runner -> RE: Do musicians live longer? (May 26 2013 23:37:08)
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I've often marveled at the same phenomenon, the longevity of many, many musicians. Part of it, probably most of it, must be due to a profoundly satisfying, rewarding way of communicating with other people. Yet, when one contrasts those whose role is almost entirely performance with those who are/were the great composers, the contrast is striking. When one considers that, with few exceptions, the great composers were also prodigious instrumentalists--Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Bartok--very few lived to be even 70, with many dying in their early 60s, and others even earlier. Liszt stands out, as does Saint-Saens and a few others, but between the stress of composing and our old friend syphilis, many of the rest were harvested early.
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