Recurring motif in Celtic? folksong. Dying bard calls for his harp/fiddle & plays it for last time (David of the White Rock, Bard of Armagh). Or destroys it (Minstrel Boy, MacPherson’s Lament). Jungian archetype, descent from common meme ancestor or coincidence? Other examples?
May be related to the 'swan song effect': classic musical composers' last works before death tend to be more shorter, more popular with audiences, and more 'aesthetically significant'https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2803611
