Editing Johannes Brahms (section)

====Upbringing====
Brahms's father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of [[Heide]] in Holstein.{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=4}}{{efn|His family name was also sometimes spelled Brahmst or Brams, deriving from Bram, the German word for the shrub [[Genista|broom]].{{sfn|Swafford|1999|p=7}}}} Against his family's will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg at age 19.{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=4}} He found work playing [[double bass]] for jobs; he also played in a sextet in the Alster-pavilion in Hamburg's [[Jungfernstieg]].{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=4–5}} In 1830, Johann Jakob was appointed as a [[natural horn|horn]] player in the Hamburg militia.{{sfn|Hofmann|1999|pp=3–4}} He married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen the same year.{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=3}} A middle-class seamstress 17 years his senior, she enjoyed writing letters and reading despite an apparently limited education.{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=6–9}}

Johannes Brahms was born in 1833. His sister Elisabeth (Elise) had been born in 1831 and a younger brother Fritz Friedrich was born in 1835.{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=14–16}}{{efn|Fritz also became a pianist; overshadowed by his brother, he emigrated to [[Caracas]] in 1867, and later returned to Hamburg as a teacher.{{sfn|Musgrave|2000|p=13}}}} The family then lived in poor apartments in the {{ill|Gängeviertel (Hamburg)|lt=Gängeviertel|de|Gängeviertel (Hamburg)|display=1}} quarter of Hamburg and struggled economically.{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=9–11, 14}} (Johann Jakob even considered emigrating to the United States when an [[impresario]], recognizing Johannes's talent, promised them fortune there.){{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=10, 17}} Eventually Johann Jakob became a musician in the [[Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg]] playing [[double bass]], horn, and [[flute]].{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=12}} For enjoyment, he played first [[violin]] in [[string quartet]]s.{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=12}} The family moved over the years to ever better accommodation in Hamburg.{{sfn|Hofmann|1999|pp=4–8}}