Man of note fell a minute short, say (5)
I believe the answer is:
grieg
'man of note' is the definition.
(composer Edvard Grieg)
'fell a minute short say' is the wordplay.
'fell' becomes 'grim' (both can mean formidable or frightening).
'a minute' becomes 'm' (abbreviation).
'short' suggests deleting specific letters (short can mean missing or absent).
'say' becomes 'eg'.
'grim' with 'm' removed is 'gri'.
'gri'+'eg'='GRIEG'
(Other definitions for grieg that I've seen before include "Scandinavian composer, d. 1907" , "Composer of the incidental music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt" , "Norwegian composer (Peer Gynt)" , "Edvard ---, composer" , "Composer of incidental music to Peer Gynt, d.1907" .)