Which five composers do you wish had lived five fewer years?

[DaveF]

All those five-year stays that we've been so blithely granting to Schubert, Mozart, Debussy etc. gotta be paid back somehow, y'know.  Perhaps we could knock five years off those who went into prolonged retirement - Byrd, Sibelius.  Perhaps it would be humane to spare Berlioz the pain and bereavement of his later years.  Or perhaps (much more interesting) there are some pieces of unfortunate drivel from their composers' final five that you really think the musical world should have been spared...

[relm1]

Well Leonard Rosenman did get Alzheimers.  That's a sad way to go for an otherwise brilliant career.  Perhaps cutting him loose 5 years earlier would have been humane.

[vandermolen]

Well Leonard Rosenman did get Alzheimers.  That's a sad way to go for an otherwise brilliant career.  Perhaps cutting him loose 5 years earlier would have been humane.

Sad indeed - a fine composer.

[Brian]

Is there a composer who destroyed many of their works shortly before their death? Like if Paul Dukas' self-destructive habits were limited to his final five years?

[Mirror Image]

Oh jeez...what a negative thread! Any composer whose music means anything to me I'd wish they had lived longer. Debussy, Mahler, and Nielsen come to mind as I believe they still had so much more music in them.

[Brian]

Oh jeez...what a negative thread! Any composer whose music means anything to me I'd wish they had lived longer. Debussy, Mahler, and Nielsen come to mind as I believe they still had so much more music in them.

Perhaps you have noticed already, but there is a positive version of this thread too. 

[André]

Well, Anon certainly outlived his usefulness...