Johannes Brahms | German composer | Britannica.com Johannes Brahms Franz Schubert Johannes Brahms, (born May 7, 1833, Hamburg [Germany]—died April 3, 1897, Vienna , Austria-Hungary [now in Austria]), German composer and pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote symphonies , concerti , chamber music , piano works, choral compositions , and more than 200 songs . Brahms was the great master of symphonic and sonata style in the second half of the 19th century. He can be viewed as the protagonist of the Classical tradition of Joseph Haydn , Mozart, and Beethoven in a period when the standards of this tradition were being questioned or overturned by the Romantics . Overview of Johannes Brahm’s life and music. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz The young pianist and music director The son of Jakob Brahms, an impecunious horn and double bass player, Johannes showed early promise as a pianist. He first studied music with his father and, at age seven, was sent for piano lessons to F.W.

Cossel, who three years later passed him to his own teacher, Eduard Marxsen. Between ages 14 and 16 Brahms earned money to help his family by playing in rough inns in the dock area of Hamburg and meanwhile composing and sometimes giving recitals. In 1850 he met Eduard Reményi, a Jewish Hungarian violinist, with whom he gave concerts and from whom he learned something of Roma (gypsy) music—an influence that remained with him always. The first turning point came in 1853, when he met the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim , who instantly realized the talent of Brahms. Joachim in turn recommended Brahms to the composer Robert Schumann , and an immediate friendship between the two composers resulted. Schumann wrote enthusiastically about Brahms in the periodical Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, praising his compositions. The article created a sensation. From this moment Brahms was a force in the world of music, though there were always factors that made difficulties for him. Johannes Brahms, 1853. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The chief of these was the nature of Schumann’s panegyric itself.

There was already conflict between the “neo-German” school, dominated by Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner , and the more conservative elements, whose main spokesman was Schumann. The latter’s praise of Brahms displeased the former, and Brahms himself, though kindly received by Liszt, did not conceal his lack of sympathy with the self-conscious modernists. He was therefore drawn into controversy, and most of the disturbances in his otherwise uneventful personal life arose from this situation. Gradually Brahms came to be on close terms with the Schumann household, and, when Schumann was first taken mentally ill in 1854, Brahms assisted Clara Schumann in managing her family. He appears to have fallen in love with her; but, though they remained deep friends after Schumann’s death in 1856, their relationship did not, it seems, go further. Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales The nearest Brahms ever came to marriage was in his affair with Agathe von Siebold in 1858; from this he recoiled suddenly, and he was never thereafter seriously involved in the prospect.

The reasons for this are unclear, but probably his immense reserve and his inability to express emotions in any other way but musically were responsible, and he no doubt was aware that his natural irascibility and resentment of sympathy would have made him an impossible husband. He wrote in a letter, “I couldn’t bear to have in the house a woman who has the right to be kind to me, to comfort me when things go wrong.” All this, together with his intense love of children and animals, goes some way to explain certain aspects of his music, its concentrated inner reserve that hides and sometimes dams powerful currents of feeling. Listen: Brahms, Johannes: String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major Second movement, “Andante con moderato,” of Johannes Brahms’s … Between 1857 and 1860 Brahms moved between the court of Detmold—where he taught the piano and conducted a choral society—and Göttingen , while in 1859 he was appointed conductor of a women’s choir in Hamburg. Such posts provided valuable practical experience and left him enough time for his own work.

At this point Brahms’s productivity increased, and, apart from the two delightful Serenades for orchestra and the colourful first String Sextet in B-flat Major (1858–60), he also completed his turbulent Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor (1854–58). By 1861 he was back in Hamburg, and in the following year he made his first visit to Vienna, with some success. Having failed to secure the post of conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic concerts, he settled in Vienna in 1863, assuming direction of the Singakademie, a fine choral society. His life there was on the whole regular and quiet, disturbed only by the ups and downs of his musical success, by altercations occasioned by his own quick temper and by the often virulent rivalry between his supporters and those of Wagner and Anton Bruckner , and by one or two inconclusive love affairs. His music, despite a few failures and constant attacks by the Wagnerites, was established, and his reputation grew steadily.

By 1872 he was principal conductor of the Society of Friends of Music (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde), and for three seasons he directed the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. His choice of music was not as conservative as might have been expected, and though the “Brahmins” continued their war against Wagner, Brahms himself always spoke of his rival with respect. Brahms is sometimes portrayed as unsympathetic toward his contemporaries. His kindness to Antonín Dvořák is always acknowledged, but his encouragement even of such a composer as the young Gustav Mahler is not always realized, and his enthusiasm for Carl Nielsen ’s First Symphony is not generally known. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In between these two appointments in Vienna, Brahms’s work flourished and some of his most significant works were composed. The year 1868 witnessed the completion of his most famous choral work, Ein deutsches Requiem ( A German Requiem ), which had occupied him since Schumann’s death.

This work, based on biblical texts selected by the composer, made a strong impact at its first performance at Bremen on Good Friday, 1868; after this, it was performed throughout Germany. With the Requiem, which is still considered one of the most significant works of 19th-century choral music, Brahms moved into the front rank of German composers. Listen: Brahms, Johannes: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor by Johannes Brahms; from a 1954 … Brahms was also writing successful works in a lighter vein. In 1869 he offered two volumes of Hungarian Dances for piano duet; these were brilliant arrangements of Roma tunes he had collected in the course of the years. Their success was phenomenal, and they were played all over the world. In 1868–69 he composed his Liebeslieder (Love Songs) waltzes, for vocal quartet and four-hand piano accompaniment—a work sparkling with humour and incorporating graceful Viennese dance tunes. Some of his greatest songs were also written at this time.

Maturity and fame Listen: Brahms, Johannes: Variations on a Theme by Haydn Johannes Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn, for orchestra, Opus … By the 1870s Brahms was writing significant chamber works and was moving with great deliberation along the path to purely orchestral composition . In 1873 he offered the masterly orchestral version of his Variations on a Theme by Haydn . After this experiment, which even the self-critical Brahms had to consider completely successful, he felt ready to embark on the completion of his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor . This magnificent work was completed in 1876 and first heard in the same year. Now that the composer had proved to himself his full command of the symphonic idiom , within the next year he produced his Symphony No. 2 in D Major (1877). This is a serene and idyllic work, avoiding the heroic pathos of Symphony No. 1. He let six years elapse before his Symphony No. 3 in F Major (1883).

In its first three movements this work too appears to be a comparatively calm and serene composition—until the finale, which presents a gigantic conflict of elemental forces. Again after only one year, Brahms’s last symphony, No. 4 in E Minor (1884–85), was begun. This work may well have been inspired by the ancient Greek tragedies of Sophocles that Brahms had been reading at the time. The symphony’s most important movement is once more the finale. Brahms took a simple theme he found in J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 150 and developed it in a set of 30 highly intricate variations, but the technical skill displayed here is as nothing compared with the clarity of thought and the intensity of feeling. Listen: Brahms, Johannes: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major Fourth movement, “Allegretto grazioso,” of Johannes Brahms’s … Gradually Brahms’s renown spread beyond Germany and Austria . Switzerland and the Netherlands showed true appreciation of his art, and Brahms’s concert tours to these countries as well as to Hungary and Poland won great acclaim.

The University of Breslau (now the University of Wrocław, Poland) conferred an honorary degree on him in 1879. The composer thanked the university by writing the Academic Festival Overture (1881) based on various German student songs. Among his other orchestral works at this time were the Violin Concerto in D Major (1878) and the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major (1881). Trending Topics Open Door policy By now Brahms’s contemporaries were keenly aware of the outstanding significance of his works, and people spoke of the “three great Bs” (meaning Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms), to whom they accorded the same rank of eminence. Yet there was a sizable circle of musicians who did not admit Brahms’s greatness. Fervent admirers of the avant-garde composers of the day, most notably Liszt and Wagner , looked down on Brahms’s contributions as too old-fashioned and inexpressive. Brahms remained in Vienna for the rest of his life. He resigned as director of the Society of Friends of Music in 1875, and from then on devoted his life almost solely to composition.

When he went on concert tours, he conducted or performed (on the piano ) only his own works. He maintained a few close personal friendships and remained a lifelong bachelor. He spent his summers traveling in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. During these years Brahms composed the boldly conceived Double Concerto in A Minor (1887) for violin and cello , the powerful Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor (1886), and the Violin Sonata in D Minor (1886–88). He also completed the radiantly joyous first String Quintet in F Major (1882) and the energetic second String Quintet in G Major (1890). Final years Listen: “Sonata in E-flat Major” Excerpt from the Sonata in E-flat Major (1894) for clarinet and piano … In 1891 Brahms was inspired to write chamber music for the clarinet owing to his acquaintance with an outstanding clarinetist, Richard Mühlfeld, whom he had heard perform some months before.

With Mühlfeld in mind, Brahms wrote his Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano (1891); the great Quintet for Clarinet and Strings (1891); and two Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano (1894). These works are perfect in structure and beautifully adapted to the potentialities of the wind instrument . Listen: Brahms, Johannes: Clarinet Quintet in B Minor Third movement, “Andantino,” of Johannes Brahms’s Clarinet … In 1896 Brahms completed his Vier ernste Gesänge ( Four Serious Songs), for bass voice and piano, on texts from both the Hebrew Bible 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. The conception of this work arose from Brahms’s thoughts of Clara Schumann, whose physical condition had gravely deteriorated. On May 20, 1896, Clara died, and soon afterward Brahms himself was compelled to seek medical treatment, in the course of which his liver was discovered to be seriously diseased.

He appeared for the last time at a concert in March 1897, and in Vienna, in April 1897, he died of cancer. Aims and achievements Brahms’s music complemented and counteracted the rapid growth of Romantic individualism in the second half of the 19th century. He was a traditionalist in the sense that he greatly revered the subtlety and power of movement displayed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, with an added influence from Franz Schubert . The Romantic composers’ preoccupation with the emotional moment had created new harmonic vistas, but it had two inescapable consequences. First, it had produced a tendency toward rhapsody that often resulted in a lack of structure. Second, it had slowed down the processes of music, so that Wagner had been able to discover a means of writing music that moved as slowly as his often-argumentative stage action. Many composers were thus decreasingly concerned to preserve the skill of taut, brilliant, and dramatic symphonic development that had so eminently distinguished the masters at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, culminating in Beethoven’s chamber music and symphonies.

Brahms was acutely conscious of this loss, repudiated it, and set himself to compensate for it in order to keep alive a force he felt strongly was far from spent. But Brahms was desirous not of reproducing old styles but of infusing the language of his own time with constructive power. Thus his musical language actually bears little resemblance to Beethoven’s or even Schubert’s; harmonically it was much influenced by Schumann and even to some extent by Wagner. It is Brahms’s supple and masterful control of rhythm and movement that distinguishes him from all his contemporaries. It is often supposed that his sense of movement was slower than that of his most admired predecessor, Beethoven, but Brahms was always able to vary the pace of his musical thought in a startling manner, often tightening and speeding it without a change of tempo. It is a question of subtlety in command of tonality, harmony, and rhythm, and no 19th-century composer after Beethoven is able to surpass him in this respect.

At all periods in Brahms’s work one finds a great variety of expression—from the subtly humorous to the tragic—but his larger works show an increasing mastery of movement and an ever-greater economy and concentration. Ultimately, Brahms’s power of movement stems partly from a source that may seem paradoxical. He was the most deeply versed of Classical composers in the music of the distant past, and he took the lessons he learned from the polyphonic school of the 16th century and applied them to the forms and the instrumental and vocal resources of his own time. Thus it was by way of a new approach to texture, drawn from very old models, that he revitalized a 19th-century rhythmic language that had been in danger of expiring from textural and harmonic stagnation. In his orchestral works Brahms displays an unmistakable and highly distinctive deployment of tone colour , especially in his use of woodwind and brass instruments and in his string writing, but the important thing about it is that colour is deployed , rather than laid on for its own sake.

A close relationship between orchestration and architecture dominates these works, with the orchestration contributing as much to the tonal colouring as do the harmonies and tonalities and the changing nature of the themes. As in the concerti of Mozart and Beethoven, such an attitude to orchestration proves in Brahms to be peculiarly adapted to the more subtle aspects of the relation between orchestra and soloist. The Classical concerto had achieved in Mozart’s mature works for piano and orchestra an unsurpassable degree of organization, and Beethoven had further extended the genre’s scale of design and range of expression. The higher subtleties of such works inevitably escaped many subsequent composers; Felix Mendelssohn had “abolished” the opening orchestral tutti, or ritornello , and had been followed in this regard by many other lesser composers. Brahms saw that this was essentially debilitating and set himself to recover the depth and grandeur of the concerto idea.

Like Mozart and Beethoven, he realized that the long introductory passage of the orchestra, far from being superfluous, was the means of sharpening and deepening the complex relationship of orchestra to solo, especially when the time came for recapitulation, where an entirely new and often revelatory distribution of themes, keys, instrumentation, and tensions was possible. Many of Brahms’s contemporaries thought him reactionary on this account, but the result is that Brahms’s concerti have withstood wear and tear far better than many works thought in their day to outshine them. At the other end of the scale , Brahms was a masterly miniaturist, not only in many of his fine and varied songs but also in his terse, cunningly wrought, intensely personal late piano works. As a song composer, he ranged from the complex and highly organized to the extremely simple, strophic type; his melodic invention is always original and direct, while the accompaniments are deeply evocative without ever being merely picturesque.

The late piano music, usually of small dimension but wide implication , is generally expressive of a profound isolation of mind and heart and is therefore not readily approachable, while its apparent overall tone and mood may seem to the superficial ear monotonous. But each individual piece has a quiet and intense quality of its own that renders the occasional outburst of angry passion the more potent; the internal economy and subtlety of these works is extraordinary. Listen: “German Requiem, A”: “Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras” “Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras” from Johannes Brahms’s German … Brahms’s musical range is finally attested by his choral music. His choral writing combines the commonsense solidity of Handel’s with a contrapuntal skill worthy of Bach—yet it achieves total independence. A German Requiem , one of the choral masterpieces of its period, shows all his characteristics in this field together with an ability to integrate solo and tutti with the same kind of subtlety as in the concerti.

The spaciousness and grandeur of this work’s lines and the power of its construction place Brahms’s underlying melancholy within the scope of a large, objective, nonreligious humane vision. Thus he is distinct from the self-regarding Romantic; his essential quality is perhaps stoicism. Brahms Symphonies | Leslie Gerber - Classical Music Critic and Writer Brahms Symphonies [This article was written for a set of the complete Brahms Symphonies, performed by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, issued as Columbia D3M 31636 in 1972. It was great fun to write and I remember learning a great deal as I worked on it. However, I hope not too many people got to read it, as the performances were not very good and the sound quality of the recordings was surprisingly poor.] The symphony, at one time, was just one of several common types of composition for orchestra. Mozart could dash off such a work, with no particular self-consciousness, at the age of eight.

However, through the works of such composers as Haydn and Mozart, the symphony developed stature as the most “serious” of all orchestral forms, and the writing of such a work became an undertaking of great magnitude, not to be entered into lightly. Even Beethoven, hardly a man to be easily intimidated, did not attempt the production of a symphony until he had reached the age of 29, at which time he had already produced quantities of large-scale piano and chamber works and a number of orchestral works, including the first two Piano Concertos. Beethoven’s nine Symphonies, along with those of such composers as Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann–all of them highly esteemed by Brahms–further enhanced the prestige of the form. Much has been made of Johannes Brahms’s long reluctance to write a symphony. His First was not completed until September 1876, when the composer was 43 years old. However, as most composers have acknowledged, writing for the orchestra is a tricky business, calling for a great deal of practical experience. Nearly all successful writers of music for orchestra have had such experience, playing in orchestras or conducting.

But let us look at Brahms’s background. His father was an orchestral bassist, and wished his son to follow his lead, at least to the extent of playing some instrument with which he could earn a living as a member of an orchestra. The young Brahms, however, was attracted to the piano. By the time he was 10 years old, his proficiency at the instrument was so marked that only the stubborn opposition of his teacher O.F.W. Cossel saved the boy from being exhibited as a prodigy on a tour of the United States. Cossel, whose memory deserves our respect, insisted that the talented pupil be passed on to his own teacher Eduard Marxson, who trained Brahms both in piano and in composition. One can hardly complain of Marxson’s efforts. Even the first published compositions of Brahms, products of his late teens, display prodigious command of large-scale musical forms. But Brahms never had the chance to work with an orchestra, either as member or conductor, or to hear compositions of his own played by a student orchestra, as might have occurred at a large conservatory. Contrast this with the experience of Beethoven, who was leading orchestral rehearsals at the age of 12!

Strictness in musical form was going into decline as Brahms was growing into manhood. Symphonies and sonatas were largely being replaced by fantasias and tone poems. In terms of form, at least, Brahms remained a musical conservative throughout his life. (This is not always true of other aspects of his music, especially rhythm.) And it is easy to understand how a musician with Brahms’s reverence for the accomplishments of the great classical masters would feel reluctant to compose a symphony. The sense of responsibility must have been awesome. Brahms was particularly inhibited by the memory of Beethoven. In response to an inquiry about the possibility of his writing a symphony, he wrote of Beethoven, “You don’t know what it feels to be dogged by that giant.” Only gradually did Brahms work his way into composing for orchestra. We don’t know the whole story, since Brahms ruthlessly destroyed most of his sketches and even completed works that eventually did not meet with his approval. Doubtless there were some early experiments. His first published work for orchestra was the Serenade in D Major, Op. 11, originally composed for nine instruments and only later expanded into its full scoring.

It was written in 1858-59, and was promptly followed by a second, the Serenade in A Major, Op. 16, scored for small orchestra without violins. During this period, Brahms began work on what was intended to be his first symphony, scoring it for two pianos. Composition was begun in 1853. By the following year at least three movements were completed, and the finale was done by 1856. Eventually, however, Brahms discarded one movement (later to be used in his German Requiem) and recast the remaining three as his Piano Concerto No. 1, in D Minor, Op. 15. The failure of this work at its first performances in 1859 put an end, for the time, to Brahms’s experiments in writing for orchestra. Three years later, in 1862, Brahms wrote a first movement for a symphony. We do not know that this was actually the first movement of the First Symphony, but it might have been.

We do know that three movements of a symphony, in C Minor, were in existence by 1863, and it seems fairly certain that this was, indeed, the First Symphony. Brahms quoted a passage from the fourth movement in a letter written in 1868, and the work was probably complete in sketch form by then. In the meantime, Brahms was gaining experience in orchestration by writing music for vocal soloists and chorus with orchestra, including the German Requiem and the Alto Rhapsody. Still, he bided his time. In 1873, Brahms published his Variations on a Theme of Haydn. The work was first written for two pianos, and was then orchestrated. The two scores were published simultaneously, perhaps revealing Brahms’s continued insecurity in regard to orchestral scoring. But the performances convinced him, and the critics as well, that he had mastered the use of the full orchestra. Work on the First Symphony resumed, although the manuscript was not finished until September 1876. When Brahms’s friends and colleagues learned that he had, at last, completed a symphony to his own satisfaction, he was deluged with requests for performances and publication rights.

But with his typical caution, Brahms withheld publication for some time. Moreover, although several famous conductors would have been pleased to conduct the premiere, Brahms gave it to his friend Otto Dessoff, who had an excellent orchestra in the small city of Karlsruhe. During the rehearsals preceding the performance (on November 4, 1876), Brahms continued to make revisions in the score. After the premiere, which achieved a respectable but not overwhelming success, Brahms himself took the work on tour, conducting it in Mannheim, Munich, and Vienna, and presumably testing and revising his orchestration all the while. The First Symphony is certainly a work that justifies its author’s elaborate preparations. It is a large-scale, passionate work, full of drama and contrast, yet marvelously proportioned and constructed. The first and last movements are preceded by lengthy slow introductions (the only ones in any of Brahms’s symphonies), and there are many other symmetrical and unifying features, including a motif of descending thirds that is first heard in the introduction to the first movement and returns in several other places.

At last, in the First Symphony, Brahms was able to make his peace with the ghost of Beethoven, both by emulation and by contrast. The work does have similarities to Beethoven’s writing–not only the dramatic agitation whipped up at some moments, but even the main theme of the last movement, which bears some resemblance to the main theme of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth. (Brahms freely acknowledged the resemblance. “Any ass can notice that,” he said.) However, Brahms makes no attempt to imitate Beethoven’s concentrated development of motifs. Instead, he builds his work around the rhapsodic expansion of motifs, building themes outward from tiny motifs, rather than beginning with themes themselves and contracting them into motifs, as Beethoven had so often done. Brahms’s work also reflects the changes in musical style since the time of Beethoven. His harmony is, of course, more advanced; his orchestra is larger; his rhythms are freer. These characteristics were to remain true of his future symphonies. The First symphony suffered the inevitable comparisons with Beethoven’s works (Hans von Bulow even dubbing it “the Tenth,” to Brahms’s embarrassment), but such comparisons were seldom made afterward.

Brahms’s First Symphony made its way to the United States as early as January of 1878, when it was performed in Boston by the Harvard Musical Association. Here it met with such blasts from the critics as: “The Brahms C Minor Symphony sounds for the most part morbid, strained, and unnatural; much of it even ugly.”–Boston Courier “It is mathematical music evolved with difficulty from an unimaginative brain…noisy, ungraceful, confusing and unattractive example of dry pedantry.” –Boston Gazette Yet we may prefer to remember, instead, the pioneering spirit of conductor Carl Zerrahn, who immediately announced a second performance. Whatever critics and audiences may have thought of the First Symphony, Brahms was satisfied that he had achieved his goals, and his reluctance to compose in symphonic form was completely overcome. The following summer, he vacationed in the Austrian village of Portschach and took many walks along the river and through the countryside. “One can surely not take more beautiful walks!” he wrote to Clara Schumann.

“In the Ampezzo valley you would have been enchanted by everything–the mountains, the lakes, the flowers, the splendid road.” Under the influence of this area, Brahms rapidly composed his Second Symphony. He was able to offer it for performance as early as December of the same year, when it was played in Vienna under the baton of the great Hans Richter. Brahms’s beloved Viennese cheered the music with such enthusiasm that the third movement had to be encored. Later performances won a string of triumphs–even in Brahms’s native Hamburg, where he had long suffered painful neglect. Like the First Symphony, the Second is built out of its opening motifs. In the case of the Second, the opening three notes (D, C sharp, D) form a motto that recurs in every movement, and along with the first theme (heard in horns and bassoons) it generates much of the musical material of the work. In their emotional climates, though, the works are virtual opposites. Where the First Symphony is wide-ranging and pervaded by dramatic tension, the Second is relaxed, warm and even-tempered, obviously reflecting the pastoral mood of Brahms’s vacation.

Five years were to pass before Brahms returned to the symphony, but these were not years of retreat from the orchestra. The Violin Concerto was written in 1878; the Second Piano Concerto, which has been described as a “symphony for orchestra with piano,” was sketched even earlier and completed in 1881; and the Academic Festival and Tragic Overtures were finished in 1880. There is some speculation, likely but unconfirmed, that two movements of the Third Symphony also originated during this period as parts of incidental music Brahms was writing for Goethe’s Faust but never completed. Brahms was, by this time, at the height of his power and popularity. The premiere performance was once again given in Vienna by Richter, on December 2, 1883. Brahmsians and Wagnerites both turned out to hear the new work. The former were in the majority (since, after all, not too many people are eager to pay to hear music they do not expect to like, even out of spite), and the audience’s cheers carried the day despite some antagonistic demonstrations by Wagner’s followers.

Similarly, Eduard Hanslick’s laudatory review in the press was considered the definitive judgment, although the young Hugo Wolf wrote, “A single cymbal stroke of a work by Liszt expresses more intellect and emotion than all three Symphonies of Brahms and his Serenades taken together.” Brahms was amused by the young man’s exaggerations. The Third Symphony has probably been the least performed of Brahms’s four, and it is certainly not the most accessible of these works. One suspects that many conductors overlook the work because all four movements have quiet endings, making it difficult to whip up audience enthusiasm at the conclusion. There also seem to be a number of obscure, private expressions in the music, most obviously the motif that opens the work and serves as a unifying force throughout all four movements: F, A flat, F, signifying Brahms’s personal motto, frei aber froh (“free but happy”). Brahms had chosen this motto in answer to that of his friend Joachim, frei aber einsam (“free but lonely”), and had used the three-note motif in several of his previous works.

When the Third Symphony was written, Brahms’s long friendship with Joachim had been interrupted by the composer’s having sided (somewhat inadvertently) with Joachim’s wife in their divorce proceedings. Brahms used the Third Symphony as a way of healing the breech in their friendship, giving the score to Joachim–who could hardly have been unaware of the use of the motif and who probably found other references directed personally to him–for its first performances in Berlin. Shortly after the Viennese premiere, Joachim conducted three performances in a short period of time, always to great acclaim. (When Hans von Bulow conducted the Third Symphony in Meiningen, he had to repeat the entire work on the same program.) Anyone who remains puzzled by the emergence of the Viennese twelve-tone school and the compositional methods of Arnold Schoenberg from no apparent source might well benefit from a study of Brahms’s Second and Third Symphonies. In each, the opening measures provide musical material to be used throughout four movements.

From such constructions, the Franckian cyclical forms, and the Wagnerian leitmotif, it was only a short step to a style of composition–the serial method–in which one musical idea is used as the basis of an entire work. Brahms began work on his Fourth Symphony during the summer of 1884, in the Austrian resort town of Marzzuschlag, south of Vienna, at a particularly isolated villa, to which he returned the following summer to complete the work. He then wasted little time in bringing it to performance. After rehearsals in October with von Bulow’s orchestra in Meiningen, Brahms himself conducted the first performance there, then conducted the work in a tour of nine cities. Again in this work, the opening motif (this time only two notes) becomes the basis of much of the music. However, it is not the unifying force found in the two earlier works; the music must have more diversity throughout because of Brahms’s unusual plan for the finale. Thus, he contrasts the bold, passionate first movement with a stricter, marchlike second movement.

The third is a superbly colorful scherzo (featuring Brahms’s only use of the triangle), setting the stage for the monumental passacaglia finale. This form, a series of variations on a “ground bass” theme in the lower register, was common in the baroque era. But it had never been used in a symphony before and was not generally recognized by listeners or critics until after its introduction. Almost as if to confirm his intended act of homage to the past, Brahms took his theme, with the alteration of one note, from Bach’s Cantata No. 150, “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich.” Two years after writing the Fourth Symphony, Brahms produced his celebrated Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, another work with symphonic features. Thereafter, his rediscovery of the solo piano and his glorious love affair with the clarinet were to occupy most of the remaining ten years of his life, and he never again wrote for orchestra. Still, despite its modest size, Brahms’s output for orchestra is a collection of surpassing richness. No amount of exposure to the Four Symphonies ever exhausts their wonders.

–Leslie Gerber Johannes Brahms biography - 8notes.com Johannes Brahms biography 1897, Vienna Summary: German composer and pianist. Wrote four symphonies, each a masterpiece and many piano and chamber works. Popular Sheet Music: Johannes Brahms Biography Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of classical music . Brahms was considered by many to be the 'successor' to Beethoven , and his first symphony was described by Hans von B�low as ' Beethoven's tenth symphony ' (the nickname is still used). Contents 9.2 Other links Life Brahms was born in Hamburg . His father, who gave him his first music lessons, was a double bassist . Brahms showed early promise on the piano and helped to supplement the rather meager family income by playing the piano in restaurants and theaters, as well as by teaching. Although it is a widely-told tale that Brahms had to play the piano in bars and brothels, recent research, for example that by Kurt Hoffman (1), suggest that this is probably false.

For a time, he also learned the violoncello , although his progress was cut short when his teacher absconded with Brahms's instrument. The young Brahms gave a few public concerts, but did not become well known as a pianist (although in later life he gave the premieres of both his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1859 and his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1881). He also began to compose, but his efforts did not receive much attention until he went on a concert tour with Eduard Rem�nyi in 1853. On this tour he met Joseph Joachim , Franz Liszt , and later was introduced to the great German composer Robert Schumann . Rem�nyi was, however, offended by Brahms' failure to praise Liszt 's 'Sonata in B minor' wholeheartedly on a visit to the Court of Weimar where Liszt was the court musician.

Many of Brahms' friends cited that Rem�nyi, being the polished courtier, had expected the younger Brahms to conform to common practice of politely applauding a celebrity's piece which Brahms either failed to do or did not appear to do so with condescending compliment. He told Brahms that their friendship must end although it was not clear as to whether Liszt felt offended or otherwise. Joachim, however was to become one of his closest friends, and Schumann, through articles championing the young Brahms, played an important role in alerting the public to the young man's compositions. Brahms also became acquainted with Schumann's wife, the composer and pianist Clara , 14 years his senior, with whom he carried on a lifelong, emotionally passionate, but always platonic relationship. Brahms never married. In 1862 he settled permanently in Vienna and began to concentrate fully on composing. With work such as the German Requiem, Brahms eventually established a strong reputation and came to be regarded in his own lifetime as one of the great composers. This may have given him the confidence finally to complete his first symphony; this appeared in 1876, after about ten years of work.

The other three symphonies then followed in fairly rapid succession (1877, 1883, 1885). Brahms frequently traveled, both for business (concert tours) and pleasure. He often visited Italy in the springtime, and usually sought out a pleasant rural location in which to compose during the summer. 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, including the two clarinet sonatas Op. 120 (1894) and the Four Serious Songs (Vier ernste Ges�nge) Op. 121 (1896). While completing the Op. 121 songs Brahms fell ill of 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.

Works Brahms wrote a number of major works for orchestra, including four symphonies , two piano concertos , a Violin Concerto , a Double Concerto for violin and cello, and the large choral work A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem). Brahms was also a prolific composer in the theme and variation form, having notably composed the Variations and Fugue on a theme by H�ndel , Paganini Variations , and Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn , along with other lesser known sets of variations . Brahms also wrote a great deal of work for small forces. His many works of chamber music form part of the core of this repertoire, as does his solo piano music. Brahms is also considered to be among the greatest of composers of lieder , of which he wrote about 200. Brahms never wrote an opera , nor did he ever write in the characteristic 19th century form of the tone poem . For a list of works, see List of compositions by Johannes Brahms . Influences on Brahms Brahms venerated Beethoven , perhaps even more than the other Romantic composers did.

In the composer's home, a marble bust of Beethoven looked down on the spot where he composed. Brahms's works contain what some of his contemporaries considered to be outright imitations of Beethoven's work, including the Ninth Symphony (regarding the similar - only in form - themes found in the last movements of Brahms's 1st and Beethoven's 9th symphonies) and the Hammerklavier sonata . Brahms also loved the earlier Classical composers Mozart and Haydn . He collected first editions and autographs of their works, and also edited performing editions. 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 . In general, Brahms can be regarded as the most Classical of all the Romantic composers. This set him in contrast to the acolytes of the more progressive Richard Wagner , and the divide between the two schools was one of the most notable features of German musical life in the late 19th century. 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 rich and powerful sound. 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.

1 ( He also had predictable habits which was 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 in return with equal loyalty and generosity. He 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 Strauss' premiere of the operetta Die G�ttin 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 the former cheekily inscribed the words 'alas, not by Brahms!' on the autograph score of the famous 'Blue Danube' waltz. Starting in the 1860's, 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 also anonymously helped support a number of young musicians. Brahms was an extreme perfectionist. For instance, it is thought that the symphony we know as the First may not have been the first he composed, since Brahms very often destroyed completed works that failed to meet his standard of quality. 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 also have contributed to the delay in producing the First Symphony. However, Clara Schumann noted before that Brahms' First Symphony was a product that was not reflective of Brahms' real nature as she felt that the final exuberant movement was 'too brilliant' as she was encouraged by the dark and tempestuous opening movement when Brahms first sent to her the initial draft.

However, she recanted in accepting his sunny Second Symphony and was a lifelong supporter of that famous work in D major, one of Brahms' rare key usage. Books about Brahms Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters , 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). Brahms, His Life and Work , by Karl Geiringer , photographs by Irene Geiringer (1987, ISBN 0306802236 ). A bio and discussion of his musical output, supplemented by and cross-referenced with the body of correspondence sent to Brahms. Appearances in film and popular culture Claude Chabrol 's film 'Que la bete meure' (1969) begins with the sound of Brahms's 'Four Serious Songs' (Op.121) as a car drives though the countryside, on its way to an accident.

The Star Trek: Original Series episode ' Requiem for Methuselah ' indicated that Johannes Brahms was one of many aliases to an immortal man named 'Flint', born in the year 3834 BC. Brahms's expert music ability was said to be the result of centuries of artisic study and an unknown waltz by Brahms was played during the episode, written in modern times. The character of Flint / Brahms was played by actor James Daly . Brahms Symphonies: where to start - Classic FM Classic FM Guides Now Playing Schedule Brahms Symphonies: where to start Johannes Brahms was one of the romantic period's most conflicted musical characters, and his symphonies are the perfect way to find out why... The image of Brahms the curmudgeon with his hands firmly behind his back is how most people see this most quietly influential of composers. But particularly in his symphonies, this image is proven to be a complete myth. Few symphonic composers have done so much with so few works, but Brahms four symphonies have lasted through the centuries thanks to their verve, their freedom and their complexity. But it didn't start off quite like that… Symphony No.

1 in C minor (1876) If any one composer in history was hyped to breaking point, it has to be Brahms. For a variety of reasons, he was seen as the natural successor to Beethoven, whose legacy cast a long shadow over the 19th century. Basically, everyone was expecting Brahms to pull out the big guns and follow Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. So when Brahms took 21 years to come up with the goods (he began sketches for the work in 1855), expectation was high. The conductor for the symphony's premiere, Hans von Bülow, even referred to it as 'Beethoven's Tenth', a term which has stuck. It's true that there are quotes and references to Beethoven work within the symphony, but it's more of a homage than a case of plagiarism. As Brahms himself commented, "any ass can see that." Symphony No. 2 in D After the nightmare of expectation and hype that surrounded Brahms' first symphony, you might expect the second to contain some of the composer's most melancholic work.

In fact, it's surprisingly light and airy, some say with a similar character to Beethoven's sixth symphony, the 'Pastoral'. It's a breeze to listen to, with the first movement especially full of sweeping melodies to whistle along with. In a show of brilliant self-awareness, Brahms wrote to his publisher in 1877 upon delivery of the second symphony, describing the work with his tongue firmly in his cheek as, "so melancholy that you will not be able to bear it." Symphony No. 3 in F By 1883, Brahms was on a roll. He'd had major successes with his violin concerto, his piano concertos and his Academic Overture, but the third symphony was something else. It's a brave monster of a work, with rapidly changing character and some more of those huge, sweeping melodies. Give the third movement a go - it's often used on television and in film, and it has a rather peculiar sadness to it. Even Frank Sinatra thought so when he borrowed the tune for his song 'Take My Love'. Have a listen to both of them below: Symphony No.

4 in E minor With his final symphony, Brahms again nods to Beethoven on several occasions. As the likes of Liszt and Wagner (who by this time had passed away) set about decrying the old guard of older composers, Brahms ignored most of the developments around him and shamelessly, confidently looked backwards for inspiration. That's why the fourth symphony ha such a strongly classical symphonic feel. There are adventures and experiments within it, but there's also a huge amount of Bach and, yes, more Beethoven. The final movement takes one of Bach's Cantatas as a starting point, but fills it with incredible darkness and drama - a late thrust at romanticism from Brahms the traditionalist? The truth is that Brahms might have been tarred with the brush of conservativism, but there are gentle hints that there were far more exciting things going on underneath, if only listeners would bother to find them. Few areas of his work display this more than the four symphonies. Take them on, one at a time, and you'll want to uncover all of their mystery. Brahms News Johannes Brahms around 1853. Meister Raro/Wikimedia Commons.

In 1883, Johannes Brahms made another of his summer working sojourns in country towns and spas. He generally composed in the warm months and left the rest of the year for performing and copying out the summer's production. Much influenced by landscape in his work, he may have chosen this town for its setting: Wiesbaden on the Rhine. There he found a high airy studio looking toward the river and got to work on his Third Symphony. His First Symphony had taken over 15 years to finish, probably because of his uncertainty about how to proceed after its searing first movement, but definitely because of his anxiety over taking on this genre: "I'll never write a symphony!" he’d once groaned. "You have no idea how the likes of me feels with the tramp of a giant like him behind you!" By "him" Brahms meant Beethoven. But the First had gotten done finally, and soon after that he completed the warm and pastoral Second in a single summer. With the Third, which he finished in that summer of 1883, he wrote in many ways his most personal symphony.

Before leaving for Wiesbaden, Brahms had celebrated his 50th birthday in Vienna with two friends, surgeon Theodore Billroth and Eduard Hanslick. The latter was the most powerful music critic in Europe's capital of music. Hanslick is mainly remembered for his regular lambasting of Richard Wagner and his "Music of the Future" agenda, shared with Franz Liszt and other composers of the time who rejected the forms of Mozart, Beethoven, et al., and based much of their work on stories. Wagner wrote what he called "music dramas"; Liszt invented the orchestral "tone poem" built on literary models. The other side of the musical equation in the 19th century were those like Brahms who upheld the old "abstract" formal models and allied musical genres: sonata and rondo forms, also symphonies, string quartets, and the like. Advertisement The upholders of old forms constituted the Brahms faction in theory, but its practical and intellectual leader was Hanslick. Brahms stayed away from overt politicking.

Early in his career Hanslick wrote a treatise called "Beauty in Music," in which he declared, "Definite feelings and emotions are unsusceptible of being embodied in music." This was the doctrine of "pure," aka "abstract" music. It was held up against the Wagner/Liszt school and associated with Brahms in his time and later. Get Slate in your inbox. What did Brahms himself think of all this? To begin with, he admired Wagner's work and said so—if only in private conversations—without being the least interested in Wagner's ideas. As for Hanslick's treatise, Brahms once told Clara Schumann he had tried to read it but, "I found such a number of stupid things in it that I gave it up." But Brahms and Hanslick needed one another; the composer needed a champion, the critic needed a bastion against Wagnerism. They became friends and let their differences lie. To this day, Brahms is associated with the idea of abstract music, free of literary models, free of autobiography. But that's not his doing; clearly a good deal of his music came out of his life.

For all his intense privacy, now and then he let something slip, usually in his oblique fashion. Once he wrote his publisher a supposedly joking suggestion that the cover of his C-Minor Piano Quartet might have a picture of himself dressed in the famous outfit of Goethe's fictional Young Werther, who killed himself for love of another man's betrothed. That quartet had first been drafted years before, in a time when the young Brahms was in a similar situation. He fell in love with Clara Schumann while her husband Robert , Brahms's discoverer and mentor, wasted away in an asylum. Later he fell for Clara Schumann's daughter Julie. When he heard Julie was getting married he wrote the despairing Alto Rhapsody, which he told Clara was his nuptial song. His friends knew that a theme in the G-Major String Sextet spelled out in notes the name of a woman he had jilted after they exchanged rings. But Brahms was a guarded man, and most of the time he did not talk about the inspiration of a piece. In the same spirit, he destroyed most of his working sketches for pieces.

He had, however, picked up from Robert Schumann the idea of symbolizing people in notes. Besides the above example in Brahms's Sextet, another is Robert's "Clara theme," which incorporates C A A, the musical letters of her name. Brahms used that theme several times, the last in one of his late Four Serious Songs that he explained, privately, "have to do with Frau Schumann." For Brahms as for both Schumanns, to use a theme evoking a person made that person part of the music. In works of both Brahms and Robert Schumann, Clara was present in her theme. Advertisement This brings us back to the Third Symphony, which opens memorably like this: 1 Brahms never talked about it, but that theme is Robert Schumann's, from the first movement of his Symphony No. 3. Brahms borrowed not Schumann's main theme, but rather a derivation of it that appears in the middle of the movement2. By way of his theme, Schumann is present in Brahms' Third Symphony. Why? 2 To answer that question we have to recall the most dramatic period in Brahms' life.

In Wiesbaden, when he looked out his window to the Rhine, he had to have thought of his friend Robert Schumann, who in a famous article written when Brahms was 20 and Schumann 43, proclaimed this young man to be the future of German music. There followed Robert's suicide attempt in a fit of madness, his lockup in an asylum, and the helpless love Brahms came to feel for Robert's wife Clara, one of the great pianists of her time. When Robert finally died in the asylum, Brahms fled Clara. He was not cut out for marriage, but she remained the love of his life. Those years of Robert's mentoring, his madness, and death, and Brahms' passion for Clara, remained in Brahms' mind for the rest of his life. Robert Schumann called his Symphony No. 3 the Rhenish. In other words, it's about the Rhine, which for German Romantics was a kind of mythical river. Wagner set his whole Ring of the Nibelung around it. It was in the Rhine that the high-Romantic Robert Schumann chose to jump in his suicide attempt.

So for Brahms the river and the memory of those years were joined. Likely that association of person and place is why the river and his memories around it came out in the symphony that begins with Robert's theme, and so with Robert himself. To some degree, this is a work in which, hidden in notes, Brahms looked back over his life. Advertisement Still, Brahms was not a composer of tone poems, and as far as one can tell most of his Third Symphony is largely laid out in abstract terms. The opening Schumann idea is more a tag than a theme; it only returns in the recapitulation and the coda of a first movement that mingles anguished sections3 with lyrical ones4. That mingling of pain and lyrical joy may be a telling matter, but it is not overtly tied to the triad of Robert, Clara, and Johannes. 3 4 The main theme of the second movement is hymnlike5. Clara wrote Brahms that it reminded her of a chapel in the forest. I suspect few people forget the first time they hear the third movement, with its yearningly beautiful, sui generis theme6.

5 6 The finale begins with an ominously murmuring gesture7 and returns to the anguished tone of the first movement. Even the contrasting second theme in C major has a detectably desperate quality8. Meanwhile Brahms has not forgotten the Schumann theme, which never quite found peace and resolution in the first movement. After a towering climax, the finale sinks into a long, quiet coda9 mainly based on a chorale theme that first showed up in the second movement. It is surrounded by flutters, and the coda adds up to a sense of autumnal reflection and recollection—of earlier parts of the symphony, and of its composer's life. 7 8 9 At the end of the symphony we arrive back at the Schumann theme, drifting downward in a magical, murmuring atmosphere10. At the end of the theme, over and over, we hear harmonies that suggest a phrase Brahms knew well, the "Farewell" motif11 that begins Beethoven's Lebewohl (Farewell) Sonata. 10 11 There is the autobiographical essence of the Third Symphony, written on the Rhine and recalling Schumann's Rhenish Symphony.

Among other things, the Third is Brahms' farewell to all that, to the most exciting and agonizing period of his life, his Young Werther years, and his tragic mentor Robert Schumann. Johannes Brahms (Composer, Arranger) - Short Biography Johannes Brahms (Composer, Arranger) Born: May 7, 1833 - Hamburg , Germany Died: April 3, 1897 - Vienna, Austria Johannes Brahms was a German composer of Romantic music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. Life Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg . His 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 as a horn player and double bassist. He married Christiane Nissen, a seamstress, who was considerably older than him. They lived in the poor Gängeviertel district of the city, near the docks. Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training.

Brahms showed early promise on the piano (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. Although it is a widely-told tale that Brahms had to play the piano in bars and brothels, recent research, for example that by Kurt Hoffman1, suggests that this is probably false. For a time, he also learned the cello, although his progress was cut short when his teacher absconded with Brahms's instrument. His piano teachers were first Otto Cossel and then 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 , and though he did not become well known as a pianist he made some concert tours in the 1850's and 1860's and in later life frequently participated in the performance of his own works, whether as soloist, accompanist, or participant in chamber music. Notably he gave the premieres of both his Piano Concerto No.

1 in 1859 and his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1881. In his early teens he began to conduct choirs and eventually became an efficient orchestral conductor. Johannes Brhams began to compose quite early in life (we know of a piano sonata he played or improvised at the age of 11), but his efforts did not receive much attention until he went on a concert tour as accompanist to the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi in April-May 1853. On this tour he met Joseph Joachim at Hanover, and went on to the Court of Weimar where he met Franz Liszt , Cornelius and Joachim Raff . According to several witnesses of Brahms's meeting with F. Liszt , at which Liszt performed Brahms's own op.4 Scherzo at sight, Reményi was offended by Brahms' failure to praise F. Liszt 's Sonata in B minor wholeheartedly (Brahms fell asleep during a performance of the recently-composed work), and they shortly afterwards parted company, although it was not clear as to whether F. Liszt felt offended or otherwise.

Joachim had given Brahms a letter of introduction to Robert Schumann , however, and Brahms walked to Düsseldorf, arriving on September 30 and being welcomed into the Schumann family. Robert Schumann , amazed by the 20-year-old's talent, published an article 'Neue Bahnen' (New Paths) in the journal Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik alerting the public to the young man whom he claimed was 'destined to give ideal expression to the times'. This pronouncement was received with some scepticism outside Robert 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 Robert Schumann and Albert Dietrich in writing the jointly-composed 'F-A-E' Sonata for Joachim. He became very attached to Robert Schumann 's wife, the composer and pianist Clara Schumann , 14 years his senior, with whom he would carry on a lifelong, emotionally passionate, but (as far as is known) always 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 Gottingen in 1859. After Robert Schumann 's attempted suicide and subsequent encarceration 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 Robert Schumann ן¿½s death at the sanatorium in 1856 Brahms divided his time between Hamburg , where he formed and conducted a ladiesן¿½ 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 he based himself increasingly in Vienna and soon made his home there, though he toyed with the idea of taking up conducting posts elsewhere. 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 Cambridge University 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 First Piano Concerto 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 F. Liszt and Wagner. Brahms in fact admired some of Wagner's music and admired F. Liszt as a great pianist, but in 1860 he attempted to organize a public protest against some of the wilder excesses of their music. His manifesto, which was published prematurely with only three supporting signatures, was a ludicrous 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 Robert Schumann ן¿½s 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 fairly rapid succession (1877, 1883, 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, both for 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 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 Muhlfeld, clarienttist with the Meiningen orchestra, caused him to compose the clarinet quintet Op.115 (1891), clarinet trio Op.114 (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 fell ill of 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 Brahms may be often regarded as one of the last bastions of the Romantic Period, he was a champion of form and logic within his works in contrast to the opulence and excesses of many of his contemporaries. Alongside Anton Bruckner, Brahms was perhaps the major practitioner of the symphony during the latter half of the 19th century and his works in this genre certainly paved the way for others such as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius. Though he was diametrically opposed to Wagner during his lifetime, it is incorrect to characterize Brahms as a reactionary. His output was sometimes equally bold in harmony and expression, prompting Arnold Schoenberg to write his important essay entitled "Brahms the Progressive" which paved the way for the revaluation of Brahms's reputation in the 20th century. It is (perhaps) significant that 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.

It should be noted, however, that he offered substantial encouragement to A. Schoenberg 's teacher Alexander Zemlinsky and was apparently much impressed by an early quartet of A. Schoenberg 's. Works Brahms wrote a number of major works for orchestra, including four symphonies, two piano concertos, a Violin Concerto, a Double Concerto for violin and cello, and the large choral work A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem). The last is notable in not being a traditional, liturgical requiem (Missa pro defunctis), but a setting of texts which Brahms selected from the Luther Bible. Brahms was also a prolific composer in the theme and variation form, having notably composed the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel , Paganini Variations, and Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, along with other lesser known sets of variations. Brahms also wrote a great deal of work for small forces. His many works of chamber music form part of the core of this repertoire, as does his solo piano music.

Brahms is also considered to be among the greatest of composers of lieder, of which he wrote about 200. He also wrote a set of chorale preludes for organ shortly before his death, which have become an important part of the standard organ repertoire. Brahms never wrote an opera, nor did he ever write in the characteristic 19th century form of the tone poem. Brahms strongly believed in absolute music, that is, music that does not rely upon a concrete scene or narrative as the tone poem does. Despite his (deserved) reputation as a composer of great seriousness and of large, complex musical designs, in his lifetime some of Brahms's most widely-known and commercially successful compositions were small-scale and popular in intention, aimed at the then-large market of domestic music-making. These included his 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 known throughout the English-speaking world as 'Brahms's Lullaby'. Johannes Brahms (zZounds) Bibliography Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters, ISBN 0198162340 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 0306802236). 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 0674177304). 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 019816484) Johannes Brahms: A Biography, by Jan Swafford. A comprehensive (752 pages) look at the life and works of Brahms. (1999; Vintage, ISBN 0679745823) Late Idyll: The Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms, 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 0674511751)

Question: How many symphonies did Johannes Brahms write?
Answer: Four