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Johannes Brahms

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Born: May 06 1833

Died: 0202 04 18971897

In 1833, Johannes Brahms was born in Germany. As a teenager playing for drunken sailors in a Hamburg bar, Brahms would prop up books of poetry to read as a diversion. His favorite poet was the anticlerical G.F. Daumer, described by the Catholic Encyclopedia as "an enemy of Christianity". Brahms' works were influenced by such writers as Hoffman, Friedrich Schiller and Robert Burns. He was well-read in philosophy and science, and was an avid hiker who took inspiration from nature. When asked by a conductor to add additional sectarian text to his German Requiem, Brahms responded, "As far as the text is concerned, I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human; also with my best knowledge and will I would dispense with passages like John 3:16." . A liberal, Brahms ardently opposed anti-Semitism, was approachable even at the height of his fame, and was always generous with his time and charity. Biographer Swafford writes of the young composer: "Though he was to be a freethinker in religion, Johannes pored over the Bible beyond the requirements for his Protestant confirmation." From then on, "Music was Brahms' religion." According to Swafford, Brahms was "a humanist and an agnostic." After nearly 64 years of near perfect health, never even enduring a headache, Brahms succumbed quickly to liver cancer. There was no deathbed conversion. D. 1897.

In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs". The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.

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Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Books from Johannes Brahms

German Requiem in Full Score

Complete Symphonies in Full Score

Complete Shorter Works for Solo Piano

Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters

Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98

Quotes... Classical Music Composers: Inspiring Quotations by the Greatest Classical Artists: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Tchaikovsky... (Classic Quotes... Book 1)

Complete Chamber Music for Strings and Clarinet Quintet

Complete Piano Works for Four Hands

Brahms -- Hungarian Dances, Vol 1

Brahms -- The Shorter Piano Pieces

Album letterario o Lo scrigno del giovane Kreisler

Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90

Lettere 1853-1896. Volume 1 (tradotto e annotato)

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68

Complete Sonatas for Solo Instrument and Piano

Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 73: Study Score

Double Concerto la Mineur Op. 102

Brahms -- Selected Works

Complete Songs for Solo Voice and Piano, Series IV

Liebeslieder / Neue Liebeslieder op. 52 / 65: Walzer für 4 Singstimmen und Klavier zu 4 Händen