Midterms. Projects. Papers. How many more weeks till spring break? Too many, in my opinion. However, this week I’ll be talking about a guy who makes such great music that he’s famous for making people fall asleep with his lullaby. Johannes Brahms!
The third (and most often overlooked) of the Big Three B’s of classical music, Brahms stuck to the traditions of Classical era composers like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven while others, like Liszt and Richard Wagner, were radically improvising upon those classical themes. In fact, the more conservative Brahms and Clara Schumann (who we will discuss later) even got into a so-called “War of the Romantics” over musical style with Liszt and Wagner, although Brahms always remained respectful towards his contemporaries.
Born into a poor household, Brahms was basically forced by his father into learning the piano in order to earn money to support the family. However, Brahms’ talent became apparent as he matured and started composing in his teens. During this time, Brahms met a Jewish Hungarian violinist named Eduard Reményi, whose gypsy heritage influenced Brahms’ music thereafter.
I find it interesting that Brahms’ music contained gypsy influences, since gypsies were thought to be dishonest travelling vagrants for many years in Europe. I wonder if the Classical era composers ever thought about incorporating other ethnic styles (though they were pretty much all white men… not very diverse…). Maybe Brahms was more radical than he and others thought.
Things for Brahms took a turn for the better when a violin virtuoso, Joseph Joachim, recommended him to Robert Schumann, one of the biggest composers of the day; they immediately became friends. Schumann wrote him an incredible letter of recommendation to the musical world – an essay in the musical periodical Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Music Magazine) praising Brahms, catapulting him into the musical spotlight.
Brahms was such a perfectionist that he spent twenty-two years composing and severely editing his first symphony. He wanted to make sure he’d mastered the symphonic structure before showing off his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor to the world. Inspired by the success of this first symphony, he went on to compose several others.
Many people consider Brahms an orchestral composer (which he was, and he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for a number of years). However, he also has some outstanding works for piano, especially his Piano Concertos – I definitely recommend this Piano Concerto No. 1 featuring Hélène Grimaud, she is phenomenal.
One of Brahms’ lasting legacies includes his famous lullaby, or “Cradle Song.” He originally wrote the song for the newborn son of Bertha Faber, a woman whom he had once loved. He also meant the lullaby as a love song to Bertha, even though she’d married someone else.
Brahms’ love life was a pretty sad one, I’ve got to say. He had a couple affairs; in addition, when his old friend Robert Schumann died, Brahms immediately went to comfort his wife, Clara. Their relationship is unclear… but they ended up destroying the letters they wrote to each other… so was there something to hide? That’s the (almost two-hundred-year-old) tea. But Brahms himself backed out of marriage with other women, aware of his inability to express his emotions and relate to people other than through his music.
Another one of Brahms’ famous compositions is his set of Hungarian Dances. These were inspired by the gypsy influences he had picked up early in life, leading to the spirited folk tunes embodied in this work. They were originally written for four-hand piano, where two artists play on a single piano. However, they have been adapted for orchestra as well. I especially like Hungarian Dance No. 5!
Brahms’ composing reached such a high level by the end of his life that the public started including him in the “Big Three B’s” of classical music. Even though the followers of Liszt and Wagner scoffed at his old-fashioned style, Brahms’ legacy lives on today. He produced music far greater than Schumann’s endorsement had promised (a musical Brahmise, perhaps). And maybe he can help you fall into a much-needed deep sleep after these crazy weeks of work!
Here are some other pieces by Brahms to check out!
Variations on A Theme By Haydn
Here is our musical meme of the week! (Actually there’s two cause they go together)
And here are my sources:
“Cradle Song by Johannes Brahms .” Song Meanings at Songfacts, Songfacts LLC, 2020, www.songfacts.com/facts/johannes-brahms/cradle-song.
Ross, Daniel. “Brahms: 15 Facts about the Great Composer.” Classic FM, Global, 6 Nov. 2012, www.classicfm.com/composers/brahms/guides/brahms-facts-great-composer/.
Schwarm, Betsy. “Hungarian Dances.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 23 Aug. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/Hungarian-Dances.
Simpson, Robert, and Karl Geiringer. “Johannes Brahms.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Feb. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Brahms.
I really enjoyed reading this blog, especially because I don’t usually read articles or posts of such type that are informative in a casual sort of way about such a topic. In my limited opinion, I have always noticed that when people learn music and instruments, they learn to play some songs, classics and so on but they never really pay attention to the artists themselves, especially the ones that you’re talking about and they usually end up going unnoticed to the general public or to a lot of the musicians (again, i have EXTREMELY limited knowledge and may be completely wrong). But I also feel that it’s interesting to read about them as individuals and read about the personal side of their lives. Looking forward to read more.