DÉJÀ VU History just keeps on repeating itself…

In the light of disgraced Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn (left) making his escape from home arrest in Japan by hiding in one of its double bass cases (see Feb issue), Yamaha has issued a statement warning others from trying to conceal themselves in a similar way. ‘Playing Ghosn’ could well end in disaster, says the company, clearly aware of the lethal history of musical equipment over the centuries…

The demise of Jean-baptiste Lully is well known to many. Directing his own Te Deum in 1687 – to celebrate the recovery from surgery of Louis XIV, ironically – the French composer impaled his foot with his conducting staff. He then let the wound grow gangrenous, with fatal consequences. Was Marianne Kirchgessner also the victim of her own musical endeavours? When, in 1808, the glass harmonica virtuoso died aged 39, many believed she had been poisoned by the lead crystal used to make her instrument. Pity poor Jimmy Ferrozzo, meanwhile, who was enjoying an intimate moment with a dancer atop a grand piano at his strip club in 1983 when he accidentally hit a button. Said button activated a hoist that lifted the instrument skywards, crushing him (but not her) between piano and ceiling. And in 1996, newspapers latched onto reports from Germany telling how Peter Niemeyer had fatally struck trumpeter Dolph Mohr with an over-enthusiastic flourish of his trombone during a Gratzfeld College marching band parade. In this instance, the story proved a hoax.