Brahms

NAME: Brahms,  Johannes

ACHIEVEMENT:  Major Romantic composer

NICKNAME/ALIAS: None

DATE & PLACE OF BIRTH:  May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany

DATE & PLACE OF DEATH/  AGE AT DEATH: April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria.

Aged 63

DISCIPLINE:  Composer and pianist

FIELD:  Music

LANGUAGE:  German

PARENTS: Johann Jakob Brahms (1806-72) and Johanna Henrika Christiane

Nissen (1789-1865), married in 1830.

SIBLINGS:   Elisabeth Wilhelmine Louise, born 1831,

Friedrich Fritz,  1835.   Friedrich taught music, got a reputation he

deplored as  '"the wrong Brahms".

SPOUSE:  None

CHILDREN:  None

EDUCATION:  At 7 he became a pupil of Otto F. Cossel, a piano teacher of

some renown in Hamburg, under whom he quickly became a proficient pianist.

MAJOR WORKS:  Too many to list

LIFE & TIMES:

 Brahms  gave his first  solo piano concert,  in  September 1848.  A second followed in  April, 1849, after which he sent a parcel of his compositions to Robert Schumann* .  It came back unopened.

In  1848, Brahms was introduced to the  music of the 'czardas'  or Gypsy music, the rhythms of which figure in his later work. In Hanover, Brahms met  violinist-virtuoso Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) and the pair  a struck up a life-long friendship.  At Weimar, Joachim introduced  Brahms to Liszt*  (who played Brahms's "Scherzo in E flat minor" (op. 4) at sight), and to the Schumann household.   However, Brahms  could not stand Liszt's music of the "New German School" and wrote a friend that he was horrified by it.  He left couple of weeks later.

Joachim persuaded Brahms go to Dusseldorf to visit Robert Schumann, whom he had just met .  Schumann was deeply impressed with Brahms's compositions and  piano technique and  wrote enthusiastically about him in an  article in his journal, the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik.

In 1853, Brahms gave his first concert in Leipzig , a famous musical center and the headquarters of his publishers.  The concert, at which he played his "Sonata'" op. 1, was attended by both Liszt andBerlioz*,  who at 50 was at the peak of his career. 

In January ,1854 Brahms,  and Robert andClara Schumann*, went to

Hanover to hear Joachim conduct Schumann's "Symphony No. 4".  Here Brahms

met the pianist, conductor and writerHans von Bulow*, who remained a significant figure throughout his life.

In 1859,  Brahms founded  a 40-voice women's choir in Hamburg, which continued until he left  the city  in 1862. He arranged folk songs and wrote original compositions for this choir, and also for a smaller chorus of 12 voices.  He later revised and republished a number of his  works (12 Songs and Romances op. 44) and in 1894 rewrote some others for solo voice and piano.

In 1860, he offered Breitkopf and Hartel the publication of his Piano Concerto, both serenades, the "Begrubnisgesang"  and "Ave Maria", but all but one serenade were refused.

In September ,1863 Brahms  decided to settle in Vienna, the musical capital of Europe.  He was soon accepted into artistic circles and won new friends through his music, especially the G minor and A major piano quartets of 1861. 

Brahms became acquainted withRichard Wagner*  ,  but Wagner

was suspicious of Brahms, fearing him as a rival in the field of opera. In an 1869 article Wagner would attack him so vehemently that reconciliation was impossible.

In January,1865 Brahms's mother died.   He commemorated her in the somber  "Adagio Mesto of the Horn Trio" op. 40.   By 1868 Brahms had become a composer of European standing, but he was still keen to obtain an official appointment , which fitted his idea of being a 'decent, middle-class citizen'. 

In 1872, he  accepted the post of principal conductor for the Vienna Gesellschaftskonzerte (Society of Friends of Music) -- a professional court opera orchestra.  Brahms stayed only three years in the post.

Brahms's  life in Vienna was on the whole regular and quiet, but his renowned quick temper often made him enemies.  He was always conscious of the rivalries between his supporters and those of Wagner and AntonBruckner*.  Though he may have seemed hard to get along with,  his kindness to Dvorak*  is documented,  and he encouraged  the young Gustav Mahler*.

In  1868, Brahms completed his most famous choral work," Ein deutsches Requiem"  (A German Requiem) op. 45.  Based on biblical texts, the work  is still considered one of the most significant  of 19th-century choral music. Brahms  also wrote successful works in a lighter vein. In 1869, he published  two volumes of Hungarian Dances for piano duet and arranged a collection of  Gypsy tunes. Their success was phenomenal.

In 1868-69 he composed his Liebeslieder (Love Songs), graceful waltzes for vocal quartet and four-hand piano accompaniment.  In 1873 he presented  the  orchestral version of his "Variations on a Theme" by Haydn [op. 56], which enjoyed a huge success.

Brahms completed his celebrated "Symphony No. 1 in C Minor" in 1876, his "Symphony No. 2 in D Major" in 1877, and in 1883, his "Symphony No. 3 in F Major." In his last symphony, "No.4 in E Minor", (1889) Brahms  took a simple theme he found in J.S. Bach's"  Cantata No. 150 " and developed it into a set of variations.

Brahms resigned as director of the Society of Friends of Music in 1875, and from then on devoted his life in Vienna almost solely to composition. In 1891, inspired by his acquaintanceship  with outstanding clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld, Brahms wrote the "Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano "(1891),  the "Quintet for Clarinet and Strings" (1891), and two Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano (1894).

In  the last year of  his life, 1896,  Grieg* visited Brahms.  And Brahms was present, seated  beside  Dvorak at the Vienna premiere of Dvorak's  "Ninth Symphony" ("New World Symphony"). 

That year Brahms completed his "Vier ernste Gesunge (Four Serious Songs)" for bass voice and piano, on texts from both the Old and the New Testament, a pessimistic work dealing with the vanity of all earthly things and welcoming death as the healer of pain and weariness. Soon after, Brahms  was diagnosed with  liver cancer and died.

ASSESSMENT:   No 19th-century composer after Beethoven surpassed him in subtlety and command of tonality, harmony and rhythm.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS:  He met Tchaikovsky*

His music was choreographed by Isadora Duncan*

He influenced Schoenberg*

He played with Billroth*

He knew the work of R Strauss*

He met Turgenev*

He turned down Sibelius* as a pupil

ONELINER: Johannes Brahms,  major Romantic composer

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

EB

Becker, Hans, "Brahms", in The New Grove Late Romantic Masters,  London; Macmillan, 1985

Brown, Jonathon, Johannes Brahms: An Essential Guide to his Life and Works, London: Pavilion Books, 1996