A musical cipher is a hidden (or not so hidden) symbol in music with a particular meaning for the composer. As you can see at left, the notes of the musical scale (in different languages depending on the nationality of the composer, etc.) can be used to spell out a pattern of notes that will then occur in a piece of music. As an example, Bach could spell out his name B-A-C-H, which in German refers to the notes Bb/A.C/B natural. The composer Niels Gade could also spell his name out G-A-D-E as seen at bottom left. Schumann wrote the ABEGG Variations and used those notes to refer to Meta Abegg, a young woman he met at a ball in Mannheim. In the case of Brahms and his Double Concerto, he makes use of the cipher F-A-E, which refers to the German “Frei aber einsam”, meaning “free but lonely”. This was Brahms’s usual state: free but lonely (he never married). NOTE: “S” in German refers to “Es” or E flat…

What was Brahms’s cause of death?