Friday, January 13, 2006

Afraid of today? Triskaidekaphobia!

Arnold Schoenberg - who developed the 12 tone system; was born on September 13th,1874; died on Friday July 13th, 1951; his opera “Moses and Aron” – it’s not spelled Aaron because the number of letters would add up to 13 with the extra “a”; he once refused to rent a house because it had the number 13; and feared turning 76, because its digits add up to thirteen.
On his last day on earth, he reportedly stayed in bed preparing for what he thought as his death day. After begging her husband to wake up and "quit his nonsense," his skeptical wife was shocked to find that her husband in fact had died that day he had long feared, as he uttered the word "harmony" and died. His time of death was 11:47 p.m., 13 minutes until midnight. It was his 76th year…amazing that the father of 12 tone technique suffered from triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number thirteen).

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