Really quick question for french speakers..?

French speakers pls help, question bout passé simple?

• I'm working on this file about France, it's about French culture. Some composers in my file are still alive so I used the passe composé e.g. il est né le... but what if they've been dead for years? do I switch to the passé simple? like 20th century, 19th century so il naquît le... my French teacher thinks the passé simple is very important so I don't wanna just drop it because the passé composé est plus courant all help is appreciated x

• Answer:

  For examples : il mourut en 1650 (he died in 1650), il périt (he died of a violent death).It sounds very formal, provided that you know how to use them and that you master the "concordance des temps". This is less formal, but natives would rather tend to say "Il est mort en 1650" The truth is that the "passé simple" happens to be important only if you aim at getting better than most natives or if you want to write a novel.