It is sobering to think that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead a year.
Tom Lehrer
As death, when we come to consider it
closely, is the true goal of our existence. I have formed during the last
few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind,
that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is very soothing
and consoling! I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of
learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Last words Mozart 5 December 1791:
"The taste of death is upon my lips…I feel something, that is not of this
earth".
Ludwig van Beethoven
26 March 1827: "Applaud, my friends, the
comedy is finished". His final words are subject to historical debate,
and vary with many biographies. Among those that have been reported to be
his last words are: "I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few
notes"
Johannes Brahms 3 April 1897: "Ah,
that tastes nice. Thank you" after he had a small glass of wine.
Polish composer Frederic Chopin
17 October 1849: "The Earth is suffocating…
Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won't be buried alive". He had a
neurotic fear of being buried alive.
Joseph Haydn died at the end of May in 1809, shortly after an attack on
Vienna by the French army under Napoleon. He was 77. Among his last words
was his attempt to calm and reassure his servants when cannon shot fell in
the neighborhood: "My children, have no fear, for where Haydn is, no harm
can fall".
Austrian composer Gustav Mahler "Mozart! Mozart!"
American singer James Brown 25 December 2006:
"I'm going away tonight".
Bob Marley 11 May 1981 "Money can't
buy life" to his son Ziggy
Barry White 4 July 2003: "Leave
me alone - I'm fine".
George Harrison
29 November 2001: "Love one another".
