Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833. He
received instruction in music from his father, Otto Cossel, and Eduard
Marxsen. At fourteen he gave his first public concert as pianist, in
which he introduced one of his own compositions. In 1853 he toured with
the Hungarian violinist, Eduard Reményi, as his accompanist. During this
period he met and aroused the interest of such notable musicians as
Joachim, Liszt, and Schumann. The last of these was one of the first to
give Brahms public recognition, through a glowing article in the _Neue
Zeitschrift fuer Musik_. After a considerable amount of travel in
Germany and Austria, and after holding various musical positions, Brahms
established himself permanently in Vienna in 1863. The promise he had
shown in his early piano and chamber music became fully realized with
his first piano concerto in 1857, the _German Requiem_ written between
1857 and 1868, and the first symphony completed in 1876. In his later
orchestral, piano, and chamber music he assumed a position of first
importance in the German Romantic movement, the spokesman for absolute
music, the genius who succeeded in combining respect for classical
discipline and tradition with the Romanticist’s bent for emotion,
poetry, and flexible thought. Brahms died in Vienna on April 3, 1897.
The supreme craftsmanship, mature thought, and profound feelings of
Brahms’ music do not lend themselves to popular consumption.
Occasionally, though not frequently, he chose to give voice to a lighter
mood, as he did in his ever-popular _Hungarian Dances_. In such music,
as in his more ambitious works, he is always the master of form and
style, and a powerful and inventive creator.
The _Cradle Song_ (_Wiegenlied_) is Brahms’ universally loved art song,
one of the most famous lullabies ever written. It is the fourth in a
collection of five songs, op. 49 (1868). Its lyric is a folk poem
(“_Guten Abend, Gute Nacht_”). In its many and varied transcriptions,
this lullaby has become an instrumental favorite.
The _Hungarian Dances_ was originally published in 1869 in two volumes
for four-hand piano. The first book contained dances Nos. 1 through 5,
while the second book had Nos. 6 through 10. Brahms took special pains
to point out that these melodies were not his own, but were adaptations.
On the title page there appeared the phrase “arranged for the piano.”
Brahms further refused to place an opus number to his publication as
another indication that this was not original music; and in a letter to
his publisher, Simrock, he explained he was offering this music “as
genuine gypsy children which I did not beget but merely brought up with
bread and milk.”
Despite Brahms’ open candor about the origin of these melodies, a storm
of protest was sounded by many newspapers and musicians accusing Brahms
of plagiarism. Fortunately, the general public refused to be influenced
by this unjust accusation. The two volumes of _Hungarian Dances_ were a
formidable success, the greatest enjoyed by Brahms up to that time.
In 1880, Brahms issued two more volumes of _Hungarian Dances_, still for
four-hand piano. Book 3 had dances Nos. 11 through 16, and Book 4, Nos.
17 through 21. This time many of the melodies were original with Brahms,
even if modeled after the style and idiosyncrasies of actual Hungarian
folk dances and gypsy melodies.
The _Hungarian Dances_ are most popular in transcriptions for orchestra.
Brahms himself transcribed Dances Nos. 1, 3, and 10; Andreas Hellen,
Nos. 2, 4, and 7; Dvořák, Nos. 7 through 21; and Albert Parlow, the
rest. Walter Goehr and Leopold Stokowski also made transcriptions of
several of these dances for orchestra. In addition, Brahms adapted Book
1 for piano solo, and Joachim all the dances for violin and piano.
The dances range from sentimental to passionate moods. They abound with
abrupt contrasts of feeling and dynamics; they are often vital with
vertiginous rhythms and changing meters. These gypsy melodies, both the
gay and the sad, warm the heart like Tokay wine; the pulse of the rhythm
is similarly intoxicating. As Walter Niemann wrote of these dances:
“They are pure nature music, full of unfettered, vagrant, roving spirit,
and a chaotic ferment, drawn straight from the deepest well springs of
music by children of Nature. It seems impossible to imprison them in the
bonds of measure, time, and rhythm, to convert their enchantingly
refreshing uncivilized character, their wild freedom, their audacious
contempt for all order into a civilized moderation and order.”
Yet Brahms was able to discipline this music with modern techniques
without robbing it either of its personality or popular appeal. “He has
maintained,” continues Niemann, “and preserved the essential, individual
genuine features of gypsy music in his musical idiom: the dances sound
like original Hungarian folk music ... and for this reason they delight
and enchant everybody: the amateur by their natural quality, the
specialist by their art.”
The most famous of these dances is the fifth in F-sharp minor, its
passionate, uninhibited dance melody released at once by the strings
against a strong rhythm.
The following are some other popular dances.
No. 1, in G minor. A slow and languorous dance unfolds in strings, and
then is contrasted by a slight, tripping theme in woodwind; a second
languorous dance melody follows in the strings.
No. 6 in D-flat major. A slow syncopated melody begins sensually but
soon gains in tempo and volume; a second arresting dance tune is then
offered by strings against strong chords in the rest of the orchestra.
No. 7 in A major. This dance opens with a vivacious melody in strings,
but through most of the piece a comparatively restrained mood is
maintained.
No. 12 in D minor. The first dance melody is presented in a halting
rhythm by the woodwind against decorative figures in the strings. This
is followed by two other dance tunes, the first in strings with
trimmings in the woodwind, and the second in full orchestra.
No. 19 in B minor and No. 21 in E minor. Both are fleet and graceful
both in melody and rhythm.
The _Waltz in A-flat major_, a graceful dance which is given without any
introduction or coda, originated as a piece for piano duet: the
fifteenth of a set of sixteen such waltzes op. 39 (1865). All of Brahms’
waltzes reveal their Viennese identity in their charm and lightness of
heart. Some are derivative from the waltzes of Johann Strauss II, but
the one in A-major is more in the character of a Schubert Laendler than
a Strauss waltz, though it does boast more delicacy and refinement than
we usually find in peasant dances. David Hochstein’s transcription for
violin and piano is in the concert violin repertory.