Editing Johannes Brahms (section)

==Reception==
{{Essay|section|date=October 2020}}
Brahms is seen as looking both backward and forward. His output was often bold in its exploration of harmony and textural elements, especially rhythm. As a result, he influenced composers of both conservative and modernist tendencies; [[Anthony Tommasini]] writes that he "sometimes become entangled in an attempt to extend the Classical heritage while simultaneously taking progressive strides into new territory.".<ref name=Tommasini>{{cite news| last=Tommasini| first=Anthony| author-link=Anthony Tommasini| date=January 21, 2011| title=The Greatest| work=[[The New York Times]]| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/arts/music/23composers.html}}</ref>

Brahms' symphonies are prominent in the [[standard repertoire]] of symphony orchestras;{{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=xiii}} only Beethoven's are more frequently performed.{{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=ix}} Brahms's have often been measured against Beethoven's.{{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=ix}}{{how|date=July 2024}}

Brahms often sent manuscripts to friends Billroth, [[Elisabeth von Herzogenberg]], Joachim, and Clara Schumann for review.{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=208}} They noted its textures and frequent dissonances, which Brahms wrote (to Henschel) that he preferred on the strong beat, "resolve[d] ... lightly and gently!"{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=208}} In 1855, Clara felt Brahms's harshness most distinguished his music from Robert's.{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=209}} Billroth described Brahms's dissonances as "cutting", "toxic", or (in the case of "In stiller Nacht") "divine".{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=210}} In 1855, Joachim noted "steely harshness" in the ''Benedictus'' of the ''Missa canonica'', with its "bold independence of the voices".{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=208–209}} But in 1856 he objected to "extensive harshness" in ''[[Geistliches Lied]]'',{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=208–209}} telling Brahms: {{blockquote|You [are] so used to rough harmonies, of such polyphonic texture ... . ... You cannot ask that of the listener ... art [should] inspire collective delight ... .{{sfn|Floros|2010|loc=208–209}}}}

Some criticized Brahms's music as overly academic, dense, or muddy.{{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=xiii}} Even Hanslick criticized the First Symphony as academic.{{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=153}} (He later praised the "harmonic and contrapuntal art" of the Fourth Symphony's passacaglia.){{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=153}} Elisabeth von Herzogenberg initially considered the Fourth's first movement a "work of [the] brain ... designed too much" (her opinion improved within weeks).{{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=153}} [[Arnold Schoenberg]] would later defend Brahms: "It is not the heart alone which creates all that is beautiful [or] emotional".{{sfn|Frisch|2003|loc=Schoenberg's 1946 "Heart and Brain in Music" essay, quoted 154}} [[Benjamin Britten]] lost his taste for Brahms's "thickness of texture" and studied [[Musical expression|expressivity]].{{sfn|Musgrave|1985|loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780710097767/page/270 269–270]}}

Schoenberg and others, among them [[Theodor W. Adorno]] and Carl Dahlhaus, sought to advance Brahms's reputation in the early and mid-20th century against the criticisms{{clarify|date=July 2024}} of [[Paul Bekker]] and Wagner.{{sfn|Bozarth and Frisch|2001|loc=§6, ¶4–10}} For Brahms's centenary in 1933, Schoenberg wrote and broadcast an essay "Brahms the Progressive" (rev. 1947, pub. 1950), establishing Brahms's historical continuity (perhaps self-servingly).{{sfn|Musgrave|1999a|loc=xx}} Schoenberg portrayed him as a forward-looking innovator, somewhat polemically against the image of Brahms as an academic traditionalist.{{sfn|Kross|1983|loc=142}} He highlighted Brahms's fondness for motivic saturation and irregularities of rhythm and phrase, terming Brahms's compositional principles "developing variation". In ''Structural Functions of Harmony'' (1948), Schoenberg analyzed Brahms's "enriched harmony" and exploration of remote tonal regions. Tommasini writes that "at his best (the symphonies, the piano concertos, the violin concerto, the chamber works with piano, the solo piano pieces, especially the late intermezzos and capriccios that point the way to Schoenberg) Brahms has the thrilling grandeur and strangeness of Beethoven."<ref name=Tommasini/>

[[File:Brahms-Denkmal von Prof. Max Klinger.jpg|thumb|Monument dedicated to Brahms, by [[Max Klinger]] (1909)]]

===Influence===

Within his lifetime, Brahms's idiom left an imprint on several composers within his personal circle, who strongly admired his music, such as [[Heinrich von Herzogenberg]], [[Robert Fuchs (composer)|Robert Fuchs]], and [[Julius Röntgen]], as well as on [[Gustav Jenner]], who was his only formal composition pupil. Antonín Dvořák, who received substantial assistance from Brahms, deeply admired his music and was influenced by it in several works, such as the [[Symphony No. 7 (Dvořák)|Symphony No. 7 in D minor]] and the F minor Piano Trio.

Features of the "Brahms style" were absorbed in a more complex synthesis with other contemporary (chiefly Wagnerian) trends by [[Hans Rott]], [[Wilhelm Berger]], [[Max Reger]] and [[Franz Schmidt (composer)|Franz Schmidt]], whereas the British composers [[Hubert Parry]] and [[Edward Elgar]] and the Swede [[Wilhelm Stenhammar]] all testified to learning much from Brahms. As Elgar said, "I look at the Third Symphony of Brahms, and I feel like a pygmy."{{sfn|MacDonald|2001|p=406}} In France, [[Gabriel Fauré]]'s music showed Brahmsian concern for rhythm and texture; in Russia, [[Sergei Taneyev]] was called "the Russian Brahms";{{sfn|Bozarth and Frisch|2001|loc=§6: "Influence and reception"}} and in the United States, [[Amy Beach]]'s musical textures were noted for their Brahmsian richness.<ref>{{Cite Grove|title=Amy Beach}}</ref>

[[Ferruccio Busoni]]'s early music shows much Brahmsian influence, and Brahms took an interest in him, though Busoni later tended to disparage Brahms. Towards the end of his life, Brahms offered substantial encouragement to [[Ernst von Dohnányi]] and to [[Alexander von Zemlinsky]]. Their early chamber works, those of [[Béla Bartók]] (who was friendly with Dohnányi), show a thoroughgoing absorption of the Brahmsian idiom.

====Second Viennese School====
Zemlinsky in turn taught Schoenberg, and Brahms was apparently impressed when in 1897 Zemlinsky showed him drafts of two movements of Schoenberg's early [[String quartets (Schoenberg)|D-major quartet]]. Webern and later Walter Frisch identified Brahms's influence in the dense, cohesive textures and [[Variation (music)|variation]] techniques of Schoenberg's [[String Quartets (Schoenberg)#String Quartet No. 1, Op. 7|first quartet]].{{sfn|Frisch|1984|loc=[https://archive.org/details/brahmsprincipleo0000fris/page/164/mode/2up 164–165], partly quoting Webern's 1912 essay "Schoenberg's Music"}}

In 1937, Schoenberg orchestrated Brahms's [[Piano Quartet No. 1 (Brahms)|Piano Quartet No. 1]] as an exercise suggested by [[Otto Klemperer]] to break [[writer's block]]; Klemperer regarded it as better than the original.{{sfn|Maurer Zenck|1999|loc=183, 191n71}} ([[George Balanchine]] later set it to dance in ''[[Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet]]''.)

In [[Anton Webern]]'s 1933 lectures, posthumously published under the title ''The Path to the New Music'', he claimed Brahms as one who had anticipated the developments of the [[Second Viennese School]]. Webern's 1908 [[Passacaglia (Webern)|Passacaglia, Op. 1]], is clearly in part a homage to, and development of, the variation techniques of the passacaglia-finale of Brahms's Fourth Symphony.<!-- here Brahms 116/v, iirc Grove/Oxford has a bit on this; then re: W 27/i; also maybe W & Parzenlied--> Ann Scott argued Brahms anticipated the procedures of the serialists by redistributing melodic fragments between instruments, as in the first movement of the [[Clarinet Sonatas (Brahms)|Clarinet Sonata, Op.&nbsp;120, No.&nbsp;2]].<ref name="s696">{{cite journal | last=Scott | first=Ann Besser | title=Thematic transmutation in the music of Brahms: A matter of musical alchemy | journal=Journal of Musicological Research | volume=15 | issue=2 | date=1995 | issn=0141-1896 | doi=10.1080/01411899508574717 | pages=177–206}}</ref>

====Later composers====
Still later composers, like [[Milton Babbitt]], [[Elliott Carter]] and [[György Ligeti]] paid respect to Brahms in their music, especially in terms of their treatment of meter, motives, rhythm, or texture.{{sfnm|Bozarth and Frisch|2001|1loc=§6: "Influence and reception"|Musgrave|1985|2loc=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780710097767/page/270 269–270]}} More recently, composers like [[Wolfgang Rihm]] (e.g., Klavierstück Nr. 6, ''Brahmsliebewalzer'', ''Ernster Gesang'', ''Das Lesen der Schrift'', Symphonie ''Nähe Fern'') and [[Thomas Adès]] (e.g., ''Brahms'') also engaged with Brahms's music, often as seen through Schoenberg's "progressive" lens.{{sfnm|Grimes|2018|1loc=523–528, 538–542|Massey|2021|2loc=124–129, citing Venn 2015|Venn|2015|3loc=164–168, 175, 192–193, {{lang|lt|et passim}}, citing [[Adrian Jack]]'s "Brendel's Poems Set to Music" in ''The Independent'' (3 July 2001), Hélène Cao's ''Thomas Adès le voyageur: Devenir compositeur, être musicien'' (Paris, 2007) 34–35, and [[Elaine Barkin]]'s "About Some Music of Thomas Adès", ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'' 47(1):171–172}}

===Memorials===
On 14 September 2000, Brahms was honoured in the [[Walhalla (memorial)|Walhalla]], a German hall of fame. He was introduced there as the 126th "{{lang|de|rühmlich ausgezeichneter Teutscher}}" [honorably distinguished German] and 13th composer among them, with a bust by sculptor {{Interlanguage link|Milan Knobloch|de}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stmwfk.bayern.de/pressearchiv/2000/09/sept124.html|title=Johannes Brahms hält Einzug in die Walhalla|publisher=Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst|date=14 September 2000|access-date=23 April 2008}}</ref>