Brahms's songs reflect his lifelong search for a balance between simple folk style and complex artistry, which he saw as ideals in his vocal aesthetics and across his art.
Composer Biography
Johannes Brahms was highly self-critical, publishing only about two hundred of his songs, which he considered mature enough for posterity, and destroying many early works.
Composition History
Brahms set poems by Karl August Graf von Platen and Georg Friedrich Daumer for his Opus 32 songs, choosing these poets because they enjoyed undisputed artistic reputation in the 19th century and he enjoyed finding high literary quality outside of the most famous names.
Composer's Artistic Vision
For his 'Four Serious Songs', Brahms compiled biblical verses from Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus, and Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, allowing him to express a 'genuinely heathen, genuinely human' music.
Composition History
Brahms completed his 'Four Serious Songs' (Vier ernste Gesänge), Opus 121, on his 63rd birthday, just two weeks before the death of his close friend Clara Schumann, and they are considered a tribute to her.
Compositional Technique
The first six songs of Brahms's Opus 32 are consistently in a minor key, reflecting the desperation of a poetic 'I' who has lost all stability, similar to Schubert's 'Winterreise'.
You might also enjoy...
Lider by Wolf & Brahms
Franz Liszt: Songs, Vol. II "Der du von dem Himmel bist"
Franz Liszt: Songs, Vol. II "Der du von dem Himmel bist"
