Today, we will be talking about the five biggest...

Oh yeah, it's-

This channel's gonna go all conspiracy all of a sudden.

Joe Rogan, watch out!

Yeah, Joe Rogan.

Should we make one of those like,

clickbaity thumbnails? Like...

"The truth about Tchaikovsky."

"The dark secret about Sibelius."

- Ooh... - *gasps*

"Was Beethoven really deaf?"

Alright, anyway.

Anyway, let's get started.

Alright, the first one!

A ha ha ha ha...

If you haven't heard the Requiem,

what are you even...

do you even call yourself a classical musician?

You don't even deserve to watch this channel.

Go listen to a req-

No, finish this video,

and go listen to a requiem.

- 90% of people just click off. - Yeah.

So there's a lot of...

mystery and uncertainty surrounding Mozart's Requiem

and his death.

'Cause he actually composed it as he was dying.

So the first thing that was kinda strange was

Mozart got this from an anonymous commissioner.

Nobody knows who actually paid him to write this piece.

Mm...

A little bit suspicious!

It gets even more sus.

He wrote this piece while he was getting sick.

He was deteriorating health.

That in itself is kind of also a conspiracy 'cause...

no one really knows how Mozart died.

- There's a lot of debates. - Yeah.

Some people think he was poisoned.

Mozart himself thinks he was poisoned.

Other people thinks he just had some disease.

But then, even then,

- there's a lot of debate to what type of disease he got. - Yeah.

There's no evidence for this,

but one popular story actually was that

Salieri poisoned him.

Do you know who Salieri is?

He's meant to be Mozart's rival,

though some people said

they were actually close friends, but...

The "narrative" is they were rivals,

and Salieri hated him.

Because, apparently, Mozart was just a lot better.

Oh yeah, a lot more talented.

I think that's why

Mozart himself thought he was getting poisoned.

And it's funny 'cause...

you know, the movie, Amadeus, right?

In the movie, they actually portrayed the scene

where Mozart receives the commission

to write the requiem,

and the guy that gave it to him is

Salieri in a black mask...

Ooh...

...symbolising death.

Maybe Salielue-

Salier-

So hard to say the name.

(both) Salieri.

...knew he was gonna die,

and be like "You're gonna die anyway."

"I'm just letting you know."

- Yeah. - "Write your last requiem."

- Alright, but this is not just it, alright? - Yeah.

So Mozart actually never finished it.

He died while composing the Requiem.

It was finished off by a man named...

Brett: So off!

Very off. I'm sorry.

- "Süssmayr." - But that was Mozart's pupil.

Now here's the thing.

Süssmayr...

No, it's Süssmayr.

- Alright, see this is already sus, right? - Yeah, Süssmayr. Yeah, Süssmayr.

The Süssmayr.

When he was completing it,

he actually hand copied what Mozart had written up to,

and copied the whole thing.

so there's actually...

in the finished draft, there's no evidence showing...

- that Mozart- - what was Mozart's and what was his.

There is some...

I have read some evidence,

I don't know how legit it is,

that Mozart composed

up to the first 8 bars of the Lacrimosa,

which is... kind of the most famous one actually.

It's kinda creepy that he just finished that theme,

and then he was gone.

Regardless of how much Mozart actually composed,

here's the real seedy bit, alright?

In 1950,

- the unfinished manuscript was found in Brussels, - Yup.

and the last page was torn out.

Ooh...

So someone stole it from his death bed...

- Was it Salieri? - It was Salieri.

He's like "I can't give this guy all the credit."

Nobody knows. There's a lot of controversy.

All that we know is...

Beethoven said...

There you go.

- So you never really know. - Yeah.

But go check out the piece.

- Yeah. - It is haunting.

- It's not like any other Mozart though. - Yeah.

'Cause Mozart is usually so like...

light and cheerful,

and there's this freaking requiem that's just like death.

It's like "Yo, are you alright?"

He's like "Yeah, I'm dying."

Next one!

Was it a suicide note?

Mm...

Known as the Pathétique-

Pathétique?

- The Pathetic Symphony. - Yeah, yeah, known as the Pathetic Symphony.

I used to actually think that.

- Oh, the Pathetic S- Ha ha ha! - Yeah, I thought that's what it meant!

'Cause pathétique used to mean...

pathos, like passion, right?

I know the meaning means, like, Passionate Symphony.

We'll just call it the Pathetic-tique Symphony.

This was Tchaikovsky's last symphony.

6th one, yup.

Yeah, and then it was...

9 days after it premiered,

he died.

Dude...

How do you time that ****?

Yeah!

A lot of composers

died before hearing their last symphony.

- Yeah, but he actually did. - But it's like...

It was just too coincidental.

I know. I think maybe his willpower was just holding on.

He was like "Ugh!"

Or maybe something else happened.

So there has been a lot of theories going on.

During the first performance,

Rimsky-Korsakov asked Tchaikovsky

whether there was a programme to the new symphony.

So by programme, he means

- is there hidden meaning behind the symphony - Yeah.

- rather than just music for music itself, right? - Yes.

Yeah. And Tchaikovsky said there was,

but he wouldn't share it.

Mhm.

He basically said it's gonna be a mystery for anyone to guess.

And his quote's like...

I'm like...

"Dammit, Tchaikovsky."

I swear all the composers do this ****.

I know! It's just like

"I'm not gonna give you guys everything, ha ha ha ha."

But here's what gets really interesting.

There's so many stories about how Tchaikovsky died.

But the official "story" that he died was from cholera.

- Basically, cholera- Yeah. - From drinking tap water, right?

- Unboiled water, just tap water. - Unboiled water.

Glad we live in good times today.

Which is like, how do you live your whole life...

and then just one day, as a grown adult,

- forget to boil the water and die? That's so sus, right? - Yeah, the dumbest-

- That's the dumbest reason to die. - Yeah.

And right after the premiere of the last symphony.

Yeah, like...

If it was a freak accident,

- like something happened. - Yeah.

Okay.

But something within his control, with his like...

- habits. - Mhm.

How do you forget to just boil water?

- If you've been boiling water your whole life. - Yeah.

- So that's a bit suspicious already. - Mhm.

He had symptoms of "chlorea" after the premiere.

Cholera.

Cholera.

Whatever, but...

he also refused for doctor to examine him.

Really?!

That's suspicious.

Why would he not want a doctor to look at him?

Yeah.

It's like, he just wants to die. He doesn't want to...

reveal what's actually happening.

Like he died on the bathtub, saying

he wants to be left alone, all that stuff.

Yeah.

There's a few theories out there

why Tchaikovsky's-

- would have "committed suicide." - Mhm.

One of those says

"Back then the cholera disease"

"brought death only in the worst cases,"

"which is not his case."

Alright?

"An expert witness working in British National Poison Unit"

"stated that..."

"The reported symptoms of Tchaikovsky's illness"

"fit very closely with 'arsenic poisoning.'"

- Oh... Really!? - Mhm.

- So they're saying it isn't cholera. - Mhm.

- That's what they're saying. - Yeah.

But this ties in quite well to the context of the situation

Tchaikovsky was gay.

That at the time was very illegal...

Not very ille-

- It was just illegal in Russia. - Yeah.

Yeah, most- a lot of the world...

- was very harsh, yeah. - The whole world was like that. Probably, yeah.

So...

that probably, I think most probably

played a mental game with him.

- Mhm. - And he even faked a marriage.

His marriage was designed

to stop people gossiping about his love life.

Yeah, actually, apparently...

they were only married for six weeks as well.

- Bro. - Bro, he tried.

That is rough!

I mean he just gotta...

- I guess it's survival, right? Back then. - Yeah.

He had to try his best.

And in fact, it says here:

"He was in love with Vladimir Davydov."

Davydov?

Uh-huh.

His nephew.

I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do

to create good music, so-

Ha ha ha ha! I won't judge.

- I won't judge! - I'm not one to judge, but...

whatever...

- floats your cup of Chai Tea, Tchaikovsky. - Yeah.

One of the popular theories...

And again, there's no hard evidence,

people are still-

musicologists are still looking to it,

is that he was actually ordered to kill himself.

The order like, to restore his honour.

Yeah, the court ordered him to kill himself

because they found out about...

his...

- homosexuality. - Yeah.

And they didn't want that to become famous

because, you know, Tchaikovsky was a icon-

like a figure within Russia.

But you think about it, that narrative...

is a lot more believable.

That makes a lot more sense.

Before you guys go like

"Oh, maybe these guys are just thinking to much,"

"overthinking it."

I think, to me,

the biggest clue is in the music.

Tying back to with his 6th symphony suicide note, right?

Because it's not just the fact that

it was written-

I mean, it premiered 9 days and then he died, but...

it is the only symphony

that ends on such a depressing...

- Yeah. - 4th movement.