German Requiem in Full Score

by Johannes Brahms

This edition of Brahms' greatest, most ambitious vocal work is reprinted from the definitive edition of the composer's works, prepared by Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig. Inexpensive but sturdily constructed to provide years of pleasurable use, this full score combines all the musical parts in a clear, readable format, with wide margins, large noteheads, and many other helpful features.
Brahms conducted the first major performance of the German Requiem in Bremen Cathedral in April 1868. The occasion — attended by many distinguished musicians, among them Clara Schumann — provided the 34-year-old composer with his first great public success. Scored for mixed chorus, solo voices, and full orchestra, the Requiem reflects Brahms' virtuosic grasp of nineteenth-century vocal technique as well as the polyphonic vocal traditions of the previous three centuries. Above all, it radiates Brahms' stalwart individuality, technical mastery, and stirring emotional appeal, which were soon to secure his unique position in the musical world. More than a century after its debut, this masterpiece of choral music is one of the most performed and recorded works in the repertoire of religious music.

Genres: Music, 19th Century, Scores

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1868

About the author

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." (Jan Swafford, Johannes Brahms: A Biography). 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.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes...

http://www.johannesbrahms.org/

http://www.biography.com/people/johan...

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Brah...

http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/rom/br...

http://www.naxos.com/person/Johannes_...

http://www.last.fm/music/Johannes+Brahms

http://www.classicalarchives.com/brah...

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/johann...

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/educati...

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most beautiful music on the planet, and I'm reading it in performance. Is that cheating? Not in my point of view.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I learned it, the more I came to like it.