Pan, the Greek god represented as a man with a goat’s legs, horns and ears and usually seen with a flute, is one of the older members of the second oldest profession. He is certainly not alive now, but is there a record of his passing?
Thomas Baltzar (1630-1661)was esteemed the finest performer of his time.
He is said to have been the first to have introduced the practice of "shifting."
In 1656 Baltzar went from Germany to England where an observer, Anthony Wood, thus described Baltzar’s playing:
“He then saw him run up his Fingers to the end of the Fingerboard of the Violin, and run them back insensibly,
and all with alacrity, and in very good tune, which he nor any in England saw the like before.”
Baltzar was appointed leader of the king's celebrated band of twenty-four violins, but, sad to relate,
“Being much admired by all lovers of musick, his company was therefore desired; and company,
especially musical company, delighting in drinking, made him drink more than ordinary, which brought him to his grave.”
And he was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey.
Bix Beiderbecke died at age 28 in 1931 during an alcoholic seizure.
The official cause of death was lobar pneumonia and edema of the brain.
During the summer of 1931, Bix had occasional college dates, playing mostly Benny Goodman,
the Dorsey brothers, Jack Teagarden, Artie Shaw and Gene Krupa.
At the end of June, Bix moved from his usual address in New York City, in Sunnyside, Queens.
Bix had had a cold throughout the summer and was extremely weak.
His body finally succumbed after years of excessive drinking and little nourishment. He died on August 6, 1931.
The passing of Borodin was comic.
It was the final day of carnival, and friends had come to a party at his house.
He was in high spirits, taking part in the dancing and singing.
He played sections of his third symphony on the piano.
Then, on starting a new conversation, he turned pale, staggered and fell backwards.
When his friends picked him up, he was dead.
Florencio Constatio (1869-1920) built a substantial reputation as an lyric tenor.
The ‘excellence of his tones’ was not matched by his character.
He was a stupid, disputatious fellow, squandering his earnings, eventually dying
destitute in a Mexican City poorhouse after being picked out of the gutter.
Stephen Foster took to drink when his mother died. His end came suddenly.
He had been laid up with a fever, got out of bed and fell against the old-fashioned washstand,
smashing the pitcher and basin. He was badly cut, and lay, bleeding and unconscious, for some time before
the chambermaid found him. He died a few days later in the charity ward of Bellevue Hospital.
In his wallet was no money, but a scrap of paper scribbled with the line, ‘Dear friends and gentle hearts.’
Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, and teacher Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (1877-1921)
Leontovych is recognized for composing Shchedryk, or in English, Christmas Bells, in 1916.
During the night of January 22-23, 1921, Mykola Leontovych was murdered by a Chekist (Soviet state security) agent Victor Grishchenko at the home of his parents.
At the time when Catholics and Protestants were embroiled in the struggle for
control of the thrones of England and Scotland,
David Riccio (born Davide Rizzio, c.1533-1566),
entered the service of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, as a musician
He soon became her French secretary, having much power over her.
When she became pregnant, Riccio was rumoured to be responsible.
Powerful Scottish nobles persuaded Lord Darnley, Mary’s husband, that Rizzio was Mary’s lover.
Then, on 9 March 1566, with Darnley’s support, they broke into Mary’s quarters in Holyrood Palace,
seized Rizzio in the queen’s presence, and brutally slaughtered him.
There is no proof or disproof of the charge that Mary was his mistress,
but it is clear that his murder was only part of a larger campaign by Scottish nobles against Mary,
carried out with religious and political motives, and was probably intended to cause Mary to miscarry.
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c.1620–1680) rose to prominence as a violin virtuoso,
became court violinist in Vienna from 1649,
and was the foremost Austrian composer of instrumental music of his day.
For more about his music, go to
Unusual Orchestations.
Following the death of Giovanni Felice Sances, Schmelzer was appointed Kapellmeister, on 1 October 1679.
Unfortunately, he fell victim of the plague early in 1680, and died in Prague,
where the Viennese court moved in an attempt to evade the epidemic.
Mark Smeaton (c.1512 – 17 May 1536) a handsome dancer and musician at the court of Henry VIII, at the time of Queen Anne Boleyn.
He was one of five executed for alleged treason and adultery with Queen Anne.
Under torture on the rack, he confessed to being the Queen’s lover, when in fact he could not have been,
for at the time in question, the Queen was at Richmond.
He and four others were executed on 15 May, Queen Anne two days later.
The famed bow-maker François Nicolas Voirin was stricken down with
apoplexy whilst taking a bow to a patron.