This is a strange
phenomenon in
classical music: Scads of composers compose nine
symphonies, then die. These include:
Ludwig van Beethoven
Gustav Mahler
Antonin Dvorak
Anton Bruckner
Franz Schubert1
Sir Malcolm Arnold
Ralph Vaughan Williams
And several others. It occurs to me that perhaps after a while it became fashionable to die after composing your ninth symphony.
1Well, you caught me here. It seems a tenth symphony of Schubert's was recently discovered. And, yeah, Beethoven had sketched out a tenth. Maybe it's just an
urban legend.