This pamphlet about the most important compositions in which Brahms
employs the orchestra, like its predecessor about Beethoven's
symphonies, makes no claim to originality and no secret of indebtedness
to treatises that are open to us all. It is addressed to the radio
audience of The Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, and its only
object is to present in concise form some information concerning an
inexhaustible subject that radio listeners may find of service.
BRAHMS
and some of his works
By
PITTS SANBORN
In the then free city of Hamburg Johannes Brahms was born on May 7,
1833. His parents were in humble circumstances, and Johannes was born in
a poor part of the city. But his father was a well-trained musician and
an accomplished double-bass player, and his mother, seventeen years his
father's senior, was a woman of fine spirit and unusual intelligence.
From an early age Johannes was clearly destined for a musical career,
and at six he had already begun to learn the rudiments of music from his
father, who purposed making an orchestral player of him. When he was
eight he began to take piano lessons of Otto Cossel, his father feeling
he had nothing more to teach the child. Cossel pronounced him an
excellent pupil, but complained that he wasted time on his "everlasting
composing."
Two years later Cossel, convinced that he deserved more advanced
instruction, took him to his own teacher, Eduard Marxsen, the royal
music director in the adjacent city of Altona. Marxsen accepted the new
pupil unwillingly, but presently he was impressed with the keenness of
the boy's mind. Beginning with piano lessons, he later studied
composition, and Marxsen, thorough about all instruction, encouraged him
to compose as well as to perfect himself as a pianist. Incidentally,
Johannes became a great reader of books.
At the age of eleven Johannes appeared, together with his father, as
pianist at a private subscription concert organized to raise money to
continue his education. Then and there an impresario wanted to engage
him for a concert tour that was to include America. But Cossel protested
effectively against his being exploited as a prodigy. Nevertheless, the
Brahms family was so poor at this time that Johannes was obliged to add
to their income by playing the piano in sailors' resorts. This work,
which often lasted into the morning hours, affected his health
adversely.
He continued to compose, however, and a turning point came when he had
the chance to undertake a tour with the young Hungarian violinist Eduard
Remenyi. In the course of this association he not only got acquainted
with Hungarian national dances, which were to influence considerably his
compositions, but he met a variety of important musicians, among them
Joachim, Liszt, Cornelius, Raff, Berlioz, and, above all, Robert and
Clara Schumann. Thereafter Robert Schumann, until his tragic death, was
the young man's champion and mentor, and Clara Schumann became his
devoted lifelong friend.