Johannes Brahms: Warm Tunes, Careful Craft
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. He wrote a lullaby that is sung around the world, lively dances, and four big symphonies full of warm, rich tunes.
In this lesson
From Hamburg to Vienna
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, in Germany, on 7 May 1833. His father played the double bass, the horn and the flute, and Johannes learned the piano as a boy. When he was ten, he played in a private concert.
Later he studied with a teacher called Eduard Marxsen, who had studied music in Vienna. When Brahms grew up, he moved to Vienna and made his home there. He grew a big beard in 1878, and many pictures of him show it. He died in Vienna on 3 April 1897, at the age of 63.
A young visitor and new friends
In 1853, when Brahms was 20, he visited the composers Robert and Clara Schumann at their home in Düsseldorf and played his piano pieces for them. Robert later wrote an article praising the young musician.
Clara Schumann, a famous pianist, stayed his friend for the rest of her life. She played many of his pieces in her concerts, and she was the first to play some of them in public, including his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.
Brahms also helped other composers. He suggested that his publisher print the music of Antonín Dvořák, who was not yet well known.
Music built with care
Brahms loved the music of the great composers who came before him, such as Bach and Beethoven. He studied it closely, and he built his own pieces with the same care. His tunes are warm, and his orchestra sounds deep and full.
He also loved folk songs and wrote hundreds of arrangements of them. He worked slowly and checked every detail. His First Symphony took him many years to finish.
Try listening for
These four pieces show both the gentle side and the lively side of Brahms.
- Lullaby
- Listen for the soft, swaying tune that people sing to help babies fall asleep.
- Hungarian Dance No. 5
- Listen for the lively, dancing tune. Brahms thought it was an old folk song, but it was based on a piece by Béla Kéler.
- Symphony No. 1, last movement
- Listen for the long, calling horn tune. Brahms once sent it to Clara Schumann on a card, saying a shepherd had blown it that day. Then listen for the big, warm tune that reminded people of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
- Academic Festival Overture
- Listen for the cheerful student songs, with the famous song Gaudeamus igitur near the end. Brahms wrote it in 1880 to thank a university that gave him an honorary doctor's title.
Listen to the Lullaby and sway gently with the tune. Then listen to a Hungarian Dance and clap a bouncy beat.
Some pieces to know
Brahms wrote symphonies, concertos, piano pieces, songs and music for choirs.
- Symphonies
- He wrote four of them. The first was played for the first time in 1876, and the fourth in 1885.
- A German Requiem
- A big piece for a choir, two soloists and an orchestra, with words from the Bible in German. Brahms said he would have liked to call it A Human Requiem.
- Hungarian Dances
- Twenty-one short, lively dances, first written for two people to play together on one piano. They were published in 1869 and 1880.
- Brahms's Lullaby
- A gentle song for voice and piano, called Wiegenlied in German. It is Op. 49, No. 4, and he wrote it in 1868.
Meanwhile, around the world
- 1853An opera in Venice
Verdi's opera La traviata was played for the first time at the La Fenice theatre in Venice, in Italy.
- 1871Aida in Cairo
Verdi's opera Aida was played for the first time in Cairo, in Egypt.
- 1876A theatre for Wagner
Richard Wagner opened the Bayreuth Festival, in Germany, in a theatre he helped design for his own operas.
- 1877Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake was danced for the first time at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
- 1893From the New World
Dvořák's Ninth Symphony was played for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Piano sound: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0).