Malcolm MacDonald incorporates 25 years of new research to demonstrate convincingly that composer Johannes Brahms combined hs appreciation of the emotions and ideals of German Romantic music with a profound understanding of Classical principles, rejected the earlier view that he was simply an old-fashioned, conservative composer. 8-page photo insert.
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Malcolm MacDonald incorporates 25 years of new research to demonstrate convincingly that composer Johannes Brahms combined hs appreciation of the emotions and ideals of German Romantic music with a profound understanding of Classical principles, rejected the earlier view that he was simply an old-fashioned, conservative composer. 8-page photo insert.
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A colleague of mine noticed the picture of the young Brahms on the cover of MacDonald's biography. She remarked with surprise on his handsome, vigorous appearance. Too often people tend to think of Brahms as an old, bearded, somewhat overweight composer of conservative romantic music. The text of MacDonald's ambitious study, together with the cover portrait, aims to dispel stereotypes held by many about Brahms. For MacDonald, Johannes Brahms (1833 --1897) was an unabashedly romantic composer (granting the difficulties of defining that notoriously difficult term, "romantic"), with strong ties to the musical past who looked forward to and helped create the linear, contrapuntal, and decidedly unromantic music of the twentieth century. MacDonald's interest in the relationship between Brahms and Schoenberg is understandable as he has written a companion volume on Schoenberg for the "Master Musicians" series.
The book is both a biography of Brahms and a musical study with heavy emphasis on the latter. In the biographical sections of his account, MacDonald covers briefly Brahms's childhood in the rough, seafaring districts of Hamburg,his early musical instruction, and his wide reading. He describes Brahms's relationship with the Schumann's and the ambiguities of his lifelong love for Clara Schumann. There is a great deal of emphasis on Brahms's inability to marry, despite several flames in his youth. MacDonald describes how love and passion inform Brahms's work throughout and how music helped Brahms give voice to feelings that, for whatever reason, he could not express in his life.
MacDonald also places Brahms in a musical context that includes his extensive study of his predecessors, from his contemporaries through Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn, to the baroque and earlier. Brahms was undoubtedly the most musically learned of the great composers and he was able to integrate his learning with his own romantic voice. MacDonald finds that Brahms remained throughout his life a romantic composer. This means, I think, that Brahms saw music as an essentially spiritual calling, somewhat of a substitute for the role revealed religion plays in the lives of many, which emphasizes romantic and physical love, the unity of man with nature, and the value of the past. Bach used the past in his devotion to early music and to folk songs of many types. Brahms's romanticism, and the manner in which he integrated it with counterpoint and variation, paved the way for the destruction of romanticism and for the creation of a more recognizably modern sensibility.
I found the most valuable part of MacDonald's book to be the detailed analyses he offers of virtually all Brahms' major works. The discussion is presented chronologically. The musical discussions generally follow the biographical sections of the book and deal with Brahms's compositions by categories: orchestral music, chamber music, choral music, piano, song. MacDonald offers numerous musical examples, discusses the history of each work, and integrates each work nicely into a discussion of the entirety of Brahms' output.
Reading this book impressed upon me the wide variety of masterpieces Brahms composed during his life. MacDonald's accounts can be followed by the nonspecialist and give an inspiring picture of Brahms and his music. While reading, I thought of the works of Brahms with which I am familiar and wanted to revisit them in light of MacDonald's discussion. I also thought of the many works of Brahms I don't know but would love to explore in light of what I learned from the book. Little more can be asked from a musical study.
MacDonald writes with a deep affection for Brahms which he conveys well to his readers. He writes that Brahms "has been my favorite composer ever since I was old enough to think about music" and it shows in the deep thought and work represented in this study. MacDonald's closing discussion of Brahms's output captures well his view of Brahms. He writes: "Aware of the tragedies, paradoxes, and imponderables of existence, Brahms wrote to provide sustenance for the here and now. His music seeks to give beauty, nobility, a sense of meaning to the brute fact of human transience."
This is an outstanding study which should inspire the reader to hear Brahms, or to rehear him with an awakened heart.
