"Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a romantic who breathed new life into classical forms. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, when his father made a precarious living as a bass player. At thirteen, Brahms led a double life: during the day he studied piano, music theory, and composition; at night he played dance music for prostitutes and their clients in water front bars.
"On his first concert tour, when he was twenty, Brahms met Robert Schumann and Schumann's wife Clara, who were to shape the course of his artistic and personal life. The Schumanns listened enthusiastically to Brahm's music, and Roberts published an article hailing young Brahms as a musical messiah.
"As Brahms was preparing new works for an eager publisher, Schumann had a nervous collapse and tried to drown himself. When Schumann was committed to an asylum, leaving Clara with seven children to support, Brahms came to live in the Schumann home. He stayed for two years, helping to care for the children when Clara was on tour and becoming increasingly involved with Clara, who was fourteen years older than he. It is not known what passed between them (they destroyed many of their letters). Afterward, they remained lifelong friends, and Brahms never married.
"Brahms desperately wanted to become conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Hamburg. When he was passed over for the post in 1862, he left Hamburg for Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life. He conducted a Viennese musical society and introduced many forgotten works of Bach, Handel, and Mozart. He had a wide knowledge of older music (which made him extremely critical of his own work), edited baroque and classical compositions, and collected music manuscripts.
"Brahms always lived frugally, though he earned a good income from publishers and from playing and conducting his works. he hid a shy, sensitive nature behind a mask of sarcasm and rudeness; yet he could be very generous to talented young musicians (Dvorak was one).
"When Clara Schumann lay dying in 1896, his grief found expression in the haunting Four Serious Songs, not long after; it was discovered that he had cancer. On March 7, 1897, he dragged himself to hear a performance of his Fourth Symphony; the audience and orchestra gave him a tremendous ovation. Less than a month later, at age sixty-four, he died.
Brahm's Music
"Brahms created masterpieces in all the traditional forms (except opera): four symphonies, two concertos for piano, one for violin, and one for violin and cello; piano pieces; over 200 songs; some magnificent choral music, such as the German Requiem (1868); and numerous chamber pieces. His work is personal in style but rooted in music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Brahms reinterpreted classical forms using the harmonic and instrumental resources of his own time.
"Brahm's music has a range of moods, but particularly an autumnal felling and lyrical warmth. Lyricism pervades even the rich polyphonic textures he was so fond of, and he was always able to make them sound natural and spontaneous. One scholar has observed, "It is possible to sing every Brahms movement from beginning to end though it were a single, uninterrupted melody." His music is rhythmically exciting, with contrasting patterns and syncopations (the use of "2 against 3" --one instrument playing two even notes to a beat while another plays three--is one one of his trademarks). It also has a special quality of sound: rich, dark tone colors and, in the orchestral works , a blending of the instrumental choirs that favor mellow instruments like the viola, clarinet, and the French horn.
"All of his music radiates the security and solidity of complete master who fully justified Schumann's predication of greatness."
The above is from Music an Appreciation by Roger Kamien, Brief Edition, McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. Pages 256-258.
