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Johannes Brahms
Great German master of symphonic, chamber, and choral music and lieder. Brahms
never wrote an opera (he came closest in the cantata Rinaldo, Op. 50). Brahms counted
among his close circle of friends some of the greatest musicians of his day, including
Robert and Clara Schumann and Josef Joachim. He was an excellent pianist, though not
a virtuoso, and played several orchestral instruments as a child. He was also a conductor,
although the posts he held, mostly with choral societies with the exception of the
Hamburg Philharmonic, were not particularly prestigious. Finally, he was highly
cognizant of musical history and worked as an editor for numerous editions.
Biography:
Brahms was extremely aware of his position in history. He had seen how
the letters and writings of Beethoven had shaped history’s view of the
great composer (for good and bad). Brahms was often compared to
Beethoven and determined to control his own image in history. With great
deliberation he destroyed much of his personal correspondence and
“inferior” musical works, wrote little about his views on art and aesthetics,
and was taciturn with his friends about his life. In this way, the man
himself has remained somewhat of a mystery to biographers. Clues to his
personality reside in occasional comments made by Brahms and others.
Dr. Billroth’s letters to Hanslick reveal his belief that Brahms was
emotionally and psychologically injured in his youth by his experiences in
the brothels. For example, Brahms maintained a predilection for
prostitutes which Joachim and others decried. He was misogynistic,
although not beyond the norm for his Age. He was both an extrovert and
an introvert in different ways, famous for his caustic wit. He had many
friends, but declared himself friendless. He was generous and supportive
of friends and colleagues, but could be tactless and ignorant of the
consequences of his actions (for example, he supported Joachim’s wife in
a divorce suit, alienating his life-long friend).
This stands in stark contrast to Wagner, who was also very aware of the
gaze of history and who wrote extensively to attempt to shape history’s
view of him. Still, a picture of the man has emerged. He had the
somewhat isolated upbringing of a wunderkind, with a high concentration
of education in musical studies at the expense of a broader education in
life. His adolescent experiences in the brothels of Hamburg, coupled with
his idolization of his dutiful and devoted mother, shaped his ambivalent
attitude toward women. His upbringing in the lower class slums of
Hamburg made him uncomfortable in the opulent presence of royalty and
the artist-celebrity, for example when he visited Liszt at the Court in
Weimar.
Aesthetics:
His early literary tastes were highly Romantic. Among his favorite
authors were E.T.A. Hoffmann, Novalis and Jean Paul, all of whom are
quoted in his early diary “The Young Kreisler’s Treasure Chest”. He
identified with a literary hero of Hoffmann’s name Johannes Kreisler and
adopted that nickname. On the other hand, his education from Marxsen
emphasized Classical principles of form, balance and restraint. Thus the
mature Brahms emerges as a solitary figure in late 19th Century musical
history, bridging the worlds of Romanticism and Classicism. He
composed music first for himself, secondly for his circle of friends and
lastly for the public. Brahms’ eye was always on his place in history. To
that extent he must have felt that his time had passed when he attended his
final concert, a performance of his Fourth Symphony, in 1896.
Brahms was heralded as the Anti-Wagner, the champion of German
symphonic and chamber music whose line began with Haydn and Mozart,
reached an apotheosis in Beethoven, and extended through Mendelssohn
and Schumann to Brahms.
Significance: Brahms wore this mantel heavily. He pursued the integration of
progressive and conservative impulses in music and the integration of the
Romantic and the Classical. He worked for much of his life in an
unprecedented period of peace, prosperity and tranquility in Europe and
ended his career when Europe stood on the brink of the catastrophes on
the twentieth century. The Arts had reached the zenith of Romanticism
and were rushing toward Modernism. Brahms, who had labored to
achieve his self-defined position as the “champion of idealism and craft”
(Swafford) must have felt abandoned by history. He was wrong, of
course. He was heralded during his lifetime as one of the Three B’s, with
his portrait depicted along with Beethoven and Bach during his life. An
enormous amount of his music is in the standard repertoire—his
symphonies are all performed regularly, for example, by every orchestra in
the world. Later, somewhat polemically, Arnold Schoenberg would write
an essay titled “Brahms the Progressive” in which he attempts to herald
Brahms’ compositional techniques as the true progenitor of Serialism.
Works:
There are about 122 opus numbers in Brahms catalogue; Brahms
composed 4 symphonies, two piano concertos, a violin concerto, and a
double concerto for violin and cello. Other orchestral works include the
Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Academic Festival Overture and Tragic
Overture. Among the chamber music there are violin, cello, clarinet and
piano sonatas, a piano quartet and quintet, clarinet quintet, 3 string
quartets and various sets of variations and other piano works. Ein
Deutsches Requiem is his largest composition and most important choral
work which also includes the Alto Rhapsody, Die Schicksalslied, and
Rinaldo. He composed about 200 lieder.
Brahms famously delayed the composition of his first symphony for many
years. He was 43 years old when it was premiered in 1876, and he had
worked on it for 14 years, perhaps the longest gestation period for a
symphony by any major composer. The Second Symphony, a much more
relaxed and congenial work, was completed quickly in 1877. After a
hiatus of five years, Brahms composed his third symphony in 1883 and his
final essay in the form in 1885. The Fourth Symphony was coolly
received by the famously fickle Viennese public, but was played and
cheered at the final concert Brahms attended when it was obvious to the
public that he was dying.
Symphony 4: Completed just two years after the Third Symphony, the Fourth
Symphony was Brahms’s final essay in the form. Although in the
conventional four-movement plan, the work is anything but conventional
in its interior dynamics and structure. It is scored for 2 flutes w/piccolo, 2
oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3
trombones, timpani, triangle and strings. The public received it coolly at
first. A local wit coined the lyric: “Es fiel…ihm wie…dermal…nichts ein”
to accompany the gently rocking opening phrase (“yet again he has no
ideas”). It was premiered in a two-piano version with Brahms at one
piano. Hanslick heard this performance and wrote: “For this first
movement, I had the feeling that I was being beaten by two incredibly
intelligent people.” He was, later, more enthusiastic about the work.
1st movement: a large sonata form with three major theme groups; the
opening theme is a series of descending and then ascending thirds; the
recapitulation is heralded by and augmentation of the first theme;
2nd movement: artfully combines Phrygian mode with major in a requiemlike andante in a sonata form
3rd movement: a boisterous scherzo in 2/2 constructed in an arch-form
whereby the order of themes is inverted in the recapitulation; the triangle
appears in this movement; when asked what he had in mind, Brahms said:
“Alexander the Great marches to India.”
4th movement: a passacaglia based on a passacaglia theme by Bach from
the cantata “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (After You, Lord, I long”).
This is a rare example of the technique used in a symphony. The
variations are grouped to create the impression of a large ternary form.
Chronology
1833
Born May 7 in Hamburg to Johann Jakob Brahms (age 27) and Christiana
Nissen (age 44). Johann was a town musician who played bugle, flute,
bass and other instruments in the town band and at various beer gardens.
Christiana was a seamstress. She, a spinster, and her sister ran a
boardinghouse in which Johann Jakob lived. He proposed to her one week
after meeting her. Johannes had an older sister and a younger brother.
1839
Begins to study music from his father, who contemplates preparing
Johannes for a career as an orchestral player.
1840
Begins piano lessons with Cossel.
1843
First public performance as a pianist. An offer to tour America as a
Wunderkind horrifies Cossel, who thwarts the plan by persuading the
locally esteemed teacher and composer Marxsen to take Brahms as a
pupil. Marxsen may have given Brahms lessons without charge.
1844
Plays an original piano sonata for friend Louise Japha.
1846-47
Leads a “double life”, intensely studying piano, composition and theory by
day with Marxsen, and playing in the Animierlokale on the waterfront in
Hamburg, and independent, north German seafaring town. This story has
been refuted by the musicologist Kurt Hoffman based on Hamburg childlabor laws and testimony of those who knew Brahms in this period, but is
generally held to be true, based on Brahms’ own closely guarded remarks.
Marxsen was himself a pupil of Seyfried (a pupil of Mozart’s) and Bocklet
(a friend of Schubert’s).
1847
Brahms spends the summer in the country in Winsen, a vacation arranged
by his father, to help him recover his health. He conducts a male-voiced
choir while there and discovers literature.
1848-49
Hears Joachim play; plays public concerts which include works by
Beethoven; composes under the pseudonym “G.W. Marks”.
1850-53
Meets the Hungarian violinist Reményi; composes various works
including a Piano Sonata, Op. 1; tours with Reményi; meets other
important composers/musicians such as Cornelius, Raff, Hiller,
Moscheles, David, Berlioz and Reinecke; takes a walking tour of the
Rhineland; meets the Schumanns; collaborates in the F-A-E Sonata for
Joachim with Dietrich and Schumann. Opp. 1, 3, and 6 are published. In
October, Schumann publishes the prophetic article Neue Zeitschrift für
Musik, heralding Brahms as the successor to Beethoven. Brahms is 20
years old.
1854-55
Meets von Bülow; in February, Schumann attempts suicide and is
confined at Endenich. Brahms returns to Leipzig to aid Clara; makes
concert tours with Clara and Joachim
1855-60
Increased concert activity; meets Rubinstein; Schumann dies and Brahms
returns to Düsseldorf to support her; vacations with Clara, her children and
his sister Elise; abandons a symphony and turns the sketches into a piano
concerto (no. 1); settles in Hamburg; secretly engaged to Agathe von
Siebold, which is soon broken off; works at the Court in Dettmold,
conducting and teaching piano; meets Simrock, who becomes his
publisher; writes his only ‘manifesto’ against the so-called “New German
School” of music.
1860-65
Continues living in Hamburg; by 1862, begins work on First Symphony;
composes Rinaldo; becomes conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic;
meets Wagner, Hermann Levi, Viardot-Garcia; moves his base of living to
Vienna; mother dies (1865).
1866-70
Works on the Requiem; concert tours; Requiem premiered (1867) partially
in Vienna, later in its entirety in Bremen; Rinaldo premiered (1868); Alto
Rhapsody premiered; attends performances of Rheingold, Die Walküre.
1871-77
Makes permanent move to Vienna; father dies; meets Nietzsche; active
period of concretizing; becomes director of Gesellschaft der Musikfreude;
works on symphony no. 1; returns (unwillingly) MS of Tannhäuser to
Wagner and becomes estranged from Levi; Symphony No. 1 completed,
premiered under Dessoff, second performance under Brahms, this
performance under Joachim at Cambridge after Brahms declines to receive
an honorary doctorate (Brahms fears becoming ‘Handel’; Second
Symphony premiered.
1878-82
Violin Concerto premiered; honorary doctorate from University of
Breslau; Brahms attacked by Wagner in print; Academic Festival Overture
completed (1880), followed immediately by Tragic Overture (revised
1881); Second Piano Concerto completed; with Nottebohm when he dies;
1883-1887
Forms close attachment to Hermine Spies; Double Concerto premiered by
Joachim and Houseman
1888-1894
Meets Grieg and Tchaikovsky; meets Alice Barbi (the only woman
Brahms wanted to marry—they break off over the matter of children,
which she wanted at he did not); deaths of sister Elise, Billoth, Bülow and
Spitta (Billroth was Brahms’ doctor and friend); offered and refuses
conductorship of the Hamburg Philharmonic
1895-97
Three B’s Concert in Meiningen; visits Clara (age 76) at Frankfort;
conducts in Zürich and Berlin; makes 44 hour journey to attend Clara’s
funeral (becomes ill); revises his will; last public appearance at
performance of Symphony No. 4 under Richter; dies in Vienna of liver
cancer on April 3, 1897.