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 oversimplification (see below).
Read more about Curse Of The Ninth: Beginnings, Others, Counterexamples
Famous quotes containing the words curse of, curse and/or ninth:
“It is the curse of a certain order of mind, that it can never rest satisfied with the consciousness of its ability to do a thing. Still less is it content with doing it. It must both know and show how it was done.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“If this uncertain age in which we dwell
Were really as dark as I hear sages tell,
And I convinced that they were really sages,
I should not curse myself with it to hell....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
““Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed” was the ninth beatitude.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)