Johannes Brahms, whose biography this article is devoted to, is a talented composer and musician, author of many excellent compositions created for various orchestral instruments.
He entered the history of art as a representative of romanticism, characterized by the image of strong passions and characters, inspired by rapprochement with a healing nature.
Who was this person - Johannes Brahms (after him. Johannes Brahms)? What is remarkable for his creative searches and works? What contribution did he make to the musical art of his time? In this article, which examines the personal life and creative biography of Brahms, you can find answers to these and many other questions.
Parental influence
Brahms biography at first was unremarkable and mundane. An ordinary child from a poor family living in the poor neighborhood in a small, uncomfortable apartment.
Johannes, who was born in the German city of Hamburg in the spring of 1833, was the second son of a double-bass player who served in the city theater - Jacob Brahms and his wife Christiana Nissen, who worked as a housekeeper in a tenement house.
Brahms's father was a strong and strong-willed person, a talented performer, in love with music from childhood. He had to defend his creative vocation in front of adamant parents who did not want to see their son playing wind instruments at all.
Jacob Brahms knew what was behind parental misunderstanding and adamant, and did not want his boys to ever experience something like this.
Therefore, from childhood, a father instilled in his sons a love of music and the ability to defend his opinion. How glad he was when he saw in his youngest the true makings of a great musician!
At first, the head of the family personally trained his son, helping him master all kinds of musical instruments. In these lessons, he not only instilled in little Johannes the correct technique of performance, but also tried to help him feel the rhythm, love the melody, and understand musical art.
The son was making progress, and he already lacked his fatherly knowledge.
Learning from knowledgeable masters
At seven years old, the boy was sent to his friend’s friend, the talented pianist Kossel, to study. He not only taught the child to play the piano correctly, but also helped to understand the theory of composition, as well as penetrate the essence of musical art.
Thanks to Otto Kossel, little Brahms began performing at public concerts, talentedly performing compositions by famous composers - Beethoven and Mozart. Could someone think that this gifted pianist boy would soon become the great composer Johannes Brahms himself!
The audience noted the talented artist, and he was invited to tour in America. However, paying attention to the age and health of the young pianist, his teacher persuaded his parents to abandon such a risky, but well-paid idea and insistently advised the child to continue his education with the composer and pianist involved in pedagogy, Eduard Marxen.
In his classes, the famous musician paid special attention to the study of the works of Bach and Beethoven, and also developed individual creative thoughts and impulses in the boy.
Since Johannes began to study with Marxen (by the way, he did not take money from a talented student), he began to play musical instruments in the evenings in dirty bars and taverns located at the port. Such an inconceivable load deplorably affected the already poor health of the child.
The formation of creativity
At the age of fourteen, Johannes Brahms first gave his solo orchestra as a pianist. His talented play and precise execution of complex compositions captivated the ear and fascinated the imagination.
However, around this time, the musician began to realize that he could not be limited only to the brilliant performance of other people's compositions. He wanted to write music himself in order to convey his inner emotions and sensations, to make the audience cry and worry, pausing in anticipation of the continuation.
The young man was right in his desire to create. Very soon Brahms' music will become popular and famous, it will be admired and scolded, it will make listeners applaud in ecstasy and whistle in bewilderment - it will not leave anyone indifferent.
The establishment of Brahms as a great composer was greatly influenced by the useful contacts that occurred in the life of a young man in 1853. A few months before this date, Johannes wrote his first work - a sonata. A little later a piano scherzo was written (and published in 1854), as well as piano songs and small plays.
Creative dating
Despite his detachment and unsociability, and perhaps precisely because of these qualities, Johannes Brahms won the favor of many talented original personalities. Among his friends, who became a support, encouragement and inspiration for the young man, one should definitely mention the Hungarian violinists Remena and Joseph Joachim (with the last Johannes maintained warm close relations for more than a decade). What role did these people play in Brahms' life and music?
Thanks to the recommendations of Joachim, Remeny and Brahms met Ferenc Liszt and Robert Schumann. The first was delighted with the works of Brahms and invited him to join his community, which went down in the history of musical art under the name “New German School”. However, Johannes remained indifferent to the creativity and performance of the famous composer-teacher. He took a different view of music and art.
Acquaintance with Schumann was a significant milestone in the biography of Brahms. This bright follower of romanticism was considered an outstanding composer and music critic. He wrote his works in the spirit of democratic and realistic trends, closely related to the traditions of German classical music.
Robert Schumann, like his wife Clara, liked the brave and vivid works of Brahms. He even praised him in the pages of his music newspaper.
Acquaintance with Clara Schumann - a famous pianist and an influential teacher - had a huge impact on Brahms' subsequent creative and personal life. He admired the woman and was in love with her, he wrote for her and devoted many of her works to her, she played his compositions and popularized his creations at her concerts and performances.
An important episode in Brahms’s creative biography is also his acquaintance with the famous conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow, who in March 1854 was one of the first to publicly perform the composition of young Johannes at his next concert.
Life outside the hometown
Having become famous, Brahms wanted to live with his parents to help them and support them. However, life decreed otherwise. In their native Hamburg, they were in no hurry to invite a celebrity to work, so the novice composer had to look for recognition in Vienna.
Life in this big city favorably reflected on the musician’s creativity and financial situation. He worked as a bandmaster at the Singing Academy, as well as a conductor at the Philharmonic, where he later served as an artistic director.
However, public office did not bring Johannes satisfaction. He wanted to create, so he devoted a lot of time and effort to his work. The premieres of his musical creations gathered full halls and multiplied the already recognized fame of the composer.
For example, the first hearing of the “German Requiem", written under the impression of the death of his friend Schumann, took place in the Bremen Cathedral and was a resounding success. Other premieres of major works by Brahms - the First Symphony, the Fourth Symphony and the Quintet for clarinet - also became crowded and universally recognized.
We will talk about other outstanding works of the composer below.
"Hungarian Dances"
This work was first published in 1869. It has become a visiting card of a talented composer.
How did Johannes Brahms write Hungarian Dance? He, imbued with true love for colorful Hungarian folklore, created his works selflessly and diligently, creating plays that harmoniously fit into the general cycle.
Brahms was introduced to the traditional music of the Hungarian people by his friend, already mentioned earlier in our article, Ede Remeni. He so enthusiastically performed original folk motifs on the violin that the young and sophisticated Johannes wanted to create his own creations on this subject.
His first works were “Hungarian Dances” for four-handed performance on the piano, later he skillfully crafted folk motifs for simultaneous performance on the piano and violin.
The audience enthusiastically accepted Hungarian folklore, polished by the classical tricks of the romantic composer.
"Lullaby"
Also one of the most common works of a German musician, which is part of his symphony, written in 1868. It is interesting that in the first version of Brahms' “Lullaby” did not involve verbal accompaniment.
However, later, when the composer met a certain Berta Faber, who wanted to sing a previously unexecuted song to her newborn, Johannes personally wrote a rhyme composition to the music of his "Lullaby". Brahms called this simple, but beautiful in its simplicity song "Good evening, good night."
Since then, this composition has gained worldwide popularity. It is performed by famous singers and artists of both domestic and foreign pop. Although the text variations may slightly differ from the original, they nevertheless clearly and expressively convey the expressive and gentle talent of the German composer.
Symphony No. 3
It was written by a composer in Wiesbaden, at the age of fifty. Brahms Symphony No. 3 unexpectedly and harmoniously embodied the classical and romantic traditions of the time. The drama of this work is original: from the disturbing, but light motives of the first part, the composer leads his listeners to a dramatic, one might even say, mournful ending. At that time, this approach was considered avant-garde and caused a storm of conflicting feelings and emotions among the admirers of the musician.
Brahms Symphony No. 3 was dedicated to his beloved friend Hans von Bülow.
Other famous works
The following are other talented compositions by composer Johannes Brahms.
Piano To play this musical instrument, the German composer created such exciting, beautiful works as three intermezzos, two rhapsodies, three sonatas, “Variations on the theme of R. Schumann”, all kinds of waltzes and others.
Compositions for organ . These compositions include Eleven Choral Preludes, as well as two preludes and numerous fugues.
For the orchestra . Among the compositions for orchestral performance, Brahms composed four symphonies, two serenades, Variations on the Theme of J. Haydn, Academic Overture, Tragic Overture, etc.
Vocal compositions. For solo or choral performance by a German musician, the following compositions were created: "Triumphal Song", "German Requiem", "Cantata Rinaldo", "Song of the Parks", "Songs of Mary", as well as many arrangements of folk songs, seven motets, about two hundred romances and so on.
The only thing Brahms did not write is the opera.
Personal life of the composer
At the age of fourteen, in one of the Hamburg resorts, the heart of a gifted performer for the first time began to beat faster when he saw young Lizhen, his random student.
This was followed by an acquaintance with a legendary and extraordinary personality - Clara Schumann, who was thirteen years older than Johannes. Despite the difference in age and marriage of the woman (her husband was a good friend and benefactor of Brahms), the lovers tenderly corresponded and even secretly met in one of the rented apartments.
For Clara, many works of the composer were written, including his Fourth Symphony. However, their relationship, even after the death of Robert, never ended in marriage.
Subsequent favorites of the composer were singer Agatha von Siebold, Baroness Elizabeth von Stockhausen and singer Germina Spitz. However, this relationship also ended in nothing.
As Johannes himself later admitted, his heart was given to only one Lady - the incomparable Music.
Last years
Towards the end of his life, Brahms became increasingly unsociable and withdrawn. He turned away from many friends and acquaintances, becoming practically a recluse in his own apartment. Before his death, the composer practically did not write, appeared little in public and even stopped performing his compositions.
The great musician died early in the morning of the third of April 1897.
His work is still considered the best example of musical romanticism of the nineteenth century. Brahms' works are still popular and performed in modern society, as in the old days.