The mysterious curse of the ninth symphony that haunted famous composers

The "Curse of the Ninth" haunts classical music: write nine symphonies and die before your tenth. And some of history's greatest composers took this deadly seriously.

Gustav Mahler was so spooked he tried to cheat death through creative accounting. After Symphony No. 8, he wrote "Das Lied von der Erde" – technically a symphony, but he called it a song cy…