As a child, Vivier’s feelings of loneliness and rejection hatched and grew stronger and stronger until they wholly encompassed him.  These feelings emerged from the rejection of his biological parents at birth and later from the rejection of his adoptive mother.  Vivier’s homosexuality also enhanced his sense of isolation.  The many idiosyncrasies that developed in Vivier’s life probably originated from the isolation, rejection and abandonment he felt throughout his life.  For example he was afraid of the dark and even as a grown man he slept with every light in the house on.  He was also afraid of being alone on Christmas Eve.  Even his choice in career was affected by his  feelings of loneliness, as no one could intrude on his compositions.  His emotions were so apparent that when Johnny Silver made a film of Claude Vivier’s life he entitled it “Lonely Child” after one of Vivier’s own compositions in which he himself admitted that he identified with the lonely child.

Claude Vivier had an abrasive personality.  At social functions, like concerts, press conferences, parties, etc., he often created scenes by making outlandish personal remarks as an attempt to draw attention to himself and become the center of everyone’s attention.  Once again this behavior stems from his overpowering necessity for the love and attentiveness that eluded him as a child.  Anyone who heard his laugh found it to be distinctive and unforgettable.  It has been described as “machine-gun laughter that grated on nerves”.  His manner was audacious and often disagreeable in public, this made him many enemies.  However, his closest friends such as his best friend Therese Desjardins claims that in private he was composed and courteous.

Everyone thought that he was a man in search of himself.  His insecurities prompted his interest in religious ideas like immortality and the afterlife.  During the end of Vivier’s life he would get up early in the morning and devote his whole day to composing.  His nights were spent socializing.  He frequented bars, movies, and parties.  He visited his friends and associated with artists of a variety of disciplines such as poets, dancers, writers, and cinematographers.  On March 7, 1983 Claude Vivier went out to a bar and then brought home one of his many male guests.  The next day he missed an important meeting.  Later that week Therese Desjardins alerted the authorities when Vivier missed his weekly phone call.  So, five days after Vivier left the bar, the Parisian authorities broke into his apartment and found him under an overturned mattress stabbed multiple times (Some reports say twenty others say forty-five, but either way there were a lot of knife wounds).  The friends instrumental in finding Vivier begged to keep the press off the story.  However, one overzealous network ran the story and Vivier’s adoptive parents and most of his friends in Canada found out about his death from the television.  Eventually the Parisian police force found Vivier’s murderer.  Pascal Delza, a twenty year old drug addict who had murdered two other men.

It is noteworthy to mention that in English Canada Claude Viver’s death was barely acknowledged.  It was not until 1986 (3 years after his death) that any English music journal in Canada made a significant reference to his death. The French Canadians on the other hand did pay tribute to Vivier during the time of his death.  For many years after Vivier’s death Therese Desjardins has been trying to preserve his music.  She organized concerts, had  his works published and recorded, made sure that all pictures and information pertaining to him are kept, and set up a society called “Amis de Claude Vivier”.