Weird habits
When this composer died in 1925, his friends discovered that he had hoarded over 100 umbrellas in his small, squalid apartment.
Erik Satie
This composer was known for being a lighthearted prankster who loved jokes, which showed in his music. This included composing music with a purposefully sudden, loud chord to wake sleeping audience members, cutting off fellow students' hair, and having a bizarre habit of [pouring ice-cold water over his head while composing].
Haydn
Adolf Hitler's obsession with this composer began at age 12, developing into a lifelong fixation that shaped his aesthetic, political, and antisemitic views.
Wagner
Following a suicide attempt in February 1854, composer this composer voluntarily entered a private asylum where he spent his final 2½ years suffering from severe mental illness.
Robert Schumann
This composer so feared being buried alive that he requested in his final days that his heart be removed after his death.
Chopin
This composer was an intense perfectionist who famously destroyed a vast amount of his own music before it could ever reach the public. He was so self-critical that he reportedly burned or tore up anything he deemed unworthy of his legacy, which was heavily shadowed by the monumental reputation of Beethoven.
Brahms
To cope with his mental distress and chronic constipation, this composer employed a group of servants to beat him three times a day. He believed this physical suffering would help him sleep and possibly grant him absolution for his past crime.
Gesulado
This composer was notoriously obsessed with scatological humor, featuring it in many letters to family.
Mozart
Following his active participation in the failed May Uprising in Dresden, this composer was hunted by police and forced into a long, dramatic exile, during which he continued to create some of his major works
Wagner
The infection began as a small pimple or lesion on his right upper lip beneath his mustache, for this composer, led to a severe infection and death.
Scriabin
This composer suffered from a severe phobia that his head would fall off while conducting. To manage this anxiety, he would often hold his chin with one hand to "prop up" his head while conducting with the other
Tchaikovsky
This composer believed his composition, which was to include music, dance, colors, and scents, would trigger a spiritual apocalypse, leading to the dissolution of the world and the rebirth of humanity into "nobler beings".
Scriabin
This composer's profound obsession with Shakespeare began after seeing Hamlet in 1827, transforming his creative life and leading to major works
Berlioz
The most significant and dramatic life event for this composer was his diagnosis with syphilis. This event fundamentally altered the course of his life and art, marking a shift from youthful optimism to profound melancholy and existential dread. During this period of decline, he composed masterpieces like the song cycle Winterreise.
Franz Schubert
This composer officially died from cholera after drinking contaminated water, but theories persist that he committed suicide or was forced to by a "court of honor" to avoid scandal regarding his homosexuality.
Tchaikovsky
While this composer did not share Arnold Schoenberg's fatalistic triskaidekaphobia, he was influenced by Russian folk superstitions and numerological habits.
Stravinsky
This composer lived a dramatic life that shifted from that of a notorious virtuoso and romantic figure to a deeply spiritual, ordained churchman. He fathered several illegitimate children, before later in life becoming an Abbé.
Franz Liszt
This composer was famously obsessed with death, dead bodies, and meticulous counting (numeromania), alongside a profound devotion to Richard Wagner.
Bruckner
Within a single year, this composer faced three life-altering crises that are often linked to the "hammer blows" in his Symphony No. 6.
Gustav Mahler
This composer was mummified following his death - a procedure he explicitly requested in his will. His body is now entombed in a sarcophagus located in the crypt directly beneath the great organ at St. Florian Abbey in Austria.
Anton Bruckner
When soprano Francesca Cuzzoni refused to sing a particular aria, this composer grabbed her by the waist and threatened to throw her out of a window.
Handel
This composer famously proclaimed "I am God" as part of his mystic, theosophical worldview. His declaration reflected a belief in divine consciousness and his artistic mission
Alexander Scriabin
This composer was deeply obsessed with mortality, the struggle for faith, nature, and the intense, fragmented memories of his childhood which is all portrayed in his symphonies.
Mahler
For this composer, a dramatic life event happened after death - His skull was stolen from his grave by phrenologists who wanted to examine it for signs of genius. The head remained separated from his body for over 140 years.
Franz Joseph Haydn
According to historical research, this composer died following complications from botched eye surgeries for cataracts.
Johann Sebastian Bach