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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.