his first symphony, the ill-fated Eighth
Symphony No. 8 (Sibelius)
Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 8 was the last major work the composer worked on, and never completed. Today, virtually none of the score exists. The manuscript was probably burned by Sibelius in 1945...
was the ninth he worked on.
Counterexamples
Some counterexamples are: Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
(15); Andrzej Panufnik
Andrzej Panufnik
Sir Andrzej Panufnik was a Polish composer, pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He became established as one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw Philharmonic orchestra after World War II...
(10; if one includes two early lost symphonies, 12); Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
(10; his ninth symphony was actually choral
Choral symphony
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, sometimes with solo vocalists, which in its internal workings and overall musical architecture adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this context was coined by Hector Berlioz when describing his...
), Eduard Tubin
Eduard Tubin
-Life:Tubin was born in Torila, Governorate of Livonia, Estonia. Both his parents were music lovers, and his father played trumpet and trombone in the village band. His first taste of music came at school where he learned flute and balalaika. Later, his father swapped a cow for a piano, and the...
(10, died writing his eleventh symphony), William Schuman
William Schuman
William Howard Schuman was an American composer and music administrator.-Life:Born in Manhattan in New York City to Samuel and Rachel Schuman, Schuman was named after the twenty-seventh U.S. president, William Howard Taft, although his family preferred to call him Bill...
(10; his first two were withdrawn), Alun Hoddinott
Alun Hoddinott
Alun Hoddinott CBE , was a Welsh composer of classical music, one of the first to receive international recognition.-Life and works:...
(10), David Diamond
David Diamond
David Diamond is the name of:* David Diamond , American composer* David Diamond * David Diamond , American screenwriter* David Diamond, frontman and songwriter with Canadian band The Kings...
(11), Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The most famous of his pieces are his eleven...
(11; his ninth symphony was choral), Robert Simpson
Robert Simpson (composer)
Robert Simpson was an English composer and long-serving BBC producer and broadcaster.He is best known for his orchestral and chamber music , and for his writings on the music of Beethoven, Bruckner, Nielsen and Sibelius. He studied composition under Herbert Howells...
(11; his planned final 12th symphony was to be choral), Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
and Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
(12 each), Vagn Holmboe
Vagn Holmboe
Vagn Gylding Holmboe was a Danish composer and teacher who wrote largely in a neo-classical style.-Life:At the age of 16, Holmboe began formal music training at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen on the recommendation of Carl Nielsen. He studied under Knud Jeppesen and Finn Høffding...
(13, as well as four additional symphonies for strings alone), Roy Harris
Roy Harris
Roy Ellsworth Harris , was an American composer. He wrote much music on American subjects, becoming best known for his Symphony No...
(13; he was more superstitious about the number 13 than the number 9, and so labelled his 13th as 14th), Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
(14, although Branca's definition of "symphony" is somewhat untraditional), Gloria Coates
Gloria Coates
Gloria Coates is an American composer who has moved to, and has subsequently been living in Munich, Germany since 1969...
(15, although she only recognized and numbered her first six symphonies as "symphonies" after completing her 7th), Rued Langgaard
Rued Langgaard
Rued Langgaard was a late-Romantic Danish composer and organist. His then-unconventional music was at odds with that of his Danish contemporaries and was recognized only 16 years after his death.- Life :Born in Copenhagen, Rued Langgaard was the only son of composer and Royal Chamber...
(16 plus an unnumbered choral symphony, Sinfonia Interna), Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...
(17), Allan Pettersson
Allan Pettersson
Gustav Allan Pettersson was a Swedish composer. Today he is considered one of the most important Swedish composers of the 20th century...
(17), Lev Knipper
Lev Knipper
Lev Konstantinovich Knipper , a Russian composer of partially German descent and an active OGPU - NKVD agent.Lev Knipper was the nephew of the actress Olga Knipper...
(20), Jānis Ivanovs
Janis Ivanovs
Jānis Ivanovs was a Soviet Latvian classical music composer.In 1931, he graduated from the Latvian State Conservatory in Riga. In 1944, he joined the conservatory's faculty, becoming a full professor in 1955. He is regarded as being the most distinguished Latvian symphonist...
(21), Moisei Vainberg (22), Nikolai Myaskovsky
Nikolai Myaskovsky
Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of the Soviet symphony".-Early years and first important works:...
(27), Havergal Brian
Havergal Brian
Havergal Brian , was a British classical composer.Brian acquired a legendary status at the time of his rediscovery in the 1950s and 1960s for the many symphonies he had managed to write. By the end of his life he had completed 32, an unusually large number for any composer since Haydn or Mozart...
(32), Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
(67), and Leif Segerstam
Leif Segerstam
Leif Segerstam is a Finnish conductor and composer.He studied violin, piano and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and conducting at the Juilliard School in New York with Jean Morel....
(244). Composers before Beethoven, such as Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
(104) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
(41), are not considered relevant to this superstition.