Beethoven's gone, but his music lives on   And Mozart don't go shopping no more   You'll never meet Liszt or Brahms again   And Elgar doesn't answer the door      Schubert and Chopin used to chuckle and laugh   Whilst composing a long symphony   But one hundred and fifty years later   There's very little of them left to see      They're decomposing composers   There's nothing much anyone can do   You can still hear Beethoven   But Beethoven cannot hear you      Handel and Hayden and Rachmaninov   Enjoyed a nice drink with their meal   But nowadays, no one will serve them   And their gravy is left to congeal      Verdi and Wagner delighted the crowds   With their highly original sound   The pianos they played are still working   But they're both six feet underground      They're decomposing composers   There's less of them every year   You can say what you like to Debussy   But there's not much of him left to hear      Claude Achille Debussy, died, 1918   Christophe Willebald Gluck, died, 1787   Carl Maria von Weber   Not at all well, 1825, died, 1826      Giacomo Meyerbeer   Still alive, 1863, not still alive, 1864   Modeste Mussorgsky,1880   Going to parties, no fun anymore, 1881      Johan Nepomuk Hummel   Chatting away nineteen to the dozen   With his mates down the pub   Every evening, 1836, 1837, nothing