Editing Johannes Brahms (section)

==Music==
{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename=Brahms - Schumann-Heink - Wiegenlied (Berceuse) (1915).ogg|title=Wiegenlied (Op. 49)|description=[[Ernestine Schumann-Heink]] (1915)
|filename2=Brahms - Hungarian Dance No. 1 (performed by the composer).oga
|title2=Hungarian Dance No. 1
|description2=Played by Brahms; recorded on 2 December 1889}}

{{See also|List of compositions by Johannes Brahms}}
{{More citations needed|section|date=May 2017}}

Though most of his music is vocal, Brahms's major works are for orchestra, including four [[symphony|symphonies]], two [[piano concerto]]s ([[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Brahms)|No. 1 in D minor]]; [[Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms)|No. 2 in B-flat major]]), a [[Violin Concerto (Brahms)|Violin Concerto]], a [[Double Concerto (Brahms)|Double Concerto]] for violin and cello, and the ''[[Academic Festival Overture|Academic Festival]]'' and ''[[Tragic Overture|Tragic]]'' Overtures. He also wrote two [[Serenades (Brahms)|Serenades]].

His large choral work ''[[A German Requiem (Brahms)|A German Requiem]]''—not a setting of the liturgical ''Missa pro defunctis'', but a setting of texts which Brahms selected from the [[Luther Bible]]—was composed in three major periods of his life. An early version of the second movement was first composed in 1854 after Robert Schumann's attempted suicide (and later used in his first piano concerto). Most of the Requiem was composed after Brahms's mother's death in 1865. He added the fifth movement after the 1868 premiere, and in 1869 the final work was published.

His works in [[variation (music)|variation]] form include the ''[[Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel]]'' and the ''[[Variations on a Theme of Paganini|Paganini Variations]]'', both for solo piano, and the ''[[Variations on a Theme by Haydn]]'' (now sometimes called the ''Saint Anthony Variations'') in versions for two pianos and for orchestra. The final movement of the Symphony No. 4 is a [[passacaglia]].

His [[chamber music|chamber]] works include three string quartets, two string quintets, two string sextets, a clarinet quintet, a clarinet trio, a [[Horn Trio (Brahms)|horn trio]], a piano quintet, three piano quartets, and four piano trios (the [[Piano Trio in A major (Brahms)|A-major trio]] being published posthumously). He composed several instrumental sonatas with piano, including three for violin, two for cello, and two for clarinet (which were subsequently arranged for viola by the composer). His solo piano works range from his early [[piano sonata]]s and [[ballade (classical music)|ballades]] to his late sets of character pieces. His Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op.&nbsp;122, written shortly before his death and published posthumously in 1902, have become an important part of the organ repertoire.

Brahms was an extreme [[Perfectionism (psychology)|perfectionist]], which Schumann's early enthusiasm only exacerbated.<ref name="schumannideal" /> He destroyed many early works—including a violin sonata he had performed with Reményi and violinist [[Ferdinand David (musician)|Ferdinand David]]—and once claimed to have destroyed 20 string quartets before he issued his official First in 1873.<ref name="Lost works of Brahms">{{cite web |author1=Bozarth, George S. |title="Paths Not Taken: The" Lost" Works of Johannes Brahms." |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321299183 |website=researchgate.net |publisher=Music Review 1989 |page=186 |quote="According to the estimate of Alwin Cranz, a boyhood friend of Brahms, the composer destroyed more than twenty string quartets before publishing the Quartets in C minor and A minor"}}</ref> Over the course of several years, he changed an original project for a symphony in D minor into his [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Brahms)|first piano concerto]]. In another instance of devotion to detail, he laboured over the official First Symphony for almost fifteen years, from about 1861 to 1876. Even after its first few performances, Brahms destroyed the original slow movement and substituted another before the score was published.

===Style, influences, and historiography===
The music of Brahms is known for its debts to the [[First Viennese School|Viennese Classical]] and earlier traditions, including its use of traditional [[Genre#Music|genres]] and [[Musical form|forms]] (e.g., [[sonata form]]). In the shadow of Beethoven, Brahms and his contemporaries increasingly exploited harmonies and emphasized [[motif (music)|motifs]] as fundamental structural elements.{{sfn|Dahlhaus|1980|loc=46–51}} The music of some of his contemporaries, especially the [[New German School]], was more obviously innovative, [[virtuoso|virtuosic]], and emotional or evocative, often with well defined dramatic or [[program music|programmatic]] elements. In this context, many like Hanslick (and more recently Harold C. Schonberg){{sfn|Parmer|1995|loc=163n17, quoting Harold C. Schoenberg's ''The Lives of the Great Composers'' (New York, 1981) 296}} saw in Brahms a conservative or reactionary champion of tradition and [[absolute music]].

Such views have been variously challenged or qualified. In terms of technique, Brahms's use of developing variation, [[Carl Dahlhaus]] argued, was an [[exposition (music)|expository]] procedure analogous to that of Liszt's and Wagner's [[modulating sequence]]s.{{sfn|Dahlhaus|1980|loc=46–51}} Though Brahms often wrote music without an explicit or public program,{{sfn|Hull|1998|loc=167–168}} in his Symphony No. 4 alone he [[Musical quotation|musically alluded]] to the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, the texted [[chaconne]] of Bach's [[Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150|Cantata No. 150]], and to Schumann's music, from [[musical cryptogram]]s of Clara to the [[Fantasie in C (Schumann)|Fantasie in C]] with its use of Beethoven's ''[[An die ferne Geliebte]]'', perhaps intending these as ironic, autobiographical reflections on the work's tragic character.{{sfnm|Hull|1998|1loc=135–137, 137n5, 141–149, 141n9, 146–147n17, 150–157, 156–157n30, 157–168; quoting [[Eric Sams]] et al|Parmer|1995|2loc=162n8}}

Most of his music was in fact vocal, including hundreds of folk-song arrangements and ''[[Lieder]]''{{sfn|Parmer|1995|loc=161}} often about rural life. As was common from Schubert to Mahler, Brahms faithfully relied on such songs for melodic inspiration in his instrumental music{{sfn|Parmer|1995|loc=162–163}} from his very first opus, the [[Piano Sonata No. 1 (Brahms)|Piano Sonata No. 1]] (its Andante is based on a {{lang|de|[[Minnesang]]}}).{{sfn|Parmer|1995|loc=162n4, citing Bozarth's "Brahms's ''Lieder ohne Worte'': The 'Poetic' Andantes of the Piano Sonatas"}} Though Brahms never wrote an opera, he was sometimes interested in composing one,{{sfn|Brody|1985|loc=24–37}} and he admired Wagner's music, confining his ambivalence only to the dramaturgical precepts of [[Gesamtkunstwerk#Wagner's ideas|Wagner's theory]].{{sfn|Swafford|1999}}{{efn|Wagner harshly criticized Brahms as the latter grew in stature and popularity, but he was enthusiastically receptive of the early ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel''.}} In his Symphony No. 3, Brahms alluded to Wagner's ''[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]'' in the first movement (mm. 31–35) and to ''[[Götterdämmerung]]'' in the second (mm. 108–110).{{sfn|Parmer|1995|loc=162n4, citing Robert Bailey's "Musical Language and Structure in the Third Symphony"}}

Brahms considered giving up composition when it seemed that other composers' innovations in extended tonality resulted in the rule of tonality being broken altogether.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

====Beethoven and the Viennese Classical tradition====
Brahms venerated Beethoven; in the composer's home, a marble bust of Beethoven looked down on the spot where he composed, and some passages in his works are reminiscent of Beethoven's style. Brahms's [[Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)|First Symphony]] bears the influence of Beethoven's Fifth, for example, in struggling toward a [[C&nbsp;major]] triumph from [[C&nbsp;minor]]. The main theme of the finale of the First Symphony is also reminiscent of the main theme of the finale of Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth]], and when this resemblance was pointed out to Brahms he replied that any dunce<ref>Brahms used the German word "Esel", of which one translation is "donkey" and another is "dunce": ''Cassell's New German Dictionary'', Funk and Wagnalls, New York and London, 1915</ref> could see that. In 1876, when the work was premiered in Vienna, it was immediately hailed as "Beethoven's Tenth". Indeed, the similarity of Brahms's music to that of late Beethoven had first been noted as early as November 1853 in a letter from [[Albert Dietrich]] to [[Ernst Naumann]].{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=80}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BF29_4kLipcC&q=ernst+naumann+brahms&pg=PA6|title=Recollections of Johannes Brahms|first1=Albert Hermann|last1=Dietrich|first2=J. V.|last2=Widmann|date=2000|publisher=Minerva Group|access-date=8 October 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0-89875-141-3|oclc=50646747}}</ref>

Brahms loved the classical composers Mozart and Haydn. He especially admired Mozart, so much so that in his final years he reportedly declared Mozart as the greatest composer. On 10 January 1896, Brahms conducted the ''Academic Festival Overture'' and both piano concertos in Berlin, and during the following celebration Brahms interrupted Joachim's toast with "Ganz recht; auf Mozart's Wohl" (Quite right; here's Mozart's health).<ref>{{cite book|last=Spaeth|first=Sigmund|author-link=Sigmund Spaeth|title=Stories Behind the World's Great Music|year=2020|publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing|page=235}}</ref> Brahms also compared Mozart with Beethoven to the latter's disadvantage, in a letter to [[Richard Heuberger]] in 1896: "[[Consonance and dissonance|Dissonance]], true dissonance as Mozart used it, is not to be found in Beethoven. Look at ''[[Idomeneo]]''. Not only is it a marvel, but as Mozart was still quite young and brash when he wrote it, it was a completely new thing. You couldn't commission great music from Beethoven since he created only lesser works on commission—his more conventional pieces, his variations and the like."<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Fisk|editor1-first=Josiah|editor2-last=Nichols|editor2-first=Jeff|title=Composers On Music: Eight Centuries of Writings|year=1997|publisher=University Press of New England|pages=134–135|url=https://archive.org/details/composersonmusic0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up|url-access=registration|isbn=978-1-55553-279-6}}</ref> Brahms collected first editions and autographs of Mozart and Haydn's works and edited performing editions.

====Early Romantics====
Some early Romantic composers had a major influence on Brahms, particularly Schumann, who encouraged Brahms as a young composer. During his stay in Vienna in 1862–63, Brahms became particularly interested in the music of Schubert.<ref name="webster">[[James Webster (musicologist)|Webster, James]], "Schubert's sonata form and Brahms's first maturity (II)", ''[[19th-Century Music]]'' 3(1) (1979), pp.&nbsp;52–71.</ref> The latter's influence may be identified in works by Brahms dating from the period, such as the two piano quartets Op.&nbsp;25 and Op.&nbsp;26, and the [[Piano Quintet (Brahms)|Piano Quintet]], which alludes to Schubert's [[String Quintet (Schubert)|String Quintet]] and [[Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812 (Schubert)|Grand Duo]] for piano four hands.<ref name="webster" /><ref>[[Donald Francis Tovey|Tovey, Donald Francis]], "Franz Schubert" (1927), rpt. in ''Essays and Lectures on Music'' (London, 1949), p.&nbsp;123. Cf. his similar remarks in "Tonality in Schubert" (1928), rpt. ibid., p.&nbsp;151.</ref>

Any influence of [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]] and Mendelssohn on Brahms is less obvious. Brahms perhaps alludes to Chopin's Scherzo in B-flat minor in the Scherzo, Op.&nbsp;4.<ref>[[Charles Rosen|Rosen, Charles]], "Influence: plagiarism and inspiration", ''[[19th-Century Music]]'' 4(2) (1980), pp.&nbsp;87–100.</ref> In the Piano Sonata, Op.&nbsp;5, scherzo, he may allude to the finale of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in C minor.<ref>Spanner, H.V. "What is originality?", ''[[The Musical Times]]'' 93(1313) (1952), pp.&nbsp;310–311.</ref>

===={{lang|de|Alte Musik}}====
Brahms looked to older music, with its [[counterpoint]], for inspiration. He studied the music of pre-classical composers, including [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina]], [[Giovanni Gabrieli]], [[Johann Adolph Hasse]], [[Heinrich Schütz]], [[Domenico Scarlatti]], [[George Frideric Handel]], and [[Johann Sebastian Bach]].

His friends included leading musicologists. He co-edited an edition of the works of [[François Couperin]] with [[Friedrich Chrysander]]. He also edited works by [[Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach|C.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;E. Bach]] and [[Wilhelm Friedemann Bach|W.&nbsp;F. Bach]].

[[Peter Phillips (conductor)|Peter Phillips]] heard affinities between Brahms's rhythmically charged, contrapuntal textures and those of Renaissance masters such as [[Giovanni Gabrieli]] and [[William Byrd]]. Referring to Byrd's ''Though Amaryllis dance'', Philips remarked that "the cross-rhythms in this piece so excited [[E. H. Fellowes]] that he likened them to Brahms's compositional style."<ref>[[Peter Phillips (conductor)|Phillips, P.]] (2007) sleeve note to ''English Madrigals'', 25th anniversary edition, CD recording, [[Gimell Records]].</ref>

Some of Brahms's music is modeled on [[Baroque music|Baroque]] sources, especially Bach (e.g., the fugal finale of [[Cello Sonata No. 1 (Brahms)|Cello Sonata No. 1]] on Bach's ''[[The Art of Fugue]]'', the passacaglia theme of the Fourth Symphony's finale on Bach's Cantata No. 150).

====Textures====
Brahms was a master of [[counterpoint]]. "For Brahms,&nbsp;... the most complicated forms of counterpoint were a natural means of expressing his emotions," writes [[Karl Geiringer|Geiringer]]. "As Palestrina or Bach succeeded in giving spiritual significance to their technique, so Brahms could turn a [[canon (music)|canon]] in motu contrario or a canon per augmentationem into a pure piece of lyrical poetry."{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=159}} Writers on Brahms have commented on his use of counterpoint. For example, of Op. 9, ''Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann,'' Geiringer writes that Brahms "displays all the resources of contrapuntal art".{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=210}} In the A major piano quartet Opus 26, [[Jan Swafford]] notes that the third movement is "demonic-canonic, echoing Haydn's famous minuet for string quartet called the 'Witch's Round{{' "}}.{{sfn|Swafford|2012|p=159}} Swafford further opines that "thematic development, counterpoint, and form were the dominant technical terms in which Brahms&nbsp;... thought about music".{{sfn|Swafford|2012|p=xviii}}

Allied to his skill in counterpoint was his subtle handling of rhythm and meter. Bozarth speculates that his contact with Hungarian and gypsy folk music as a teenager led to "his lifelong fascination with the irregular rhythms, triplet figures and use of rubato" in his compositions.{{sfn|Bozarth and Frisch|2001|loc=§1, "Formative years"}} The [[Hungarian Dances]] are among Brahms's most-appreciated pieces.{{sfn|Gál|1963|pp=17, 204}} Michael Musgrave considered that only [[Stravinsky]] approached the advancement of his rhythmic thinking.{{sfn|Musgrave|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780710097767/page/269 269]}}

His use of counterpoint and rhythm is present in ''A German Requiem'', a work that was partially inspired by his mother's death in 1865 (at a time in which he composed a funeral march that was to become the basis of Part Two, "Denn alles Fleisch"), but which also incorporates material from a symphony which he started in 1854 but abandoned following Schumann's suicide attempt. He once wrote that the Requiem "belonged to Schumann". The first movement of this abandoned symphony was re-worked as the first movement of the First Piano Concerto.

===Performance practice===
Brahms played principally on German and Viennese pianos. In his early years he used a piano made by the Hamburg company Baumgarten & Heins.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Bernhard und Luise Scholz im Briefwechsel mit Max Kalbeck und Johannes Brahms |date=2020 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1cdxfs0.14 |last=Münster|first=Robert|editor=Thomas Hauschke|title=Johannes Brahms: Beiträge zu seiner Biographie|pages=153–230|language=de|location=Vienna|publisher=Hollitzer Verlag|isbn=978-3-99012-880-0|s2cid=243190598 }}</ref> Later, in 1864, he wrote to Clara about his attraction to instruments by [[Johann Baptist Streicher|Streicher]].<ref name="Litzmann 113">{{Cite journal|last=Litzmann|first=Berthold|date=1 February 1903|title=Clara Schumann von Berthold Litzmann. Erster Band, Mädchenjahre|journal=[[The Musical Times]] |volume=44 |issue=720 |pages=113 |doi=10.2307/903152 |jstor=903152 |issn=0027-4666}}</ref> In 1873 he received a Streicher piano op. 6713 and kept it in his house until his death.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Biba|first=Otto|title=Ausstellung 'Johannes Brahms in Wien' im Musik Verein|date=January 1983|journal=[[Österreichische Musikzeitschrift]]|volume=38|issue=4–5|doi=10.7767/omz.1983.38.45.254a|s2cid=163496436 }}</ref> He wrote to Clara: "There [on my Streicher] I always know exactly what I write and why I write one way or another."<ref name="Litzmann 113" /> Another instrument in Brahms's possession was a [[Conrad Graf]] piano – a wedding present of the Schumanns, that Clara Schumann later gave to Brahms and which he kept until 1873.{{sfn|Frisch|Karnes|2009|p=78}}

In the 1880s for his public performances Brahms used a [[Bösendorfer]] several times. In his Bonn concerts he played on a [[Grotrian-Steinweg|Steinweg Nachfolgern]] in 1880 and a [[Blüthner]] in 1883. Brahms also used a [[C. Bechstein|Bechstein]] in several of his concerts: 1872 in [[Würzburg]], 1872 in Cologne and 1881 in Amsterdam.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cai|first=Camilla|date=1989|title=Brahms's Pianos and the Performance of His Late Works|journal=Performance Practice Review|volume=2|issue=1|pages=59|doi=10.5642/perfpr.198902.01.3|issn=1044-1638|doi-access=free}}</ref>