Idée Fixe: Rachmaninoff and Death Anxiety

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) is considered one of the giants of Romanticism. A Russian composer, conductor, and pianist, he exemplified the supercharged emotionalism of the late Romantic period in music history (1). Tall, and often depicted as brooding, Rachmaninoff experienced periods of depression throughout his adult life; these episodes and his seeking of psychiatric care are well known in the historical and medical literature (1). What merits further exploration is how Rachmaninoff's depressive tendencies centered on his fixation on death and how that was reflected in his compositions.

Rachmaninoff repeatedly used the "dies irae," a musical thematic motif representing death, in his compositions. The dies irae, which literally translates to "day of wrath" (2), is thought to have originated in the 13th century from Franciscan writings (3). It was adapted to a plainsong chant—a singular unaccompanied melodic line—for use in Catholic masses (4), especially the Roman Catholic mass for the dead (2). The primary motif is an eight-note melody written in the Dorian mode (3), described as an ominous tune that carries with it "a feeling of dread and despair" (2). Though many composers utilized this melody, the frequency and scope of Rachmaninoff's usage is notable in the broader scope of music history and offers insights into his underlying psychopathology.

Rachmaninoff initially became familiar with the dies irae as a conductor, performing the works of Mussorgsky, Saint-Saëns, and Liszt. As a composer, he incorporated the distinctive dies irae in a remarkable proportion of his output—over one-third of his 45 works (4). The motif is first found in an early work of Rachmaninoff's, "Prince Rostislav" (1891), a symphonic poem he composed as a student at the Moscow Conservatory. It is extensively used in "The Bells" (1913), a four-part symphonic work that represents the "four phases of human life," again showing how even Rachmaninoff's early work focused on the life cycle. Among his most well-known works is "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" (1934), which is steeped in legend regarding the violinist Niccolò Paganini's dealings with the devil, a symbol of the afterlife (2). Rachmaninoff's prolific use is prominent in the history of music—across the span of his entire 50-year compositional career, enduring through stylistic changes, psychiatric illness, and a cross-continental move. No other composer has used the dies irae so often (4). As the most repeated thematic material in his repertoire, Rachmaninoff's perseveration on the dies irae, a symbol of death and its inevitability, can be understood as a reflection of his own struggles.

Rachmaninoff's preoccupation with death may have its roots in his early life, which was marked by instability. After his father squandered the family fortune, the family moved to a squalid apartment in Moscow. Both the young Sergei and his sister contracted diphtheria. Though he survived, the disease claimed the life of his sister Sofiya, an experience which left the young Rachmaninoff with a lifelong fear of death (1). In his adult life, this fear was exacerbated by the deaths of close friends and family. Within a short period, three crucial people in Rachmaninoff's life passed away: fellow composer Scriabin from blood poisoning, followed by his professor Sergei Taneyev and his own father from heart attack (2). In modern psychiatric terms, Rachmaninoff could be said to have suffered from thanatophobia, a form of anxiety characterized by fear of death, which has been linked most strongly to illness anxiety disorder, as well as to other anxiety and depressive disorders (5).

Rachmaninoff suffered a depressive episode in his early career, which followed after a disastrous debut of his "First Symphony" in 1895. His intense depression following the criticized performance caused not only writer's block but also loss of interest in composing, along with neurovegetative symptoms. He subsequently sought the care of psychiatrist Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who induced daily hypnotherapy sessions for 4 months to good effect. When Rachmaninoff emerged from his depression, he wrote his celebrated "Piano Concerto No. 2," which was subsequently dedicated to Dr. Dahl, an amateur violist (1). Furthermore, it is also known that Rachmaninoff suffered from various medical ailments. His height—he was 6 feet 6 inches—was thought to be due to Marfan syndrome, which came with its subsequent symptoms of back pain, myopia, stiffness of hands, and bruising of fingertips (6). There is also evidence of illness anxiety disorder; Rachmaninoff readily underwent complementary treatments, such as mineral baths in the Caucasus region of Russia, for chronic pain syndromes (3).

Despite traumatic experiences with death in his formative and adult years, Rachmaninoff had many advantages of being a recognized musician in society—notably his ability to emigrate to the United States and live a life of relative comfort. Historians describe his later years as an "embarrassment of riches" (1), having enjoyed fame and legacy, a loving family, and financial security (7). However, even within the context of material comforts, the solemn dies irae continued to make appearances in his work, right up until his last composition, the "Symphonic Dances," in 1940. Throughout his life, Rachmaninoff was intensely private and elected not to discuss art or personal feelings with interviewers or even family. This predilection not only failed to leave overt clues as to his intrigue with the dies irae but also illustrates that although he had a supportive family and an adoring community, he elected to not share openly with them. Additionally, he continued to avoid large public gatherings, apart from concertizing, and preferred to compose in solitude (7). This self-imposed distancing shows further evidence of how Rachmaninoff's depressive tendencies pervaded his daily life. Although there is little archival evidence to understand how much of his depressive thought content focused on death, one letter to his friend Marietta Shaginyan, an intellectual and poet, provides a clue: "It is impossible to live while one knows one must die after all. How can you bear the thought of dying?"

Though his grandmother brought young Rachmaninoff to Russian Orthodox church services, he reported more interest in the musical than spiritual aspects of worship (8). Moreover, if Rachmaninoff's interest in the dies irae was intellectual in origin, he left no evidence of it. In his later career, Rachmaninoff asked a musicologist friend to provide him with some history of the dies irae, but he did not offer any words of explanation as to his specific interest in the topic, perhaps because he did not want to disclose the content of his psyche to a colleague (4).

At large, one could reasonably interpret Rachmaninoff's use of the dies irae as an artistic expression of his fear of death, thought to arise from intimate experiences with death of loved ones, as well as from his own health issues. Dr. Richard Kogan noted that Rachmaninoff was "tormented by depression … his preoccupation with death grew dramatically as he got older. He managed to use this preoccupation to his creative advantage" (1). Throughout his compositions, Rachmaninoff employs the dies irae as an overt as well as an unconscious reference. A thorough examination of his body of work reveals use of the entire musical phrase, as well as just the initial four-note segment, which itself has the "ability to arouse listeners with feelings of terror and dread" (3). Thus, whether the use was intentional or not, from a psychodynamic perspective, its unceasing presence may represent the composer's underlying conflicts about death that ultimately led to manifestation in his art. Dr. Kogan noted that Rachmaninoff "openly acknowledged he was mentally ill … and recognized that he had to struggle mightily with his melancholic inclinations" (1). It thus seems that in order to mitigate his suffering from depression and presumed thanatophobia, turning to the creative realm and using a pervasive motif such as the dies irae was as much a coping mechanism as it was a musical signature. Other historians have mused on its different meaning in different works, from a fear of death as an indisputable certainty to a sinister and mocking commentary of mortality (4).

All in all, although it may never be known why the dies irae pervaded so much of Rachmaninoff's work, it is clear that through his challenging life and depressive illness, he consistently instilled his work with themes of death, as life often imitates art.