Bach FAQ 110
To the point: Bach died at age 65.
This Bach Portal wants to be first and foremost mainly entertaining. That is why we consequently do the same on this page and that is a little trouble to do it. You can research the life expectancy in addition and that is what I did, too. Always matching to the year of birth it's coming here on this page. So there is not just the answer to the question "When did Liszt die, when did Verdi die and how old dir Mozart grow?", but the information, whether the question matching composer back then died relatively long, whether he accomplished an average age or whether he was allowed to tarry just a short time on this planet. Did you know, that folks in the antiquity died at age 18 on average? In the medieval times "they" lived 20 years long. In the 17th and 18th century a human's life extended from 25 to 30 years. And exactly in that time, Bach was living. Average 27.5 years, he grew 65 ... that is – we can't say it differently – somewhat as old as hills. Humans, born at the end of World War II accomplished an age of 55. Meanwhile, people grow around the 80 years old. Some of them even more, some of them less. What it tops all is, that the "run-time" of those born today – that is to say "volume 2017" – are folks, of whom 50 % die at age proud 100 - some years more or less. That is quite honestly ... wow!
However, I have to mention, that it's not the case, that you might even fall in amazement if somebody grew 10 years older than the average. Th minimal life expectation much much earlier resulted mainly from the infant deaths plus the number of children, which they had back then. Bach himself had 20 children, around the half died early. So would all Bach the surviving kids would have grown 50, the average life expectancy of the Bach children would have been 25. And in addition, they had much more children than today, as there was an unbelievable number of kids, that already died during their birth. That is what has most dramatically changed in the last 300 years. Back then there were - and genealogy hobby scientists know that – families, which saw 10 of 10 children died during or shortly after their birth. The 11th finally survived and became an adult. Of course, that was similar with 7, 8, 9, and 11, 12 and 13 children.
The average age of grown-ups was absolutely a different number and the life expectancy – calculated on this basis – was way higher. So much to the subject, whether Mozart, who died at age 35 lived 5 years longer than folks on average in that time. Or whether he died at age 35 relatively early. It's again a question of the angle of vision.
Sure, with a little googling you definitely would have been able, you would have been able to calculate, how old Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and these "tone setters" grew. Some of the died really old – matching early life expectances. 65 years – that is how old Johann Sebastian Bach grew - was a proud age back then. Way below 40 years is what you had to expect if you were born 1685 – before you called out an "Adieu". So Bach had grown much, really much older than the average German back then. Mozart on the other hand already died at the age of 35 – even if the average life expectancy already was a lot higher, It was unbelievable early anyway. And who after all knows about these facts today? Meanwhile, we reached a memorable night. Today life expectancy is so high, that – it's true for Germany – every second today born child will grow 100 years old. And some of them even older and few of them even older. That is what the well-respected German newspaper "Die Welt" already in October of 2009 and that was almost a decade ago.
Johann Sebastian Bach died at age 65. The average life expectancy at his time was between 25 and 30 years.
In the 18th century (... 1750 is sort of in the middle of the 18th century) they lived five years longer than in the medieval age, namely 25 to 35 years. On average of course and as you can realize by Bach's age.
Mozart has – it is said – died very young. At the age of 35 years. However: at that time back then people just grew30 years on average. So actually he lived longer than the average man of this epoch.
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Beethoven lived from 1770 to 1827 and with that said, he grew to 57 years old. That is quite okay for this epoch when people died at age 35 on average.
Verdi lived in Italy and he was born in 1813, he died in 1901, so he lived in the 19th century. And in the 19th century the average, Germany or Europe or not, 40 years. With 88 years lifespan, we had a perfect result.
Born 1804 and died 1849 is telling us: he grew to 45 years old. It sounds young for us, however at that time back then - at least statistically - 40 was a good average, Strauss, the dad, was even a little above.
Strauss, Jr. lived a little longer (... sure) and is born in 1825. In the year 1899, he missed the 20th century by a half year. So he grew 74, while all others (... however just on average) grew only 40.
Brahms was born 1833 and died in 1897, so he grew 73 years. The average, as mentioned above: 40.
Handel is born some 4 weeks earlier than Bach, but he died 9 years later. Much later than the average person he met his fate and that is a result of 84 years on this planet.
Vivaldi already lived a long time earlier than the other famous composers, which we know. Some 175 years earlier than Bach and back then you grew up even shorter – on average. Vivaldi died age 63, his contemporaries 25 to 30 years.
Schumann from Zwickau, Saxony was born in 1810 and he died age 1865. These are 46 years. It's a pretty short time. Average Saxons lived 40 years at his time. By the rule of thumb.
From 1813 until the year 1883 Wagner had time, to compose his complete works. That is to say precisely 80 years, however, he didn't compose in the very beginning. 40 years did an average German make back then, probably an average European, too. So, Wagner made it almost twice as long.
1786 was the due date for the Webers and for Carl Maria. 1826 was the year of the curtain call in London. These are 40 years. To the point 10 years longer than the average person – well, by the rule of the thumb.
He is born in April or May, and that is to say in the year 1840. After that, he died in October or November and that was the year 1893. That is an addition of 53 years and that is 13 years longer than the average. respect.
Bruckner is born in 1824 in Austria and he has died in Austria as well. That was exactly 72 years later. So he grew to 72 years old. All his contemporaries grew absolut exactly some 36 to 40 years old. Once again the hint here: do not forget the children, that died early in that period. It's not the case, that all grown-ups on average grew 40 years. That would be a whole different statistics and would have whole different results.
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First, we estimate that the average life expectancy of Germans and French folks was sort of the same. Chopin had been born 1810 close to Warsaw and he died at age 1850 in Paris. So, he grew to 39 years old. That might be the average age to the point, at which all people died in this epoch. So ... I mean ... on average. Well ... you just know (me).
Excellent information regarding the theme "How old did Mozart die, how old did Bach grow, how old did Verdi and Co. is what you find - by the way – by Thomas L. Baier ... with a click to his website / Blog Dorfling by Peter Karg. Thank you for the information regarding the life expectancy in these several epochs. Thanks for that ... yes ... again!
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