Brahms, Johannes

Click a letter for the index

Or search the encyclopaedia:

 

 

Go

 

German composer, pianist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest composers of symphonic music and songs. His works include four symphonies, lieder (songs), concertos for piano and for violin, chamber music, sonatas, and the choral Ein Deutsches Requiem/A German Requiem (1868). He performed and conducted his own works.

In 1853 the violinist Joseph Joachim introduced him to the composers Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann, who encouraged his work. From 1863 Brahms made his home in Vienna, Austria. Although his music belongs to a reflective type of Romanticism, similar to William Wordsworth in poetry, Brahms saw himself as continuing the classical tradition from where Beethoven had left it. To musicians of his day, he was a strict formalist, opposite to the arch-Romantic Wagner. His influence on Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg was profound.

The bird of paradise represents liberty. The Southern Cross recalls the country's links with Australia. Effective date: 16 September 1975. >>