Johannes Brahms 1833-1897 You’ve heard about Bach. You’ve read about there for the rest of his life. To earn money, he Beethoven. But do you know about Johannes continued to work as a choir and orchestra Brahms? One of the most important composers of director. But he spent more and more time the 19th century, Brahms wrote everything from working on his own music. A great walker, Brahms sonatas to symphonies to songs. He even could often be seen strolling around the city or composed a lullaby! We think that he was the very hiking the surrounding countryside, thinking first composer to have his voice recorded. about his music. (He often said that he thought Although he was a solitary man often full of best when he was out in the open air.) self-doubt, he became a rock star of his day. Not everyone liked the music that Brahms Johannes Brahms was born in the northern was writing. Some of his fellow composers thought German city of Hamburg on May 7, that Brahms’ music was 1833. Brahms’ family may not have “old-fashioned.” Part of the been very wealthy, but they gave Romantic movement, these the composer a good start in his composers wanted their music to musical career. His father, Johann express emotions and feelings Jakob Brahms, was a musician who without following strict rules or played the horn and double bass in musical forms. They criticized his the local orchestra. Johann began work for being too formal. teaching his talented son to play Despite the criticism, Brahms the piano at a very young age. didn’t change the way he When Johannes was seven, he composed. He thought that announced that he wanted to learn composers should not abandon a to compose music. Soon this form just because it was old. His extraordinary boy was giving music expressed his feelings recitals and public concerts. perfectly, and soon his audiences Brahms’ “big break” came began to agree with him. when he was twenty. In 1853, he In 1868, Brahms finally took part in a concert tour with a famous violinist finished his largest work, A German Requiem. This named Eduard Reményi. While on this tour, religious piece mixes passages from the Bible with Brahms was introduced to some of the important songs. Many scholars say that he wrote it to honor musical figures of the time. his mother and his good friend Robert Schumann. Two of these important people were Robert People all over Germany were very impressed by and Clara Schumann. Both members of this this work, and it was performed in cities all over husband and wife team were composers, and the country. Brahms’ two volumes of Hungarian Brahms became a life-long friend of the Schumann Dances also became widely popular. family. Robert Schumann was not only a composer Throughout his life, Brahms had been very but also a publisher of a music magazine. When he critical of his own music. He had always been in met Johannes Brahms, he was very impressed with awe of Beethoven and felt that he could never the young man’s talents and wrote an article about write as well as that great composer. But successes him. In this article, Schumann described Brahms gave Brahms the confidence to tackle some more as a type of genius, a great young composer who complex pieces, including four symphonies. would define the music of his time. Brahms continued to write music for the rest This article helped launch Brahms’ career as a of his life. He vowed to give it up when he was 57, professional musician, but it also put a lot of but his admiration of a clarinetist friend inspired pressure on the young man. Brahms was always him to continue writing. In 1897, Brahms found very self-critical and a perfectionist. Throughout out that he had cancer. Always committed to his his adult life, he worked very hard to live up to music, he gave one last concert in March of 1897 these expectations. before he passed away in April. As a young man, Brahms moved around quite Johannes Brahms was buried in Vienna, not a bit and had trouble keeping a job for more than far from Beethoven and Schubert, two composers a few years. After working in Hamburg, Göttingen, that he greatly admired. and the principality of Detmold, he visited Vienna by Katie Ebel in 1862. He fell in love with the city and stayed © 2008 Plank Road Publishing, Inc.