Bach FAQ 110
How Old Did Bach Grow? How Old Did Mozart Die? How About All the Other Classical Composers?..
How old did Bach get? In a nutshell: Bach lived to be 65..
This Bach portal is, after all, intended to be entertaining above all else. That’s why I stick to that approach consistently ... even on this page. You can also look up life expectancy at the appropriate time. And that’s exactly what I’ve done. Always in relation to the year of birth. So on this page, you’ll find not only the answers to “When did Liszt die, when did Verdi die, and when did Mozart die? ...“ but also the information on whether the composer associated with the question lived a relatively long life back then, whether he reached an average age, or whether his time on this planet was all too brief. Did you know that in ancient times, people – on average – lived to be only about 18 years old? In the Middle Ages, one lived for 20 years. In the 17th and 18th centuries, life expectancy increased from 25 to 30 years. And that’s exactly when Bach lived. Average 27.5 years ... he turned a full 65. That is – there’s no other way to put it – “pretty darn old.” Born at the end of World War II, people then lived to be 55 years old. Nowadays, men and women live to be around 80 years old. Some live longer, others less. The real kicker is the lifespan for the generation born in 2017, because half of the people born around that time today will reach the impressive age of 100. That is simply ... wow!..
However, it’s also worth noting that it’s not like people would be super surprised if someone lived ten years longer than average. The low life expectancy back then was mainly due to infant mortality and the large number of children people used to have. Bach himself had 20 children; about half of them died at a young age. So if all of Bach’s surviving children had lived to be 50, the average life expectancy of the JSB kids would have been only 25 years. On top of that, there was a staggering number of children who died during childbirth. This is what has changed most dramatically over the past 300 years. Back then – as amateur genealogists know – there were families who saw ten out of ten children die during or shortly after birth. The eleventh finally survived and grew up. Of course, the situation was similar with 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13 children..
The average age of adults was a completely different figure. And life expectancy – as calculated – was already significantly higher. So much for the question of whether Mozart, at 35, lived five years longer than the average. Or whether he died relatively young at 35. It all depends on your perspective..
Sure, with a little math and a quick Google search, you could have easily figured that out on your own: namely, how old Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and all those composers lived to be. Some of them lived to be quite old ... at least by the standards of the time. Sixty-five years – the age Johann Sebastian Bach reached – was a respectable age back then. Around 1685, people generally expected to "say their farewells to the world" well before the age of 40. So Bach lived many, many years longer than the average German of that era. There's an interesting article on the topic at the Max Planck Institute. In English..
Johann Sebastian Bach died at the age of 65. The average life expectancy in his day was 25 to 30 years..
How Old Did Mozart Get? What Was the Average Life Expectancy Back Then?..
They say Mozart died very young ... at the age of 35. But at that time, people lived to an average age of only 30. So he lived longer than the average man of that era. So to speak..
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How Old Did Beethoven Live to Be, and How Old Did People Live to Be During His Lifetime?..
Beethoven lived from 1770 to 1827, reaching the age of 57. That was absolutely fine for that era, when people statically lived to be around 35..
How Old Did Verdi Live to Be, and How Old Did Men and Women Live During His Time?..
Verdi lived in Italy and was born in 1813. He died in 1901. So he lived in the 19th century. And back then, the average life expectancy – whether in Germany or elsewhere in Europe – was 40 years. So at 88, he was doing just fine..
How Old Did Strauss (Father or 1) Grow and Did He Live Longer than Folks in His Time?..
Born in 1804 and died in 1849, tells us: He lived to be 45 years old. That sounds young to us, but at that time – at least statistically – a life expectancy of 40 years was a very good average. And Strauss, Papa, was even slightly above that..
How Old Did Strauss (Son ... or 2) Die and Was this Age Longer or Shorter than the Average Expectation of Life?..
Strauss, Jr. (... or son or 2) lived a bit later (... naturally) and was born in 1825. In 1899, he missed the 20th century by six months. So he lived to be 74, while everyone else (... but only on average) lived to be just 40..
How Old Did Brahms Die and Was It an Average Long Life?..
Brahms was born in 1833 and died in 1897. So he lived for 73 years. The average, as mentioned above, is 40..
How Old Did Handel Die, Who Was Born in the Same Year as Johann Sebastian Bach?..
Handel was born about four weeks before Bach. But he lived nine years longer. However, death came to him much later than average, meaning he spent 84 years on this earth..
How Old Did Vivaldi Grew and How Long Did Humans Live Matching the Year He Was Born?..
Vivaldi lived long before the time of many other famous composers we know. About 175 years before Bach, and people didn’t live nearly as long back then ... on average. Vivaldi lived to be 63, while his contemporaries lived to be 25 to 30..
How Old Did Schumann from Zwickau Grow and How Old Did the Contemporaries in His Epoche Die?..
Schumann, who was from Zwickau, Saxony, Germany, was born in 1810 and died in 1856. That’s a span of 46 years, which is actually quite a short time. On average, people in Saxony lived to be about 40 years old in his days..
How Old Did Wagner Die and How Old Did Men and Women Grow When He Was Living?..
From 1813 to 1883, Wagner had time to compose his entire life's work. That is, exactly 80 years. But surely he wasn't composing at the very beginning. The average life expectancy for Germans was 40 years. Probably the same for Europeans. So Wagner managed to live almost exactly twice as long..
How Old Did Weber Die and How High Was Life Expectancy at Weber's Time?..
1786 was a pivotal year for the Webers and for Carl Maria. In 1826, his time in London came to an end. That’s 40 years. Exactly ten years longer than average … well, just a rough estimate again..
How Old Did Tchaikovski Die and How Old Did Humans Get at that Time?..
He was born in April or May. Specifically in 1840. And then he died in October or November 1893. That adds up to 53 years, which is 13 years longer than the average. Respect!..
How Old Did Bruckner Die and What Was the Life Expectancy in Germany Back Then?..
Bruckner was born in Austria in 1824 and also died there. That was exactly 72 years later. On average, his contemporaries at that time all lived to be exactly 36 to 38 years old. Just a reminder: please don’t forget the children who died young during that period. It is not the case that all adults lived to an average age of around 40. That would be a completely different statistic, and the results would be quite different as well..
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How Old Did Chopin Die and Did He Live Longer or Shorter than "the Average Frenchman?"..
First, let’s assume that the average life expectancy for Polish and German people was – and still is – roughly the same. Chopin was born near Warsaw in 1810 and died in Paris in 1850. So he lived to be 39. That’s probably one time exactly the age at which people generally died back then. Well ... I mean … on average. So … you know what I mean..
How Old Died Liszt and Did Other Men and Other Women Grew Older on Average in His Era?..
Liszt was born one year after Chopin. Not in what is now Poland, of course, but in what is now Burgenland, Austria. That was in 1811. He died in 1886 in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany. If we subtract one date from the other, we get a lifespan of 75 years. Liszt could have been satisfied with that..
Thank You so Much, Peter Karg!..
You can find some excellent additional information and reading material on my topic “How old did Mozart, Bach, Verdi, and others live to be?” on the National Geographic website by Lisa Lang. Just click on the link. There you can learn about life expectancy in earlier eras. Thanks to Peter Karg for the helpful tip..
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