Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany and died on April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria. He was a German composer and pianist who wrote symphonies, concerti, chamber music, piano works and choral compositions. He was also a master of the symphonic and sonata style in the second half of the 19th century. He was the second of Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen and Johann Jakob Brahms’ three children and was introduced to music at a young age. Brahms was an accomplished musician by the the time he was a teenager and earned money playing local inns, brothels, and along the city docks to ease his family’s financial conditions. In 1853 Brahms was introduced to a German composer and music critic Robert Schumann.They soon became close …show more content…
friends with Schumann seeing his younger friend having a future in music. He also dubbed Brahms a genius publicly in a famous article that quickly made him known in the music world.
Modernist like Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner were becoming the faces of the “New German School” which rebuked the more traditional sounds of Schumann. For Schumann and Brahms this new sound was sheer indulgence and negated the genius of composers like Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven. In 1854 Schumann fell ill and Brahms assisted Schumann’s wife, Clara, with the management of her household affairs. Music historians believe that he fell in love with Clara but after Schumann’s death in 1856 they remained friends. In the early 1860s He made his first trip to Vienna and in 1863 was named director of a choral group Singakademie. In 1868 he finished “A German Requiem” a composition based in Biblical texts. The composition included mixed choruses, solo voices and a complete …show more content…
orchestra. “Brahms Lullaby” was written in 1868 under the title “Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, Gute Nacht” which when translated to english means, “ Good Evening, Good Night.” The Lullaby's melody is the most recognized and famous in the world and, was sung by mothers to put their babies to sleep.
The song was actually written for Bertha Faber another one of Brahms relationships. She was also a singer who sang in his Choir in Hamburg and was given the honor of having the lullaby written in celebration of her second child. The key signature is E flat. The lullaby is written in a larghetto tempo which is slow and give off a feeling of relaxation and sleepiness which was aforementioned used to put children to
sleep. Biography.com Editors “Johannes Brahms” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 3 Feb. 2015, www.Biography.com/people/johannes-brahms-9223886
On January 27th, 1756, at 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria, a Jupiter among mere men and composers was born. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born the son of Anna Maria (1720-1778) and Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), a composer, teacher, and the fourth violinist for Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Already learning to play the keyboard at a mere age of three years old, Mozart would learn by sight as he watched his seven year old sister took lessons from her music teacher. As Mozart got older and started to develop as a player and composer, his traveled with his father around Europe performing as a child ...
Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also known as W.A. Mozart, was a very well-known composer of the Classical Period as well as still to this day. Wolfgang Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. He was known for his sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos, and operas. He set the standards high for all composers following in his footsteps. Mozart was born to Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart.
Johannes Brahms, a striking individual of unmistakable character, is defined by his compositions as meticulous and enlightened. His comprehensive grasp on classical and baroque form, with his familiarity of counterpoint and musical development, allowed him to effortlessly traverse and cultivate upon the musical architecture laid out by the likes of Bach and Beethoven. Born in Hamburg in 1833, he was the son of Johann Jacob Brahms, who travelled from North Germany, in which the family name “Brahms(t)” propagated (Musgrave 4). His father being a musician by profession instigated Brahms into his own domain of music. With Brahms’ first instruments being the violin, cello and the natural horn (predecessor of the French horn), it was discovered that the genius possessed absolute pitch and had also developed a system of notation on his own even before formal introductions into music (Musgrave 9). His astonishing understanding of musical rudiments was further cemented at age seven by his first teacher Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel, with piano literature ranging from Bach to Schubert to Clementi (Musgrave 10). The young gifted talent quickly matured, with his compositions being sedulously characterized in craft similar to the seasoned taste of aged liquor. Following in the wake of Beethoven, his style of romanticism seemed restrained, and viewed as being confined to classical forms. With his preference towards absolute music, his works demonstrated “as [Ian] McEwan/ [Clive] Linley would have it, at the intersection of emotion and reason” and of “powerful intellect and of passionate expressivity” (Platt and Smith 4). However, being the headstrong romantic that he is, he manipulated the limiting factor into an area of expanse, in which he...
In 1896, he attended the funeral of his friend Clara Schumann who he had known since 1853. On his return, he was seriously ill and died a year later. Generations later, his music and name may still provoke argument in musical circles. However, there can be utterly no doubt that he is included in the first dozen composers of all music history (Weinstock 456). Part of Johannes Brahms’s unique history include the story of his life, his influences, and his exceptional music. Today, his popularity is still continuing to grow and he will remain in music history as a remarkable and outstanding Romantic music composer.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in the town of Bonn, Germany on December 16 of 1770. Bonn is located in western Germany on the Rhine River. Beethoven showed an affinity for music at an early age. His father, Johann, taught Ludwig to play the piano as well as the violin. Johann did this in hopes that his son would become a prodigy, and then reach fame like Wolfgang A. Mozart. Unfortunately though Beethoven mother died when he was seventeen. In addition to his mother’s death Beethoven’s father developed an alcohol problem. To escape these problems Beethoven found a job tutoring the two children of the von Breuning family. This relationship proved to be beneficial to Beethoven. The matriarch of the family happened to be well liked in the town of Bonn, so she introduced Beethoven to a few important people.
The brilliant composer Clara Schumann was born as Clara Josephine Wieck on 13 September 1819. Even before her birth, her destiny was to become a famous musician. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher and music dealer, while her mother, Marianne Wieck, was a soprano and a concert pianist and her family was very musically gifted. Her father, Friedrich, wanted to prove to the world that his teaching methods could produce a famous pianist, so he decided, before Clara’s birth, that she would become that pianist. Clara’s father’s wish came true, as his daughter ended up becoming a child prodigy and one of the most famous female composers of her time.
Many prominent musicians produced major works during the romantic period. Among these are Beethoven, Strause, and Bach. But the musician that I think had the most impact, was Franz Schubert. Franz Peter, born on 31 January 1797 was one of fourteen children born of Franz Theodore Schubert and Elisabeth Vietz, four of which survived. He grew up in an apartment that daily converted to a classroom in which his father taught several elementary school classes. He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his brother he learned the piano. The family, indeed, was a very musical one; family "String Quartet Parties" were well known in the part of Vienna in which they lived. But soon young Franz learned all that his family had to teach him. Later, any neighbors who could play any instruments were drawn in and the quartet became a little orchestra. At nine years old, this inquisitive little boy auditioned and was accepted for a position as a chorister in the Royal Court Chapel Choir (which would later become the 'Vienna Boys' Choir). The young chorister gained the attention of Antonio Saliere, who saw to the nurture the young boy's education. After leaving the choir, he continued as a student at the school for one unhappy year. Schubert returned to live at home where it was decided that he would help his father teach. This did not last long. A disastrous episode with an unruly pupil was the last straw and Schubert at age nineteen left teaching and his home to pursue what he loved, composing. He moved in to the...
He mastered the sonata and symphonic styles, having composed more than 200 songs and many symphonies, concerti, chamber music, piano works, and choral compositions during the second half of the 19th century. Brahms can be considered the successor of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig Van Beethoven since his work was heavily influenced by these two virtuosos of the classical music. Brahms created his own method of writing music by the age of six, started studying piano at the age of seven, and played a private concert when he was ten. Played, wrote, and shared stage with important music figures of the time such as Eduard Reményi, Joseph Joachim, Franz Liszt, and Robert Schumann with whom he developed a very close friendship. Throughout his life, Brahms gained the respect and admiration of all the people that had the pleasure of knowing his
Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the greatest classical music composers of all time. He was born around December 16, 1770 to a middle class family in the city of Bonn in the Electorate of cologne. His exact date of birth is unknown but he was baptized on December 17, 1770 and during this time it was law and custom for babies to be baptized within 24 hours of birth. His father Johann Van Beethoven was a court singer and his mother was Maria Magdalena Van Beethoven. Ludwig had four other siblings. The first Ludwig had passed away 6 days after he was born. Anton Karl was born on April 1774, Nikkolaus Johann October 1776 and Maria Margareta Josepha in 1786.
Beethoven was born on December 17, 1770 in Bann, Germany. From a young age Beethoven was involved with music because he came from three generations of musicians. He received instruction from his father on the piano and violin. One of his earliest concerts was in front of his father’s peers against his will. Beethoven had a fiery temper and was somewhat introverted in his school years. Beethoven went to school until the age of ten. At this time his family’s finances prevented his family from affording the education that he needed. In July of 1787, Beethoven’s life was further thrown into disarray with the death of his mother. Despite Beethoven’s misfortune he would still achieve monumental amounts of success while in Vienna. His success can be attributed to the fact that he crafted relatio...
Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809. His father Abraham Mendelssohn was a banker, while his mum Lea Mendelssohn was a highly educated artist and musician. Mendelssohn first had his piano lesson from his mum, but soon he was sent to study with the best teachers at that time such as Marie Bigot and Ludwig Burger. He also took composition lessons with Karl Zelter, who was the professor of the University of Berlin. Under their proper guidance, he completely showed his music talent- he first appeared as pianist at nine and as a composer at ten. At his age of twelve, he already composed nine fugues, five symphonies for strings, two operas and a huge number of smaller pieces. When he was sixteen, the publication of his Octet in E-flat Major for strings and Overture to A Mid Summer Night’s Dream marked his full maturity.
Mozart’s Requiem is “one of the most performed and studied pieces of music in history” (Stango, n.d.). The story behind the start of this piece begins with Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned a requiem mass for his wife Anna (who had passed away). Throughout his work on this piece, Mozart began to get so emotionally involved with the piece that he believed that he was writing a death mass for himself. Mozart died December 5, 1791, with only half of the Requiem finished (through Lacrimosa). Franz Xaver Süssmayr finished the Requiem based on Mozart’s specifications from notes and what he had already written. The completed work is dated 1792 by Süssmayr and was performed for the first time on January 2, 1793. Mozart’s intent for this mass was specifically for church ceremony, but recently, the Requiem has been used and performed at concerts to showcase Mozart’s musical brilliance (Stango, n.d.).
Ludwig van Beethoven is who everyone thinks of first when someone asks if you know any composer from classical music. Beethoven changed the sound of music in the early 1800’s from bland and meaningless, to exciting and heartfelt. You felt Beethoven’s pain through his music. Was Beethoven’s deafness to blame for his spark of genius that changed the course of classicism, to romanticism? Was it not for his lonesome solitude, and lack of hearing that drove him to create the masterpieces that are still resonating through current times?
Beethoven was born in Bonn Germany. At 14, he held the occupation of a court organist. Sadly, his father was a drunken singer, and barely supported his family. Consequently, the money Beethoven earned assisted his family. In 1778, he traveled to Vienna and met Wolfgang A. Mozart who instantly acknowledged his brilliance. However, on account of his mother’s illness, he returned to his home town, and had to support his brothers after her death. He gave music lessons in Bonn, in addition to playing the viola in the theater orchestra. Settling in Vienna in 1792, he studied with masters such as Joseph Haydn. He appeared as a pianist and gaine...