Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, he eventually settled in Vienna, Austria.
Life
Brahms' father, Johann Jakob Brahms, came to Hamburg from Schleswig-Holstein,
seeking a career as a town musician. He was proficient on several instruments, but found employment mostly playing the
horn and double bass. He married Johanna Henrika
Christiane Nissen, a seamstress, who was seventeen years older than he was. Initially, they lived near the city docks, in the
Gängeviertel quarter of Hamburg, for six months before moving to a small house on the Dammtorwall, located on the northern
perimeter of Hamburg in the Inner Alster.
House in Hamburg where Brahms was born
Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training. He studied piano from the age of seven with Otto Friedrich Willibald
Cossel. Brahms showed early promise (his younger brother Fritz also became a pianist) and helped to supplement the rather meager
family income by playing the piano in restaurants and theaters, as well as by teaching. It is a long-told tale that Brahms was
forced in his early teens to play the piano in bars that doubled as brothels; recently Brahms scholar Kurt Hoffman has suggested
that this legend is false.[citation needed] Since Brahms himself clearly originated the story, however, some have
questioned Hoffman's theory.[citation needed]
For a time, Brahms also learned the cello, although his progress was cut short when his teacher absconded with Brahms's
instrument. After his early piano lessons with Otto Cossel, Brahms studied piano with Eduard
Marxsen, who had studied in Vienna with Ignaz Seyfried (a
pupil of Mozart) and Carl von Bocklet (a close
friend of Schubert). The young Brahms gave a few public concerts in Hamburg, but did not
become well known as a pianist until he made a concert tour at the age of nineteen. In later life, he frequently took part in the
performance of his own works, whether as soloist, accompanist, or participant in chamber music. He was the soloist at the
premieres of both his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1859 and his
Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1881. He conducted choirs from his early teens,
and became a proficient choral and orchestral conductor.
He began to compose quite early in life, but later destroyed most copies of his first works; for instance, Marxsen's memoirs
report a piano sonata that Brahms had played or improvised at the age of 11.[citation needed] His compositions did not receive public acclaim until he went on a concert
tour as accompanist to the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi in April and May of 1853. On
this tour he met Joseph Joachim at Hanover, and went on
to the Court of Weimar where he met Franz Liszt, Peter
Cornelius, and Joachim Raff. According to several witnesses of Brahms's meeting with
Liszt (at which Liszt performed Brahms's Scherzo, Op. 4 at sight), Reményi was offended
by Brahms's failure to praise Liszt's Sonata in B minor wholeheartedly (Brahms
supposedly fell asleep during a performance of the recently composed work), and they parted company shortly afterwards.
Joachim had given Brahms a letter of introduction to Robert Schumann, and after a
walking tour in the Rhineland Brahms took the train to Düsseldorf, and was welcomed into the Schumann family on arrival there. Schumann, amazed by the 20-year-old's
talent, published an article "Neue Bahnen" (New Paths) in the journal Neue
Zeitschrift für Musik alerting the public to the young man who he claimed was "destined to give ideal expression to
the times". This pronouncement was received with some scepticism outside Schumann's immediate circle, and may have increased the
naturally self-critical Brahms's need to perfect his works and technique. While he was in Düsseldorf, Brahms participated with
Schumann and Albert Dietrich in writing a sonata for Joachim; this is known as the
F-A-E Sonata. He became very attached to Schumann's wife, the composer and pianist
Clara, fourteen years his senior, with whom he would carry on a lifelong, emotionally
passionate, but probably platonic, relationship. Brahms never married, despite strong feelings for several women and despite
entering into an engagement, soon broken off, with Agathe von Siebold in Göttingen in 1859.
After Schumann's attempted suicide and subsequent confinement in a mental sanatorium near Bonn in
February 1854, Brahms was the main go-between between Clara and her husband, and found himself virtually head of the
household.
After Schumann’s death at the sanatorium in 1856, Brahms divided his time between Hamburg, where he formed and conducted a
ladies’ choir, and the principality of Detmold, where he was court music-teacher and conductor.
He first visited Vienna in 1862, staying there over the winter, and in 1863 was appointed
conductor of the Vienna Singakademie. Though he resigned the position the following year and
entertained the idea of taking up conducting posts elsewhere, he based himself increasingly in Vienna and soon made his home
there. From 1872 to 1875 he was director of the concerts of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde; afterwards he accepted no formal position. He refused
an honorary doctorate of music from University of Cambridge in 1877 (he was
afraid of being lionized in England, where his music was already very popular) but accepted one from the University of
Breslau in 1879, composing the Academic
Festival Overture in response.
He had been composing steadily throughout the 1850s and 60s, but his music had evoked divided critical responses and the Piano
Concerto No. 1 had been badly received in some of its early performances. His works were labelled old-fashioned by the 'New
German School' whose principal figures included Liszt and Richard Wagner. Brahms in fact
admired some of Wagner's music and admired Liszt as a great pianist, but in 1860 he attempted to organize a public protest
against some of the wilder excesses of their music.[citation needed] His manifesto, which was published prematurely with only three supporting
signatures, was a failure and he never engaged in public polemics again. It was the premiere of Ein deutsches Requiem, his largest choral work, in Bremen in
1868 that confirmed Brahms's European reputation and led many to accept that he had fulfilled Schumann’s prophecy. This may have
given him the confidence finally to complete a number of works that had been wrestled with over many years, such as the cantata
Rinaldo, his first string quartet, third piano quartet, and most notably his
first symphony. This appeared in 1876, though it had been begun (and a version of the first movement seen by some of his friends)
in the early 1860s. The other three symphonies then followed in 1877, 1883, and 1885. From 1881 he was able to try out his new
orchestral works with the court orchestra of the Duke of Meiningen, whose conductor was
Hans von Bülow.
Brahms frequently traveled, for both business (concert tours) and pleasure. From 1878 onwards he often visited
Italy in the springtime, and usually sought out a pleasant rural location in which to compose
during the summer. He was a great walker and especially enjoyed spending time in the open air, where he felt that he could think
more clearly.
In 1889, one Theo Wangemann, a representative of American inventor Thomas Edison
visited the composer in Vienna and invited him to make an experimental recording. He played an abbreviated version of his first
Hungarian dance on the piano. The recording was later issued on an LP of early piano performances (compiled by Gregor Benko);
while the spoken introduction to the short piece of music is quite clear, the piano playing is largely inaudible due to heavy
surface noise. Nevertheless, this remains the earliest recording made by a major composer. Analysts and scholars remain divided,
however, as to whether the voice that introduces the piece is that of Wangemann or of Brahms.
In 1890, the 57-year-old Brahms resolved to give up composing. However, as it turned out, he was unable to abide by his
decision, and in the years before his death he produced a number of acknowledged masterpieces. His admiration for Richard
Mühlfeld, clarinettist with the Meiningen orchestra, moved him to compose the Clarinet Trio Op.
114, Clarinet Quintet Op. 115 (1891), and the two Clarinet Sonatas Op. 120 (1894). He also wrote several cycles of piano pieces, Opp. 116-119,
and the Four Serious Songs (Vier ernste Gesänge), Op. 121 (1896).
While completing the Op. 121 songs, Brahms developed cancer (sources differ on whether this was of the liver or pancreas). His condition gradually worsened
and he died on April 3, 1897. Brahms is buried in the
Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.
Although many listeners may regard Brahms as one of the last bastions of the Romantic
Period, he was not a mainstream Romantic, but rather maintained a Classical sense of form and order within his works – in
contrast to the opulence and excesses of many of his contemporaries. Thus many admirers (though not necessarily Brahms himself)
saw him as the champion of traditional forms and "pure music," as opposed to the New German embrace of program music. With the
possible exception of Anton Bruckner, Brahms was arguably unmatched as a symphonist in
the late 19th century. His symphonies helped revive a virtually moribund genre, and inspired such composers as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius.
Though he was viewed as diametrically opposed to Wagner during his lifetime, it is incorrect to characterize Brahms as a
reactionary. His point of view looked both backward and forward; his output was often bold in harmony and expression, prompting
Arnold Schoenberg to write his 1933 essay "Brahms the Progressive", which paved the
way for the re-evaluation of Brahms's reputation in the 20th century. Only in recent decades have scholars begun to examine
Brahms's remarkably original rhythmic conceptions, which include 5- and 7-beat meters.[citation needed]
Brahms himself had considered giving up composition at a time when all notions of tonality
were being stretched to their limit and that further expansion would seemingly only result in the rules of tonality being broken
altogether. But he offered substantial encouragement to Schoenberg's teacher Alexander
Zemlinsky, and was apparently much impressed by two movements of Schoenberg's early Quartet in D major which Zemlinsky showed him.
Works
- See also: List of compositions
by Johannes Brahms and Category:Compositions by Johannes Brahms
Brahms wrote a number of major works for orchestra, including two serenades, four
symphonies, two piano concertos (See
First Piano Concerto; Second Piano Concerto), a Violin
Concerto, a Double Concerto for violin and cello, and a pair of
orchestral overtures, the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture.
His large choral work Ein deutsches Requiem ("A German Requiem") is not
a traditional, liturgical requiem (Missa pro defunctis), but a setting of texts which Brahms selected from the
Lutheran Bible. The work was composed in three major periods of his life. An earlier
version of the second movement was first composed in 1854, not long after Robert
Schumann's attempted suicide, and was later finished and used in his first piano concerto. The majority of the Requiem was
composed after his mother's death in 1865. The fifth movement was later added after the official premiere in 1868. The complete
work was then published in 1869.
Brahms's works in variation form include the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel and the Paganini Variations, both for solo piano, and the Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn in versions for two pianos and for
orchestra. The final movement of the Fourth Symphony (Op. 98) is also formally a
set of variations.
His chamber works include three string quartets, two string quintets and two string
sextets, as well as a clarinet quintet, a clarinet trio, a horn trio, a piano quintet, three piano quartets and three piano
trios. He composed several instrumental sonatas with piano, including three for violin, two for cello and two for clarinet (which
were subsequently arranged for viola by the composer). His solo piano works range from his early piano sonatas and ballades to his late sets of character pieces. Brahms also wrote about 200 songs and is considered among
the greatest of Lieder composers (with Schubert and Schumann). His chorale preludes for organ, which he wrote shortly before his
death, have become an important part of the organist's repertoire.
Brahms never wrote an opera, nor did he ever write in the characteristic late-19th-century form
of the tone poem, strongly preferring to compose absolute music that does not refer to an explicit scene or narrative.
Despite his reputation as a serious composer of large, complex musical designs, some of Brahms's most widely known and
commercially successful compositions during his life were aimed at the thriving contemporary market for domestic music-making,
and are small-scale and popular in intention. These included his arrangements of popular dances, in Hungarian Dances, the
Waltzes Op. 39 for piano duet, the Liebeslieder Waltzes for vocal quartet and piano, and some of his many songs,
notably the Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4 (published in 1868). This last item was written (to a folk text) to celebrate the
birth of a son to Brahms's friend Bertha Faber, and is universally known as Brahms'
Lullaby.
Influences on Brahms
Brahms venerated Beethoven, perhaps even more than other Romantic composers did.
In the composer's home, a marble bust of Beethoven looked down on the spot where he composed. His works contain a number of
apparent imitations of Beethoven. Thus, the beginning of Brahms's First Piano Sonata is very
close to the opening of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata; and the
main theme of the finale of Brahms's First Symphony is reminiscent of the main
theme of the finale of Beethoven's Ninth. (When the latter resemblance was
pointed out to Brahms, he replied that any ass – jeder Esel – could see that.)
His work Ein deutsches Requiem was partially inspired by his mother's
death in 1865, but also incorporates material from the Symphony he had started in 1854 but later abandoned following Schumann's
suicide attempt. He once wrote that the Requiem "belonged to Schumann". (The first movement of this abandoned Symphony was
re-worked as the first movement of the First Piano Concerto).
Brahms also loved the Classical composers Mozart and Haydn. He collected first editions and autographs of their works, and edited performing editions. Even more
remarkable than this was his deep learning and study of the pre-classical composers including Gabrieli, Hasse, Schütz and especially Bach, among others. He had many
friends among the leading musicologists of his day and he edited works by composers such as Rameau and Francois Couperin. He was well ahead of his
time in his creative interest in this "Early Music" as composer, performer and scholar and particularly looked to such older
music for inspiration in the arts of strict counterpoint. In fact, many of the themes to
his better-known works are modelled on Baroque sources, such as Bach's The Art of Fugue in the fugal finale of Cello Sonata No.1, or the same composer's Cantata No. 150 in
the passacaglia theme of the Fourth
Symphony.
Brahms's affection for the Classical period may also be reflected in his choice of genres: he favored the Classical forms of
the sonata, symphony, and concerto, and frequently composed movements in sonata form. Although
Brahms is often labeled as the most "Classical" Romantic composer, this label does not reflect all of his works. It was his
public divide between the musical schools of Richard Wagner and himself that gained him
this label, though this divide was polemicised more by their followers than the composers themselves. Although Wagner became
fiercely critical of Brahms as the latter grew in stature and popularity, he was enthusiastically receptive of the early
Variations on a Theme by Handel; Brahms himself, according to many sources (Swafford, 1999), deeply admired Wagner's music,
confining his ambivalence only to the dramaturgical precepts of Wagner's theory.
The early Romantic composers also had a major influence on Brahms. Particularly
influential was Schumann, who also helped pave Brahms's career as a young composer.
Brahms met frequently with Robert and Clara Schumann, meetings in which they performed
music of both great composers. During his journey to Vienna in 1862-3, Brahms became particularly
interested in the music of Schubert[1]. The latter's influence may be identified in works by Brahms dating from the period, such as
the two piano quartets Op. 25, and the Piano Quintet (the latter alluding to
Schubert's String Quintet and Grand
Duo for piano in four hands)[2][1]. There is less evidence for influence of
Chopin and Mendelssohn on Brahms, although
occasionally one can find in his works what seems to be an allusion to one of their works (for example, Brahms's Scherzo Op. 4
alludes to Chopin's Scherzo in B-flat minor[3]; the scherzo
movement in Brahms's piano sonata in F minor, Op. 5 alludes to the finale of
Mendelssohn's piano trio in C minor[4]).
A quite different influence on Brahms was folk music. Brahms wrote settings for piano and
voice of 144 German folk songs, and many of his lieder reflect folk themes or depict scenes of rural life. His
Hungarian dances were among his most profitable compositions, and in
orchestrated versions remain well known today.
Brahms was almost certainly influenced by the technological development of the piano, which
reached essentially its modern form during his lifetime. Much of Brahms's piano music and many of his lieder make use of the deep bass notes and the pedal to obtain a very rich and powerful sound.
Although it is not entirely clear what Brahms' religious views were, one of his greatest influences was the Bible. He loved reading the Bible, especially Luther's translation. His "Requiem" employs biblical texts to convey
a humanist message, with a focus on the living rather than the dead. Author Walter Niemann declares, "The fact that Brahms began
his creative activity with the German folk song and closed with the Bible reveals...the true religious creed of this great man of
the people." Others see Brahms as more of a cultural Lutheran who embraces the cultural aspects of his upbringing but may or may
not actually hold to the religious beliefs.[5]
Brahms's personality
Like Beethoven, Brahms was fond of nature and often went walking in the woods around Vienna. He often brought penny candy with
him to hand out to children. To adults Brahms was often brusque and sarcastic, and he sometimes alienated other people. His pupil
Gustav Jenner wrote, "Brahms has acquired, not without reason, the reputation for being a
grump, even though few could also be as lovable as he.[6]"
He also had predictable habits which were noted by the Viennese press such as his daily visit to his favourite "Red Hedgehog"
tavern in Vienna and the press also particularly took into account his style of walking with his
hands firmly behind his back complete with a caricature of him in this pose walking alongside a red hedgehog. Those who remained
his friends were very loyal to him, however, and he reciprocated with equal loyalty and generosity.
Brahms was a lifelong friend with Johann Strauss II though they were very different
as composers. Brahms even struggled to get to the Theater an der Wien in
Vienna for the premiere of Strauss's operetta Die Göttin der
Vernunft in 1897 before his death. Perhaps the greatest tribute that Brahms could pay to
Strauss was his remark that he would have given anything to have written The Blue
Danube waltz. An anecdote dating around the time Brahms became acquainted with Strauss
is that when Strauss's wife Adele asked Brahms to autograph her fan, he wrote a few notes from the "Blue Danube" waltz, and then
cheekily inscribed the words "Alas, not by Brahms!"
Starting in the 1860s, when his works sold widely, Brahms was financially quite successful. He preferred a modest life style,
however, living in a simple three-room apartment with a housekeeper. He gave away much of his money to relatives, and anonymously
helped support a number of young musicians.
Brahms was an extreme perfectionist. He destroyed many early works - including a Violin Sonata he performed with Reményi and
violinist Ferdinand David - and once claimed to have destroyed 20 string
quartets before he issued his official First in 1873. Over the course of several years, he changed an original project for a
Symphony in D minor into a piano concerto, his first. In another instance of
devotion to detail, he labored over the official First Symphony for almost fifteen years, from about 1861 to 1876. Even after its
first few performances, Brahms destroyed the original slow movement and substituted another before the score was published. (A
conjectural restoration of the original slow movement has been published by Robert Pascall.) Another factor that contributed to
Brahms's perfectionism was that Schumann had announced early on that Brahms was to
become the next great composer like Beethoven, a prediction that Brahms was determined to live up to. This prediction hardly
added to the composer's self-confidence, and may have contributed to the delay in producing the First Symphony. However,
Clara Schumann noted before that Brahms's First Symphony was a product that was not
reflective of Brahms's real nature. She felt that the final exuberant movement was "too brilliant," as she was encouraged by the
dark and tempestuous opening movement she had seen in an early draft. However, she recanted in accepting the Second Symphony,
which has often been seen in modern times as one of his sunniest works. Other contemporaries, however, found the first movement
especially dark, and Reinhold Brinkmann, in a study of Symphony No.2 in relation to 19th century
ideas of melancholy, has published a revealing letter from Brahms to the composer and
conductor Vinzenz Lachner in which Brahms confesses to the melancholic side of his
nature and comments on specific features of the movement that reflect this.
Brahms' place in musical history, which so concerned him, has placed him among the three great "Bs" of German composers: Bach,
Beethoven and Brahms.
Legacy
Lovers of his music consider Brahms on a par with the likes of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. His greatest music achieves a
synthesis of the visceral quality of Wagner with the gracefulness and classical harmony of Mozart. He is equally distinguished as
a composer of symphonic and chamber music. While Brahms has often been characterized as a "classicizing" Romantic composer who
worked in old traditions and had no followers among the succeeding generations of composers, and who summed up and brought the
classical tradition to an end, this is not true. His harmonic experiments are sometimes almost as daring as Wagner's, and his
frequent use of odd, angular rhythmic themes anticipated the works of 20th century compositional innovators such as
Arnold Schoenberg, who expressed deep admiration for him.
As one of the central composers of the classical music tradition, Brahms and his music have appeared widely in film and other
works of popular culture.
Brahms was also honoured by the German Hall of Fame, the Walhalla temple. On
14 September 2000 he was introduced there as 126th
"rühmlich ausgezeichneter Teutscher" and 13th composer among them, by a bust of sculptor Milan Knobloch. [7]
Lacking the flamboyant personality of a Mozart or the signature romantic elan of Beethoven, Brahms has never achieved the same
level of popular appeal, deservedly or undeservedly. No popular films have attempted to represent his life, which, it should be
said, was somewhat uneventful. Brahms was above all a man who consecrated his life to his art.
Writing in The New Oxford Companion to Music, Denis Arnold concludes:- '...His appeal to musicians lies in the quality of his craftsmanship. His wider
appeal surely lies in the essential conflict between the depth of emotion so often evident yet hidden behind his natural reserve.
...'
Books
- , ISBN 0-19-816234-0 by Brahms himself, edited by
Styra Avins, translated by Josef Eisinger (1998). A biography by
way of comprehensive footnotes to a comprehensive collection of Brahms's letters (some translated into English for the first
time). Elucidates some previously contentious matters, such as Brahms's reasons for declining the Cambridge invitation.
- Brahms, His Life and Work, by Karl Geiringer,
photographs by Irene Geiringer (1987, ISBN 0-306-80223-6). A bio and discussion of his musical
output, supplemented by and cross-referenced with the body of correspondence sent to Brahms.
- Charles Rosen discusses a number of Brahms's imitations of Beethoven in Chapter 9 of
his Critical Entertainments: Music Old and New (2000; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-17730-4).
- Brahms by Malcolm MacDonald is a biography and also
discussion of virtually everything Brahms composed, along with chapters examining his position in Romantic music, his devotion to
Early Music, and his influence on later composers. (Dent 'Master Musicians' series, 1990; 2nd edition Oxford, 2001, ISBN
0-19-816484-X
- , by Jan Swafford. A
comprehensive (752 pages) look at the life and works of Brahms. (1999; Vintage, ISBN 0-679-74582-3)
- , by Reinhold Brinkmann, translated
by Peter Palmer. An analysis of Symphony No.2 and meditation of its position in Brahms's career and in relation to 19th century
ideas of melancholy. (1995, Harvard, ISBN 0-674-51175-1)
(The Letters and the three biographical works listed above mutually support the statements in the biographical section of this
article.)
Notes and references
- 1 Kurt Hoffman, Johannes Brahms und Hamburg (Reinbek, 1986) (in German: includes detailed refutation of the
traditional story of Brahms playing piano in brothels, using the writings of those who knew the young Brahms, as well as evidence
of the Hamburg's close regulation of those places, preventing the employment of children)
- ^ a b James Webster,
"Schubert's sonata form and Brahms's first maturity (II)", 19th-Century Music 3(1) (1979), pp. 52-71.
- ^ Donald Francis Tovey, "Franz
Schubert" (1927), rpt. in Essays and Lectures on Music (London, 1949), p. 123. Cf. his similar remarks in "Tonality in
Schubert" (1928), rpt. ibid., p. 151.
- ^ Charles Rosen, "Influence:
plagiarism and inspiration", 19th-Century Music 4(2) (1980), pp. 87-100.
- ^ H. V. Spanner, "What is originality?", The Musical Times 93(1313)
(1952), pp. 310-311.
- ^ Beller-McKenna, Daniel. Brahms and the German Spirit. Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 2004, ISBN 0-674-01318-2
- ^ http://members.aol.com/abelard2/jenner.htm
- ^ http://www.stmwfk.bayern.de/pressearchiv/2000/09/sept124.html
Media
