This requiem is Brahmsian to the core. It is faultless as regards form; but, while conserva tive in this respect, it is. musically, modern of the modern. Even the fugues belong to the Nine teenth Century. They are. perhaps, the only fugues eomposed since the passing away of the great contrapuntists, that do ma wear perruques.
It is the great distinction of Brahms to have shown that thoroughly modern music can lie com posed within established forms. Brahms is the successor of no classical composer. He has been a conservator of classical form, especially in his symphonies, sonatas, and works of chamber music; but in the music which lie has created within these forms lie has shown himself an original and modern composer.
In his symphonies and his ehamber-music, Brahms again shows his complete mastery of form—that mastery which controls instead of being controlled, and does not hesitate to make innovations where these grow nut of artistic necessities. For instance, in his piano quintet, he developed the first movement to the extent of introducing a third theme in addition to the two sanctioned by tradition. The last movement of his Fourth Symphony is new in symphonic writ ing—so new that it has proved somewhat of a crux even to Brahmsians. It is, however, noth ing more than an eight-bar theme with varia tions—a revival of the old passaeaglia. The variations bear the Brahms stamp. Each is characteristic and individual, yet is obviously related stbetieally to the original theme. The scherzo movement of the symphony has been changed by Brahms into a kind of intermezzo, a word not used here in its technical sense. These intermezzi are among the most charming things he has composed. They form points of rest be tween the longer divisions of his symphonies. While not less valuable than the symphonies, in technical construct ion, the intermezzi appeal more readily to the emotions, and, therefore, were almost immediately appreciated. Among his other orchestral works are a series of adapta tions of Hungarian (lances, which have been very popular.
Brahms composed nearly one hundred and sixty songs. His last published work was a group of Ernst(' Rieder (Serious Songs). l'pou his songs alone his fame could safely rest. Still working within established forms, he poured thoroughly original and thoroughly modernmusie into them. His are the most modern songs— more modern even than those of Schumann or Franz. Brahms, in setting a poem to music, seeks to interpret the emotional significance of the work as a whole. This emotional trend of the words lie embodies in his vocal melody. A Brahms song is not a realistic expression of ev ery passing mood, that is reflected in the poet's lines. It is meant to be the expression of the thought or feeling out of which the poem grew, and so includes the lesser moods in the greater as it develops toward its climax. Here
we have an illustration of Brahms's power of concentration. The inter-relation between the vocal melody and the accompaniment is absolute. The latter rarely carries the melody, but is closely interknit with it harmonically.
There is one great characteristic of Brahms which no student of his songs can fail to appre ciate. His climaxes are musical in the strictest sense. Take, for instance, II ie List du, .meine Konigin—perhaps the most frequently sung of his ',leder. The climax is reached on the very last word of the poem—the exclamation Wonne von! It is thrice repeated. Brahms produces. on the third repetition, a climax neither loud nor strenuous, but deep and moving; and this emotional wrench is not due to a massing of chords, nor to uprushing runs, but to a simple prolongation of a phrase by one bar, and a de scending sweep of the voice.
For the piano Brahms has composed two eon eertos, several sets of variations, and shorter pieces, among them the series from Op. 116-119, which preceded the Serious Songs, his last work. Modern piano music usually echoes Chopin and Liszt. Brahms, however, was gifted with genius enough to enable him to work independently of those two great masters.
Brahms not only never attempted to compose an opera, but did not care for opera as an art fo•m. He rarely visited the theatre, and inure rarely sat through an entire operatic perform ance. Not infrequently, after the first act, lie would remark to his companion, "You know 1 understand nothing about the theatre," and would then rise and leave. So far as he can be said to have had any preferenee at all among modern operas, his favorite was Bizet's rartnen. As a man, he had an aversion to marriage; as a composer, to opera ; and lie classed them to gether. "Toward marriage." he once said, "ray position is the same as toward opera. If I had already composed an opera and, for all I care, seen it fail, I should certainly compose another. But I cannot make up my mind to a first opera or a first marriage." Brahms (lied in Vienna, April 3, 1897. Until overtaken by the disease which proved fatal, he enjoyed rugged health. It was said of him that he "made foot-tours like a student, and slept like a child." He appears also to have been a ehild of nature in social which gave rise to the anecdote of his parting remark at a musical soinse in Vienna: "I beg the company's pardon if I have neglected to offend anybody this evening." Consult: Deiters• Brahms, a Biographical Sketch. translated by Rosa Newmarch (London, 1888) ; Dietrich and Widmann. Recollections of Johannes Brahms, translated by Dora E. Ileclet (London, 1899).