Johannes Brahms
1833-1897

Often nicknamed "Mr. Establishment," Johannes Brahms opposed the new cutting edge composers of the Romantic Era. He was a very civilized, normal man, very different from the childish attitudes of Mozart, and the stormy personality of Beethoven. Considered the "conservative" of the Romantic Era, some of Brahms' works are so individual that they are considered "impossible" to play, to match what he was trying to say with his music.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, Brahms' father, an all-around very good musician himself, taught the young Johannes how to play dance music on the violin, cello, and horn and how to arrange music for brass bands. The young man helped his family out of financial nightmares by making arrangements of popular waltzes for a music publisher.

When Brahms was twenty, his magnificent piano playing and ability to read and transpose at sight caught the attention of the great Hungarian violinist Reményi. Reményi invited Brahms to accompany him for a performance. At his performance, Remßnyi helped introduce Brahms to the style of Hungarian gypsy melodies that Brahms later used in his Hungarian Dances.

Johannes Brahms' talent was very apparent from the start, attracting many great legends to tutor him in the world of composition. Probably the most important encounter for Brahms would be that with Robert Schumann. With Schumann, Brahms also met the virtuoso pianist, Clara Schumann, Robert's wife. From the day he met her, Brahms fell in love with her, and was perhaps Johannes' only love. His love for her lasted until the day she died (which was only a year before he Brahms himself died), and never did Johannes show her his love, held back by his friendship with Robert Schumann.

Aside from his love life, Brahms also held back on something else: the will to change. It is rumored that Brahms even signed a manifesto against "new music." The way young composers of his time seeked to develop a piece of music that would mark the "new era" disgusted Brahms in every way. Because of this discretion, Brahms created a notorious rivalry with the operatic great, Richard Wagner. However, a rivalry was something Brahms did not seek for. In fact, Brahms actually admired Wagner's works. It was mostly Wagner who developed the rivalry. It all began when Brahms' critics commented on his first symphony. It was such a piece of magnificence that the critics named it "Beethoven's Tenth Symphony." To Wagner, it brought a tremendous amount of jealousy, since Wagner saw himself as Beethoven's heir.

"The conservative" lived a life of extreme modesty, never wanting to attract attention to himself. Though his works may not be ground-breaking enough to satisfy the Wagnerites, it was exactly what Brahms was going for. He wanted to keep the things the way they were…he liked the ground the way it was, and saw it a shame to break it. Even today his works are those that are the best-loved and most performed in the repertoire.

© 1999 H.Tsai

Some Famous Works:
Hungarian Dance No.5

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