We went back in time and offered this advice to the great composers

1. Gustav Holst

So Holst wasn't too keen about adding Pluto to The Planets suite when it was named the ninth planet in 1930. But what about the third rock from the sun?

2. Johann Pachelbel

It's just the same eight notes over and over and over...but when do you stop?

3. Edward Elgar

The Enigma Variations by Elgar are called that because there's an initial melody on which the variations are based. But nobody knows what it is.

4. J.S. Bach

It's expensive to think about educating 20 children.

5. Charles-Valentin Alkan

Legend has it that the poor composer died after he reached for a copy of the Talmud from the top of a bookcase and it toppled over.

6. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

In July 1791, a masked stranger called on Mozart to commission a Requiem. Also known as the Man in Grey, the Mysterious Messenger and the Gray Messenger, the caller is seen as hastening Mozart's early death in the film 'Amadeus'.