BRIEF SYNTHESIS ON THE COMPOSITIONAL STYLE OF

JOHANNES BRAHMS
AND THE SURROUNDING FACTORS THAT LEAD TO IT’S
DEVELOPMENT.

By Esteban Zuniga
November, 2019
 Introduction

Through out the next few pages, we will analyze the biographic, historical, musical and ideological
components surrounding the style of Johannes Brahms (Hamburg, May 7, 1833-Vienna, April 3, 1897).
With this analysis, we aim to facilitate a better comprehension of his musical works, understanding
within a general sketch, what are the main elements that provide characterization to his music, as well
as the personal ideologies and experiences that might have lead to the election of his compositional
tools.

We will quote and discuss Brahms biographical background, putting it in the context of other famous
composers that lived during the same time he did, shared his influences and even interacted with him,
but also, we will extend our vision of the picture, to the legacy of deceased composers, who by the time
when Brahms was composing, had left an important heritage of musical repercussions, that had
consequences in his style and development as musician.

Brief biography

Johaness Brahms was born on May 7, 1833, raised by a Protestant family of moderate resources. His
father, Johann Jakob Brahms dedicated himself to music against his family's desire, and got his family’s
livelihood out of playing and teaching violin, piano and woodwinds. Young Johanes studied music
from his early years, initially with his father, who taught him how to play the violin and the basics of
cello. At age 7 he began his formal piano studies in Hamburg with Professor Otto Friedrich Willibald
Cossel, who praised his qualities as a performer, but discouraged him from his compositional work,
which allowed him to have more time he devoted to try becoming in a renowned pianist, with a bright
future in execution. At age 10 he made his debut as a pianist, playing works by Beethoven and Mozart,
after which, in 1845, he began studying with his teacher's teacher, the renowned pianist and composer
Eduard Marxen, who had been contemporary and known as Beethoven and Mozart, and devoted
admirer of the work (known by that time) of J.S. Bach. During his teenager years, he was already
teaching lessons, which made him able to support his family's economy, added to the incomes he also
made as a pianist of brothels, cafes, bars and nightclubs, despite a strict prohibition by the legislation
of Hamburg for the interpretation of music in these places, as well as its strict policy of not admitting
minors within them.
In 1850, at the age of 17, Brahms met the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi, with whom he shared
several recitals, and 3 years later, they sared a great concert tour. This is how Brahms comes into
contact with the "gypsy" style of music, performing along with the violinist, several czardas and
dances, that would later serve as inspiration for the composition of his own Hungarian Dance
collection. During this tour, his colleagues and acquaintances convince him to send Robert Schumann
an envelope with his composition works (by this point, Schumann is already 43 years old, and is not
only a respected composer, but a prestigious editor of music magazines), however, this envelope is
returned unopened. Shortly after, he meets his longtime friend: Joseph Joachim, finally introducing him
to Schumann, who happens to be already in contact with Brahms' work, and even has already started
promoting and disseminating his compositions, which later lead to attracting the attention of important
critics and contributing to the consecration of Brahms as a recognized and respected composer.

From this point, Brahms begins a close relationship with Robert Schumnann and his wife Clara. With
her, he would not only share large amounts of time, but also collaborate as emotional and economic
support. This is how, after Robert's suicide attempt in 1854, Brahms accompanies and aids the
Schumann family, and serves as a strong emotional support for Clara in the subsequent hard two years
until Robert finally dies, and even after that, Brahms continues to provide company and monetary
assistance to the family, until Clara's death in 1896 (more than 40 years later). Clara, on the other side,
is responsible for continuing to promote the dissemination of Brahms compositions, programming
music in their own piano recitals, in addition to sharing and exchanging compositional ideas with each
other.
Finally in the year of 1862, Brahms decided to move to Vienna, from where he devoted himself
completely to the composition for almost 30 years. He “officially” retires from this discipline at age 57
(although not completely, since after this date, his works continue to appear) to finally die in 1897 at
the age of 64, without having married.
 Factors that influenced his compositional style

To better understand the stylistic molding that Johaness Brahms goes through, it is necessary to frame it
into a historical context, and the influence it receives from contemporary exponents that are already
producing changes in Western music, from different parts of Europe, as well as the impact, other late
composers have left within the recent few decades at that time.

By the time Brahms is born, Mozart has been dead for 42 years, and his works are already acclaimed
and have not ceased to spread throughout the European territory. Beethoven and Schubert (the first
serving as a strong influence for the second) have been deceased for 6 and 5 years respectively, having
both been strong drivers of the birth of the romantic genre, characterized not only by a much greater
expressiveness and use of musical resources to highlight emotions and feelings, but of a new current of
rupture of the previously established classical axis, in honor of the exaltation of passion and contrasts
within harmony, dinamics and rhythm, breaking with previously unbreakable concepts such as tonal,
harmonic and rhythmic structures. Bach has been dead for more than 80 years, and his works are in the
process of being rescued by Felix Mendelssohn, who, along with his contemporaries: Wagner, Berlioz,
Lizt and the Schumann, are all around 20 years old.

During his transition through childhood and his musical beginnings, as a result of the strong exposure
to the music of Mozart, Bach and Haydn (to which Brahms is subjected by his second great piano
teacher, the teacher Eduard Marxen) Brahms has assimilated the style of the masters of the classical
period, by the age of 13, as the ideal of perfection and harmonic structure, basing his own compositions
on this tradition. Mendelssohn and Schumann (in their early years), who have incorporated in their
style, several characteristics of classical musical development, have a strong influence on Brahms,
who, through Mendelssohn also, increases his admiration for Bach's compositions over the years.
Eventually, Bach is also assimilated into his compositional style, and becomes one of his greatest and
favorite influences.

Brahms thus becomes a devotee of the classical style, openly rejecting the harmonic and structural
innovations proposed by some of his contemporaries in Europe, such as Lizt and Wagner, and staying
as far as possible, within a tonal frame, with shapes and Definite and clear phrasing. Thus, in his refusal
to participate in the compositional avant-garde, Brahms does not remain stuck in old-fashioned or
repetitive musical construction styles, but is dedicated to enriching the already known composition
methods, developing a harmonic, rhythmic and expressive language of his own, within the limits that
he established for himself, so that, under a veil of “classical romanticism”, he makes his contribution to
the music of the time, complementing to the maximum the conservative tonal formulas, taking them to
the limits of his expressiveness, density and sound richness, working with the inspiration of Mozart and
Bach, but getting a completely innovative product without realizing it.

His self-imposed edges, however, are more rigid in the harmonic than in the rhythmic and counterpoint.
He developed a logical structure and a phrase system of great symmetry, with defined and clear
geometry. Brahms enriches his works through progressive systems of variation of themes (similar to
those performed by Beethoven), so that he is able to take a tune and exploit it in several levels of
development, which are increasing the interest of its pieces. He also experiments with syncopated
rhythms, melodic echoes and intermittences between the voices in his choral works and chamber
music, in which the main theme oscillates and weaves between them, exchanging themes, rhythms and
inputs, not only at the level of thesis, but also within the rhythmic space.

His treatment of musical phrases receives a strong influence from Schubert, achieving long musical
ideas but with an easy beginning and end to identify, listen and retain, complementing many of these
through the alternation between voices, or in the case of Lieder, interaction between melody and
accompaniment. Within this genre, just like its predecessors Schubert and Schumann, he developed an
important integration between the piano and the voice, further blurring the thin line between the piano
accompaniment and the sung melody, integrating the piano as an important part of the dramatic action
and melodic protagonism, and leaving behind the relegated concept of a piano that functions only as a
background music for singing.

In his handling of the melody, it is possible to hear how he uses repetitions in the form of an echo, so
that a theme can be made present, representing an emotion, character or moment, and then it is possible
to listen again, already that in another position, instrument, choral or harmonic voice. In accordance
with his mature style, his use of repetition and variation becomes richer and more complex, coming to
build complete works on variations developed to points of high musical and imaginative value, such as
the works of Beethoveen and Mozart and many early composers before them, but also, incorporating
the idea of this melodic representations of feelings and images, like the works of Schubert, Schumann
and even Wagner, in contradiction with Brahms reluctance to assimilate his influence.
 Important ideologies present in Brahms creative process

Throughout his 64 years of life (a long life compared to virtually all of its contemporary composer
colleagues), Brahms has the opportunity to live both industrial revolutions in Western Europe, both the
first and the second. He is witness to the enormous economic, political and technological
transformations that are happening throughout the continent, and he looks closely at the effects they
have on society and history, as well as their influence on aspects of everyday life . It is perhaps this
closeness, which leads him to draw a thick dividing line between technological and artistic advances,
holding on strongly to the idea that art should hold on to tradition, while mundane progress should be
given absolute freedom, letting the worldly aspects to flourish and take off in modernity and
development. Thus, while composers such as Wagner and Lizt defy conventional structures, and release
declared and intentional innovations in the field of music, Brahms remains regal in employing
traditional forms in his compositions, scrutinizing with a phrase by Goethe: True Freedom lies in being
able to satisfy creativity but under rules and margins. It is enshrined in this way as a composer labeled
him self as conservative, academic and extremely perfectionist, reaching the point of destroying by his
own hand, several of his first works, and even in his maturity, at the age of 47, he sends many of her
choral works to her friend Elise Giesemann, with instructions to destroy all the manuscripts. All this
without mentioning a large number of works that left hidden in the eyes of the world, refusing to
publish them for considering them inferior, mediocre or imperfect.

It is for these reasons that Brahms limits his own expressiveness within the use of rational structures,
seeking beauty within the canons of tradition and framing his own development as a composer within
the harmonic and formal ideals of musical classicism. However, it is through this self-confinement that
he finnally enriches the musical contributions of the past to their fullest, and brings the proposals of the
great composers of the classical period to a much broader and fuller sound, not previously achieved,
along with the addition of new expressive elements within rhythm, counterpoint, musical phrase and
harmonic density.

Swafford, Jan: Johannes Brahms : a biography. 1997.

Floros, Constantine: Johannes Brahms, free but alone : a life for a poetic music. 2010
Holmes, Paul : Brahms: His life and times. 1984.