Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 Bs 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 anyones opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19. Johannes Brahms was born on Tuesday 7th may 1833, in the city of Hamburg the birthplace also of Mendelssohn. Johann Brahms was himself a musician, and played the double bass for a time at the Karl Schultze Theatre, and later in the Stadttheater orchestra.
In 1847 Johannes attended a good Burgerschule (citizens school), and in 1848 a better, that of one Hoffmann. When he was eight years old his father requested the teachers to be very easy with him because of the time that he must take for his musical studies. Brahmss boyhood days passed uneventfull. He grew up with his brother fritz and sister Elise amid the poorest surroundings. Fritz turned to music (the Neue Zeitschrift mentions his successful debut at Hamburg in January 1864) was a piano teacher in Hamburg, lived for many years in Caracas, and died at an early age in Hamburg of a disease of the brain.
Elise married a watchmaker, much to Johannes disappointment. As a boy Johannes worked and studied with his father and learnt lessons from books with his mother, with whom he would play four-hands at the piano, just for fun. There were never any doubts as to his becoming a musician. From early childhood he learn everything his father could teach him, read everything he could lay hands on, practiced with undeviating enthusiasm, and filled reams of paper with exercises and variations. The soul of the child went out in music.
He played scales long before he knew the notes, and great was his joy when at the age of six he discovered the possibility of making a melody visible by placing black dots on lines at different intervals, inventing a system of notation of his own before he had been made acquainted with the method which the musical world had been using for some centuries. When Johannes was in his tenth year he had made such remarkable progress that Cossel thought it best to secure a more advanced instructor.
He was thus put under the care of Eduard Marxsen (Cossels own teacher), the royal music director at Altona, who took him unwillingly at first, but with whom he remained for a number of years. When he was eleven years of age Johannes made his first appearance as a pianist [at a private subscription concert in which his father also took part, given with the idea of collecting funds for his future education. He played the piano parts in a Mozart Quartet and in Beethovens Quintet for wind instruments and piano, with such success that a speculative impresario wished to engage him for a concert tour that was to take him as far as America.
About the age of twelve he came entirely under the tuition of Marxsen, who, finding him incorrigible in his desire to improve compositions at the piano, soon began to teach him theory. But in order to be able to continue these lessons, it was imperative that he should earn at least part of his keep at home, where funds were always distressingly low, thus before he was fourteen he was obliged, for want of a more congenial occupation, to play the piano at sailors taverns and dancing saloons, often very late at night and always in a far from healthy atmosphere.
On his return to Hamburg he ventured, on 21st September 1848, to give a concert on his own account for the first time. The programmed included the adagio and tondo from a concerto by Rosenhain, Dohlers fantasy on William tell, a serenade for the left hand alone by his master, Marxsen, a study by the fashionable Henri Herz, a Bach fugue, and his own Variations on a Folksong. He early showed as love for the folksong of his fatherland, which he used as themes for some remarkable variations a musical form, by the way, which he rescued by his masterly treatment form the disrepute into which it had fallen.
No career, however, open up before him. He had to continue playing at the low sailors haunts and to eke out his earnings by giving cheap lessons and arranging popular music for the piano or for brass bands. This hack work continued for what must have seemed a distressingly long time, and it was brightened for him only by the composition of three important works for his instrument, the scherzo in E flat minor (Op. 4) in 1851, the Sonata in F sharp minor (Op. 2) in 1852 and the Sonata in C major (Op. I) early in 1853. ] It was not only until the spring of that year that he for first time left Hamburg professionally.
He undertook a tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi for the purpose of introducing himself and his works. At Gottingen they gave a concert in which the young pianist made a deep impression upon the musicians present. He and Remenyi were to play Beethovens Kreutzer sonata, but at the last moment it was discovered that the piano was half a tone too low. Johannes Brahms was born on Tuesday 7th may 1833, in the city of Hamburg the birthplace also of Mendelssohn. Johann Brahms was himself a musician, and played the double bass for a time at the Karl Schultze Theatre, and later in the Stadttheater orchestra.
In 1847 Johannes attended a good Burgerschule (citizens school), and in 1848 a better, that of one Hoffmann. When he was eight years old his father requested the teachers to be very easy with him because of the time that he must take for his musical studies. Brahmss boyhood days passed uneventfull. He grew up with his brother fritz and sister Elise amid the poorest surroundings. Fritz turned to music (the Neue Zeitschrift mentions his successful debut at Hamburg in January 1864) was a piano teacher in Hamburg, lived for many years in Caracas, and died at an early age in Hamburg of a disease of the brain.
Elise married a watchmaker, much to Johannes disappointment. As a boy Johannes worked and studied with his father and learnt lessons from books with his mother, with whom he would play four-hands at the piano, just for fun. There were never any doubts as to his becoming a musician. From early childhood he learn everything his father could teach him, read everything he could lay hands on, practiced with undeviating enthusiasm, and filled reams of paper with exercises and variations. The soul of the child went out in music.
He played scales long before he knew the notes, and great was his joy when at the age of six he discovered the possibility of making a melody visible by placing black dots on lines at different intervals, inventing a system of notation of his own before he had been made acquainted with the method which the musical world had been using for some centuries. When Johannes was in his tenth year he had made such remarkable progress that Cossel thought it best to secure a more advanced instructor.
He was thus put under the care of Eduard Marxsen (Cossels own teacher), the royal music director at Altona, who took him unwillingly at first, but with whom he remained for a number of years. When he was eleven years of age Johannes made his first appearance as a pianist [at a private subscription concert in which his father also took part, given with the idea of collecting funds for his future education. He played the piano parts in a Mozart Quartet and in Beethovens Quintet for wind instruments and piano, with such success that a speculative impresario wished to engage him for a concert tour that was to take him as far as America.
About the age of twelve he came entirely under the tuition of Marxsen, who, finding him incorrigible in his desire to improve compositions at the piano, soon began to teach him theory. But in order to be able to continue these lessons, it was imperative that he should earn at least part of his keep at home, where funds were always distressingly low, thus before he was fourteen he was obliged, for want of a more congenial occupation, to play the piano at sailors taverns and dancing saloons, often very late at night and always in a far from healthy atmosphere.
On his return to Hamburg he ventured, on 21st September 1848, to give a concert on his own account for the first time. The programmed included the adagio and tondo from a concerto by Rosenhain, Dohlers fantasy on William tell, a serenade for the left hand alone by his master, Marxsen, a study by the fashionable Henri Herz, a Bach fugue, and his own Variations on a Folksong. He early showed as love for the folksong of his fatherland, which he used as themes for some remarkable variations a musical form, by the way, which he rescued by his masterly treatment form the disrepute into which it had fallen.
No career, however, open up before him. He had to continue playing at the low sailors haunts and to eke out his earnings by giving cheap lessons and arranging popular music for the piano or for brass bands. This hack work continued for what must have seemed a distressingly long time, and it was brightened for him only by the composition of three important works for his instrument, the scherzo in E flat minor (Op. 4) in 1851, the Sonata in F sharp minor (Op. 2) in 1852 and the Sonata in C major (Op.
I) early in 1853. ] It was not only until the spring of that year that he for first time left Hamburg professionally. He undertook a tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi for the purpose of introducing himself and his works. At Gottingen they gave a concert in which the young pianist made a deep impression upon the musicians present. He and Remenyi were to play Beethovens Kreutzer sonata, but at the last moment it was discovered that the piano was half a tone too low.
