Johannes Brahms essay

516 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: johannes brahms biography essay

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1833. He started playing piano at a young age and aspired to become a composer. And not only did he achieve his goal, but was extremely successful at it. To this day he is one of the most famous classical composers of all time, even though he published only few of his works in his lifetime and burned the rest. How did this strangely fastidious musician become so popular? What is his music like? What inspired his compositions?
Brahms was second-born in a family consisting of his father, mother, and two siblings. His father played double bass in the civic orchestra and when Brahms was seven his father began to teach him the basics of music on the piano. It was soon evident that Brahms was a prodigy, so they passed him on to two teachers, Friedrich Cossel and later Eduard Marxen, who taught the poor boy without pay. At the age of thirteen, Brahms began to play in the taverns and restaurants of his hometown to help support his family. But this was an unhealthy atmosphere for the developing musician, so his father sent him to a countryside ...

Show More
Related

  • Johannes Brahms

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.

    Read More

  • Clara Schumann's Life And Music

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    Clara Schumann was born September 13, 1819 in Leipzig, Germany. Clara was born into a musical family in school her father Friedrich Weick studied theology but made his career in music. He later settled in Leipzig where he taught piano, opened a business selling instruments, and began a music lending library. He taught his wife Marianne and his future son-in-law Robert Schumann, he also received the reputation as a first-rate piano teacher. Wieck an and Marianne divorced after eight years of marriage when Clara was five years old, leaving Clara’s father to raise her and her four brother when her mother moved to Berlin. Unfortunately her father felt he neglected her general education but recognized her talents and saw that Clara had the finest musical education. In Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin Clara studied piano with her father and violin, theory, and different areas of composition with the best teachers. In Leipzig she attended all of the important performances and learned about business of music.

    Read More

  • Franz Liszt Analysis

    1338 Words  | 3 Pages

    Franz Liszt, Hungarian piano virtuoso and composer. Among his, many notable compositions are his 12 symphonic poems, two (completed) piano concerti, several sacred choral works, and a great variety of solo piano pieces.

    Read More

  • Simon Wiesenthal Essay

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    Simon Wiesenthal life and legends were extraordinary, he has expired people in many ways and was an iconic figure in modern Jewish history. Szyman Wiesenthal (was his real named and later named Simon) was born on December 31 in Buczacz, Galicia (which is now a part of Ukraine) in 1908. When Wiesenthal's father was killed in World War I, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family to Vienna for a brief period, returning to Buczacz when she remarried. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Humanistic Gymnasium (a high school) in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov. Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University

    Read More

  • Bach Essay

    517 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bachs’ full name was Johann Sebastian Bach and he was born on March 21, 1685 in a small town called Eisenach, located in Thuringia, Germany during the Baroque period. Bach was the son of Johann Ambrosius and Maria Elisabeth Lammerhirt and the eighth and youngest child. Bach’s father worked mostly as a director of the musicians in Eisenach while his mother was unemployed. Bach’s mother passed away in 1964 and his father soon followed only eight months later. Bach’s other family was said to have been extremely talented professionals in music and some were church organists, court chamber musicians as well as composers.

    Read More

  • Leonard Bernstein Essay

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    When one considers the history of classical music, often images of Vienna, Prague, and other European cities come to mind. Centuries of European musical achievement and development have implanted in society the idea that classical music is an inherently European creation. Considering the accomplishments of countless composers such as J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Antonin Dvorak, this preconception is certainly not unfounded. However, Leonard Bernstein's rise to international fame proved that one cannot neglect American composers in a discussion of the development of Western music. Combining elements of a vast array of musical styles, Bernstein's unique compositions reached a wide variety of audiences and often bridged gaps between distinct musical genres. Through his long conducting career, profoundly influential compositional output, and televised music lectures, Leonard Bernstein left a lasting legacy which came to define American music in the 20th century.

    Read More

  • Biography of Franz Schubert

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his brother he learned the piano. The family, indeed, was a very musical one; the "String Quartet Parties" family were well known in the part of Vienna in which they lived. But soon, young Franz learned all that his family had to teach him. Later, any neighbors who could play any instruments were drawn in and the quartet became a little orchestra.

    Read More

  • Dmitri Shostakovich and the Soviet State

    2101 Words  | 5 Pages

    Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 25, 1906, Shostakovich was the second of three children born to Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. His father was of Polish descent but both his parents were Siberian natives. Dmitri was a child prodigy as a pianist and composer. He began taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine. He displayed an incredible talent to remember what his mother had played at the previous lesson and would get caught pretending to read the music, playing the music from his last lesson instead of what was placed in front of him.

    Read More

  • Comparing Beethoven And Michelangelo

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. Beethoven was baptized on December 17th, 1770 into the Catholic religion. When he was twelve years old, he left to Vienna, and studied under Haydn who was the leading Viennese composer at the time. He stayed in Vienna for quite some time until he returned home because his mother had tuberculosis and died. His works were able to be published without any difficulty. He wrote symphonies 2, 3, and 4 all before 1806. As his life progressed to his twenties, Beethoven’s first signs of deafness started appearing and he starting contemplating suicide. As his hearing got worse, he started to seclude himself and became kind of a misanthrope. He was socially withdrawn and never married. Despite his disability, he wrote symphonies 2, 3, and 4 all before 1806. Because his works became so prominent, he had some sort of alliance with the king and his th...

    Read More

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson Essay

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ralph Waldo Emerson was a philosopher and transcendentalist of the 19th century, composing controversial, philosophical and religious essays in order to inform people. Emerson was a strong influence on other personalities of his time, including American figures such as; “Henry Thoreau” and “Walt Whitman”. “Emerson’s father (William Emerson) influenced the good taste of Emerson’s essays due to he was a man of the church.” William died because of a stomach cancer just two weeks before Ralph Waldo fulfilled eight years old. This death leads the family to an edge of poverty and a life of limited luxuries. That’s the point when Emerson’s career began. “His mother managed so that all of her children could get accepted into Harvard University with scholarships.” There was Ralph's stop when he was only fourteen years old. In Harvard College he was an apprentice under the president of the constitution. The task was to accuse his colleagues in criminal activity letting the ‘faculty’ know. Meanwhile, Emerson began keeping a list of books he had read and started a journal in a series of notebooks that would be called ‘World Wide’. Emerson performed odd jobs to cover his school expenses, including as a waiter for the Junior Commons and occasionally working as a teacher with his uncle Samuel in Waltham, Massachusetts. He began his famous Journal, an anthology and patchwork of passages that surprised and astonished his readers with their comments, ended up reaching 182 volumes. In his senior year at Harvard, Emerson decided to take his middle name as Waldo. He attended class Poetry; as usual, and presented an original poem on Harvard's Class Day, a month before his official graduation. On August 29, 1821, when he was 18 not noted as a student he...

    Read More

  • Beethoven

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    Believed to be born on December 16, 1770 Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. Born to Johann van Beethoven, a musician of Bonn and Maria Magdalena Keverich. At a young age, Beethoven took an interest in music, which his father would teach him every day and night. It is speculated that Beethoven’s father was a harsh instructor, forcing Beethoven to often play the piano with tears in his eyes. However, Beethoven had other teachers as well. Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer whom taught Beethoven the piano, and Franz Rovantini whom trained him on the violin. All of who saw Beethoven’s musical talent at his very young age. Beethoven’s father, aware of young Mozart’s success, attempted to exploit his son as a child prodigy as well. Having Beethoven give his first public performance at the age of seven.

    Read More

  • Albert Einstein Essay

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Einstein was undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest physicians and mathematicians of all time. Einstein’s theories of relativity completely changed the world and have had a huge impact on how we currently live our lives. From how we heat our homes to how we are able to use GPS navigation systems. His theories have greatly changed how we must view the world around us. His theories of relativity and his works during the world wars earned him a Nobel Prize in physics, to name one of the many he deservingly received.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809. His father Abraham Mendelssohn was a banker, while his mum Lea Mendelssohn was a highly educated artist and musician. Mendelssohn first had his piano lesson from his mum, but soon he was sent to study with the best teachers at that time such as Marie Bigot and Ludwig Burger. He also took composition lessons with Karl Zelter, who was the professor of the University of Berlin. Under their proper guidance, he completely showed his music talent- he first appeared as pianist at nine and as a composer at ten. At his age of twelve, he already composed nine fugues, five symphonies for strings, two operas and a huge number of smaller pieces. When he was sixteen, the publication of his Octet in E-flat Major for strings and Overture to A Mid Summer Night’s Dream marked his full maturity.

    Read More

  • Beethoven Symphony 9 Essay

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Beethoven Symphony #9 in D minor is being announced during the 4th movement of the symphony. Typically, in symphonies, the 4th movements take part in the term of Allegro, which means it is played quickly or fast. However, in Beethoven Symphony, the 4th movement opens with a flurry sound and then is introduced by an instrumental recitative. A recitative is a style of music alternating between speaking and singing words on the same note. In a recitative, the music lines are not repeated even though formally composed songs do.

    Read More

  • Beethoven Symphony Essay

    611 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 was composed by Beethoven and was completed in

    Read More

More about Johannes Brahms essay

Open Document