Who Was Johannes Brahms?
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist of the late romantic Era of the 19th century. Three B’s of classical music Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms are very famous and Brahms was one of them. He had a massive impact on Western music. He was the greatest composer who wrote both instrumental and vocal music.
Brahms was born in Germany but most of his childhood was primarily spent in Vienna, Austria. He contributed to the definition of the contemporary symphony orchestra. A master pianist, he composed great music as well as piano concertos that defined entire genres.
A Brief Biography of Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms doesn’t belong to a wealthy family and rich parents. He was born on 7th of May, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany. Johannes Brahms’s father was a neighborhood performer. His mother filled in as a sewer. He had two siblings, an elder sister and a younger brother.
He concentrated on piano first with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cassel, later with Eduard Marxsen (an understudy of one of Mozart’s understudies), and lastly Carl Maria von Bocklet (a companion of Franz Schubert). Brahms played piano in dance halls to support his family, and at the age of 19, he became famous as a concert pianist. Here we will explore the life and music of composer Johannes Brahms.
Early Life of Johannes Brahms:
The popular musician and composer “Johannes Brahms”’ was born in Hamburg, (Germany). His father’s name was Johann Jakob Brahms. He used to work as a double bass player. His mother’s name was Christiane Nissen. She was a seamstress. Brahms was a middle child. He had one elder sister and a younger brother. His sister’s name was Elisabeth and his brother’s name was Fritz Friedrich. He also built his career as a pianist. Brahms started developing an interest in music at a very young age. His parents recognized his talent and started providing him music education.
7-year-old Brahms started taking piano lessons. Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel was his music teacher. Later he started learning piano from Eduard Marxsen, who was a great pianist and composer. He was so impressed with Brahms’s piano skills and decided to provide him with music lessons for free. He also encouraged Brahms to learn classical music.
At that time, His family was facing a lot of financial difficulties. Brahms used to support his family financially by playing piano in bars and halls. Despite facing all these difficulties, Brahms continued his musical journey. Later he embarked on his career as the greatest composer of Western classical music in history.
Wonder Boy
The composer Johannes Brahms started playing cello and violin at a very young stage, yet succeeded at the piano. Brahms was a wonder boy who wrote numerous pieces in his teenage, including the well-known Piano Sonata in G minor (1845).
Brahms’ Music
Johannes Brahms began going to show in 1850 with Hungarian violin player Eduard Reményi, and he fostered a lifetime interest in Society music including czardas. The two volumes of Hungarian Moves by Brahms (1869 and 1880) were one of Johannes Brahms’s well-known works.
Collaboration with colleagues
Brahms met composer and musician Joseph Joachim in 1853. Brahms and Joachim studied counterpoint, double counterpoint, canons, preludes, and fugues together, focusing a lot on J.S. Bach, the master of counterpoint. He encountered the nineteenth-century piano virtuoso Franz Liszt around the same time, who was rumored to have been able to sight-read Brahms’ difficult Op. 4 Scherzo.
Relationship with the Schumanns
It was almost the end of 1853 when Brahms met Clara Wieck Schumann and Robert Schumann. They became heroes of Brahms’ music and assisted him with distributing his most memorable work, Operation. 1-4 (the Piano Sonatas nos. 1 and 2, the Six Tunes Operation. 3, and the Scherzo Operation. 4). Brahms and Clara Schumann began a platonic relationship when they met. In June 1854 Brahms created his Operation. 9, the Minor departure from a Subject of Schumann as recognition for Clara.
Work as a Conductor
He got the name of conductor of the Wiener Singakademie in 1863. Vienna, Austria, is very popular as the musical center of Europe. He divided his time between Lichtental, a German town in modern-day Baden-Baden, and Vienna. Brahms composed important works in Lichtental, including his Hungarian Dances, Op. 51 No. 1 and 2, and A German Requiem.
A more traditional approach
Brahms was appointed the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde’s director of concerts in 1872. His concerts featured compositions by classical composers including Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann in addition to his choral pieces like Haydn’s Variations on a Theme and Beethoven’s German Requiem. He avoided the New German School’s more avant-garde pieces.
Orchestral writing
Brahms concentrated on orchestral composition at the end of his musical career. Features of this period included Orchestra No. 1 of the Symphony in C minor, 2 in D major, Orchestra No. 3 in F major, Violin Concerto in D major, the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-level major, and 1880’s Terrible Suggestion.
Brahms died when he was 63 years old on 3 April 1897. He had attended a performance of his Symphony No. 4 in E minor a few weeks prior. His gravesite has a monument by Victor Horta with a sculpture by Ilse von Twardowski. He is buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery.
Characteristics of Johannes Brahms’s Compositions
Johannes Brahms is known for his various musical characteristics-
Musically conservative
He had a talent for fusing the more intricate Romantic harmonic techniques with distinct Classical musical frameworks. He is regarded as a more conservative composer because he created mainly absolute music rather than the program music that had grown so popular in the 19th century.
Virtuosic piano literature
Brahms was a piano wonder and his dominance of the instrument appears in pieces, for example, Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Operation. 15; Piano Group of four No. 1 in G minor, Operation. 25; also, Vier ernste Gesänge (Four Serious Melodies), Operation. 121, for bass and piano.
Mastery of counterpoint
Brahms, who concentrated on the creations of Bach and Beethoven, was a specialist in contrast. Works like String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Operation. 111, String Sextet No. 2 in G major, Operation. 36, and two songs, Operation. 11 and 16, highlight this.
Famous works by Johannes Brahms
We are mindful that Johannes Brahms was an extraordinary writer, and a portion of his best work incorporates the accompanying.
Piano Triplet No. 1 in B major, Operation. 8
One of the chief huge works of Brahms, this trio was done in 1854 when the essayist was 20 years old. It is a homotonal association, with two improvements in the key of B major and two improvements in the key of B minor.
Variations on a theme by Haydn
This work, which was initially composed for two pianos and afterward revamped for a full symphony, is as yet quite possibly Brahms’ most frequently performed piece.
Liebeslieder Waltzes
Brahms charmed by the three-step dance structure and was an admirer of both Franz Schubert (who preceded him) and Johann Strauss II (a contemporary). His commitments to the structure incorporate the Liebeslieder Dances, a determination of affection tunes that might have been propelled by the writer’s well-established non-romantic love for Clara Wieck Schumann.
Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op. 68
Brahms delivered a whirlwind of music toward the finish of his vocation, yet his most memorable orchestra took him 14 years to finish — with an additional 7 years spent on final details. The last rendition that is performed today was finished in 1877.
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Like such countless creations all through his life, Brahms was unimaginably condemning his three violin sonatas. He formed his initial one as soon as 1853, and it is conceivable that he made four more, all of which he obliterated. It is devoted to Hans von Bulow.
Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120, Nos. 1 and 2
These sonatas are representative of Brahms’s late career. Brahms had heard clarinet virtuoso Richard Mühlfeld perform at the Meiningen Arts Celebration, so he wrote these pieces specifically for him.
Conclusion
Johannes Brahms was a great composer of Western music. Here we have mentioned Johannes Brahms and his biography. We have also mentioned his musical journey and some of his masterpieces. On the off chance that you love Johannes Brahms or someone who loves music then the excursion of Johannes Brahms will motivate you in such countless ways.