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BRAHMS, JOHANNES (1833–1897)
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See also:BRAHMS, JOHANNES (1833–1897) , See also:German composer, was See also:born in See also:Hamburg on the 7th of May 1833. He was the son of a See also:double-See also:bass player in the Hamburg See also:city See also:theatre and received his first musical instruction from his See also:father. After some lessons from O. Cossel, he went to Cossel's See also:master, Eduard Marxsen of See also:Altona, whose experience and See also:artistic See also:taste directed the See also:young See also:man's See also:genius into the highest paths. A couple of public appearances as a pianist were hardly an interruption to the course of his musical studies, and these were continued nearly up to the See also:time when Brahms accepted an engagement as accompanist to the Hungarian violinist, Remenyi, for a See also:concert tour in 1853. At See also:Gottingen there occurred a famous contretemps which had a most important though indirect See also:influence on the whole after-See also:life of the young player. A piano on which he was to See also:play the " See also:Kreutzer " See also:sonata of See also:Beethoven with Remenyi turned out to be a semitone below the required See also:pitch; and Brahms played the See also:part by See also:heart, transposing it from A to B See also:flat, in such a way that the See also:great violinist, See also:Joachim, who was See also:present and discerned what the feat implied, introduced himself to Brahms, and laid the See also:foundation of a life-See also:long friendship. Joachim gave him introductions to See also:Liszt at See also:Weimar and to See also:Schumann at See also:Dusseldorf; the former hailed him for a time as a member of the advanced party in See also:music, on the strength of his E flat See also:minor See also:scherzo, but the misapprehension was not of long continuance. The intro-duction to Schumann impelled that master, now See also:drawing near the tragic See also:close of his career, to write the famous See also:article " Neue Bahnen," in which the young Brahms was proclaimed to be the great composer of the future, " he who was to come." The See also:critical insight in Schumann's article is all the more surprising when it is remembered how small was the See also:list of Brahms's See also:works at the time. A See also:string quartet, the first See also:pianoforte sonata, the scherzo already mentioned, and the earliest See also:group of songs, containing the dramatic " Liebestreu," are the works which See also:drew forth the warm commendations of Schumann. In See also:December 1853 Brahms gave a concert at See also:Leipzig, as a result of which the firms of Breitkopf & Haertel and of Senff undertook to publish his compositions. In 1854 he was given the See also:post of See also:choir-director and music-master to the See also:prince of See also:Lippe-Detmold, but he resigned it after a few years, going first to Hamburg, and then to See also:Zurich, where he enjoyed the friendship and artistic counsel of Theodor Kirchner. The unfavourable See also:verdict of the Leipzig Gewandhaus See also:audience upon his pianoforte See also:concerto in D minor op. 15, and several remarkably successful appearances in See also:Vienna, where he was appointed director of the Singakademie in 1863, were the most important See also:external events of Brahms's life, but again he gave up the conductorship after a few months of valuable See also:work, and for about three years had no fixed See also:place of See also:abode. Concert See also:tours with Joachim or Stockhausen were undertaken, and it was not until 1867 that he returned to Vienna, or till 1872 that he See also:chose it definitely as his See also:home, his longest See also:absence from the See also:Austrian See also:capital being between 1874 and 1878, when he lived near See also:Heidelberg. From 1871 to 1874 he conducted the concerts of the " Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde," but after the later date he occupied no See also:official position of any See also:kind. With the exception of journeys to See also:Italy in the See also:spring, or to See also:Switzerland in the summer, he rarely See also:left Vienna. He refused to come to See also:England to take the honorary degree of See also:Mus.D. offered by the university of See also:Cambridge; the university of See also:Breslau made him Ph.D. in 1881; in 1886 he was created a See also:knight of the Prussian See also:order Pour le 'Write, and in 1889 was presented with the freedom of his native city. He died in Vienna on the 3rd of See also:April 1897. The works of Brahms may be summarized as follows: Various sacred compositions for See also:chorus, op. 12, 13, 22, 27, 29, 30, 37, leading up to op. 45, the " German See also:Requiem "first performed at See also:Bremen in 1868, and subsequently completed by a See also:soprano See also:solo with chorus; the " Triumphlied " in See also:commemoration of the German victories of 1870–71; and some choral songs and motets, op. 74, 109 and 11o. See also:Secular choral works, op. 17, 41, 42, 44, 50 (" Rinaldo " for See also:tenor solo and male choir), 53 (" Rhapsodie," See also:alto solo and male choir), 54 (" Schicksalslied "), 62, 82 (See also:Schiller's Nanie), 89 (" Gesang der Parzen "), 93, 104, 113. Concerted vocal works, op. 20, 28, 31, 52 (" Liebeslieder-Walzer ") 61, 64, 65 (" Neue Liebeslieder "), 75, 92, 103, 112. Solo songs, nearly 300. Orchestral works: four symphonies, op. 68, 73, 90 and 98; two serenades, op. 11 and 16; two pianoforte concertos, op. 15 and 83, one See also:violin concerto, op. 77; concerto for violin and See also:violoncello; op. 1o2; See also:variations on a theme by See also:Haydn, op. 56; two overtures, " Academische Festouverture," op. 8o, and " Tragic See also:Overture," op. 81. Chamber music: two sextets, op. 18 and 36; quintet, piano and strings, op. 34, strings, op. 88 and 111, See also:clarinet and strings, op. 115; three string quartets, op. 51 and 67, three quartets for piano and strings, op. 25, 26 and 6o. Three trios for piano and strings, op. 8, 87 and rot; trio for piano, violin and See also:horn, op. 40; piano, clarinet and violoncello, Op. 114. 
See also:Duet sonatas, three for piano and violin, op. 78, 100 and 1o8; two for piano and violoncello, op. 38 and 99; two for piano and clarinet, op. 120. Pianoforte solos: three sonatas, op. I, 2 and 5; scherzo, op. 4; variations, op. 9, 21, 23, 24, 35; 4 See also:ballads, op. 1c ; waltzes, op. 39; two rhapsodies, op. 79; caprices and intermezzi, op. 76, 116, 117, 118 and 119. 5 studies and 51 Uebungen without See also:opus-number, and a See also:chorale-prelude and See also:fugue for See also:organ, besides four books of Hungarian Dances arranged for pianoforte duet. Brahms has often been called the last of the great classical masters, in a sense wider than that of his place in the long See also:line of the great composers of See also:Germany. Though only the most superficial observers could deny him the See also:possession of qualities which distinguish the masters of the romantic school, it is as a classicist that he must be ranked among See also:modern musicians. From the beginning of his career until its close, his ideas were clothed by preference in the forms which had sufficed for Beethoven, and the instances in which he departed from structural precedent are so rare that they might be disregarded, were they not of such high value that they must be considered as the signs of a logical development of musical See also:form, and not as indicating a spirit of See also:rebellion against existing modes of structure. His practice, more frequent in later than in earlier life, of See also:welding together the " working-out " and the " recapitulation " sections of his movements in a closer See also:union than any of his predecessors had attempted, is an innovation which cannot fail to have important results in the future; and if the skill of younger writers is not adequate to such a display of ingenuity as occurs in the See also:finale of the See also:fourth See also:symphony, where the " See also:passacaglia " form has been used with an effect that is almost bewildering to the See also:ordinary listener, that at least stands as a See also:monument of inventiveness finely subordinated to the emotional and intellectual purport of the thoughts expressed. His themes are always See also:noble, and even from the point of view of emotional See also:appeal their deep intensity of expression is of a kind which grows upon all who have once been awakened to their beauty, or have been at the pains to grasp the composer's characteristics of utterance. His vocal music, whether for one See also:voice or many, is remarkable for its fidelity to natural inflection and accentuation of the words, and for its perfect reflection of the poet's See also:mood. His songs, vocal quartets and choral works abound in passages that prove him a master of effects of See also:sound; and throughout his chamber music, in his treatment of the piano, of the strings, or of the solo See also:wind See also:instruments he employs, there are numberless examples which sufficiently show the irrelevance of a See also:charge sometimes brought against his music, that it is deficient in a sense of what is called " See also:tone-See also:colour." It is perfectly true that the See also:mere acoustic effect of a passage was of far less importance to him than its inherent beauty, poetic import, or logical fitness in a definite See also:scheme of development; and that often in his orchestral music the casual hearer receives an impression of complexity rather than of clearness, and is See also:apt to imagine that the " thickness " of See also:instrumentation is the result of clumsiness or carelessness. Such instances as the introduction to the finale of the first symphony, the close of the first See also:movement of the second, what may be called the See also:epilogue of the third, or the whole of the variations on a theme of Haydn, are not only marvels of delicate workmanship in regard to structure, but are See also:instinct with the sense of the See also:peculiar beauty and characteristics of each See also:instrument. The " See also:Academic Festival " overture proves Brahms a master of musical See also:humour, in his treatment of the student songs which serve as its themes; and the See also:companion piece, the " Tragic " overture, reaches a height of sublimity which is in no way lessened because no particular tragedy has ever been named in See also:conjunction with the work. As with all creative artists of supreme See also:rank, the work of Brahms took a considerable time before it was very generally appreciated. The See also:change in public See also:opinion is strikingly illustrated in regard to the songs, which, once voted ineffective and unvocal, have now taken a place in every eminent See also:singer's repertory. The outline in his greater works must be grasped with some definiteness before the See also:separate ideas can be properly understood in their true relation to each other; and while it is his wonderful See also:power of handling the recognized classical forms, so as to make them seem absolutely new, which stamps him as the greatest musical architect since Beethoven, the See also:necessity for realizing in some degree what musical form signifies has undoubtedly been a See also:bar to the rapid See also:acceptance of his greater works by the uneducated lovers of music. These are of course far more easily moved by effects of colour than by the subtler beauties of organic structure, and Brahms's attitude towards tone-colour was scarcely such as would endear him to the large number of musicians in whose view tone-colour is pre-eminent. His mastery of form, again, has been 'attacked as formalism by superficial critics, See also:blind to the realinspiration and distinction of his ideas, and to their perfection in regard to See also:style and the appropriateness of every theme to the exact emotional See also:state to be expressed. In his larger vocal works there are some which treat of emotional conditions far removed from the usual stock of subjects taken by the See also:average composer; to compare the ideas in the " German Requiem " with those of the " Schicksalslied " or " Nanie " is to learn a See also:lesson in artistic style which can never be forgotten. In the songs, too, it is scarcely too much to say that the whole range of human emotion finds expression in noble lyrics that yield to none in actual musical beauty. The four " Ernste Gesange," Brahms's last See also:composition, must be considered as his supreme achievement in dignified utterance of noble thoughts in a style that perfectly fits them. The choice of words for these as well as for the " Requiem " and others of his serious works reveals a strong sense of the vanity and emptiness of human life, but at least as strong a confidence in the divine consolations. It has been the misfortune of the musical See also:world in Germany that every prominent musician is ranged by critics and amateurs in one of two hostile camps, and it was probably due in the See also:main to the misrepresentations of the followers of See also:Wagner that the See also:idea was so generally held that Brahms was a man of narrow sympathies and hard, not to say brutal See also:manners. The latter impression was fostered, no doubt, by the master's natural detestation of the methods by which the average lionizer seeks to gain his See also:object, and both alike are disproved in the Recollections of J. V. Widmann, an intimate friend for many years, which throw a new See also:light on the master, revealing him as a man of the widest artistic sympathies, neither intolerant of excellence in a line opposed to his own, nor weakly enthusiastic over mediocre productions by composers whose views were in See also:complete sympathy with him. His admiration for See also:Verdi and Wagner is enough to show that the absence of any operatic work from his list of compositions was simply due to the difficulty of finding a libretto which appealed to him, not to any antagonism to the lyric See also:stage in its modern developments. How far he stood from the prejudices of the typical See also:pedant may be seen in the passionate love he showed throughout his life for See also:national music, especially that of See also:Hungary. Not only were his arrangements of Hungarian dances the first work by which his name was known outside his native See also:land, but his first pianoforte quartet, op. 25 in G minor, incurred the wrath of the critics of the time by its introduction of some characteristics of Hungarian music into the finale. His arrangement of a number of See also:children's traditional songs was published without his name, and dedicated to the children of See also:Robert and See also:Clara Schumann in the earliest years of his creative life; and among the last of his publications was a collection of See also:forty-nine German Volkslieder, arranged with the utmost skill, taste and simplicity. He had a great admiration for the waltzes of See also:Strauss, and in many passages of his own works the entrain that is characteristic of the Viennese See also:dance-writers is present in a striking degree. See also W. H. Hadow, Studies in Modern Music (2nd See also:series, 1908) ; and the articles Music, See also:SONG. (J. A. F. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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