Music History : German Composer Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms ( 7 May 1833 - 3 April 1897)

Brahms was born in Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany. His interest in music runs through his blood as he was a son of a double bass player.  His family belongs to a poor family but this has not been an obstacle in pursuing his interest in music.  He begun performing at an early age but his professional work flourished in Vienna, Austria.  There he met   Robert Schumann, his mentor and later became a close friend.  Schumann also an influential critic, was impressed by Brahms talents calls him the "coming genius" of German Music.  He became well-known not only in Germany, but also throughout Europe where he toured and conducted concerts while he writes all forms of music except opera.

Brahms, a virtuoso pianist and composer, became one of the leading composers of Romantic middle era along with Camille Saint-Saens, Johann Strauss II, Georges Bizet and among others. On this period, music had much more artistic freedom than the periods before it.  An age of virtuoso, passion, and revolutions where Brahms also emerge as one of the greatest symphonist after Beethoven.

His works are composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus.  Some of his  works are ,  Variations on a Theme by Haydn (an orchestral music),  Academic Festival and Tragic (overtures), German Requiem (choral music), Violin Concerto in D major.  His later popular works includes Hungarian Dance No. 5  and the Lullaby.