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[Illustration: _Brahms at the age of 20._

LONDON. EDWARD ARNOLD: 1905]




     THE LIFE
     OF
     JOHANNES BRAHMS

     BY
     FLORENCE MAY

     IN TWO VOLUMES
     VOL. I.

     _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_

     LONDON
     EDWARD ARNOLD
     41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, BOND STREET, W.
     1905

     (_All rights reserved_)




     TO
     THE MANY KIND FRIENDS
     WHOSE SYMPATHY
     HAS HELPED ME DURING THE WRITING OF THESE VOLUMES,
     THEY ARE GRATEFULLY DEDICATED




                              PREFACE


The biographical materials from which I have written the following Life
of Brahms have, excepting in the few instances indicated in footnotes,
been gathered by me, at first hand, chiefly in the course of several
Continental journeys, the first of which was undertaken in the summer of
1902. Dates of concerts throughout the volumes have been authenticated
by reference to original programmes or contemporary journals.

My aim in giving some account of Brahms' compositions has not been a
technical one. So far as I have exceeded purely biographical limits my
object has been to assist the general music-lover in his enjoyment of
the noble achievements of a beautiful life.

I feel it impossible to ignore numerous requests made to me to include
in my book some particulars of my own acquaintance with Brahms--begun
when I was a young student of the pianoforte. I have not wished,
however, to interrupt the main narrative of the Life by the introduction
of slight personal details, and therefore place together in an
introductory chapter some of my recollections and impressions, published
a few years ago in the _Musical Magazine_. These were verified by
reference to letters to my mother in which I recorded events as they
occurred. Written before the commencement of the Biography, they are in
no way essential to its completeness, which will not suffer should they
remain unread.

       *       *       *       *       *

I am indebted for valuable assistance and sympathy to:

     H.R.H. Alexander Frederick, Landgraf of Hesse.
     Herr Carl Bade.
     Fraeulein Berninger.
     Mrs. Jellings Blow (b. Finke).
     Fraeulein Theodore Blume.
     Frau Professor Boeie.
     Herr Professor Dr. Heinrich Bulthaupt.
     Herr Professor Julius Buths.
     The late Gerard F. Cobb, Esq.
     Frederic R. Comec, Esq.
     Herr Hugo Conrat.
     Fraeulein Ilse Conrat.
     Fraeulein Johanna Cossel.
     Frau Elise Denninghoff-Giesemann.
     Herr Geheimrath Dr. Hermann Deiters.
     Herr Hofcapellmeister Albert Dietrich.
     Herr k. k. Hofclavierfabrikant Friedrich Ehrbar.
     Herr Geheimrath Dr. Engelmann.
     Herr Professor Julius Epstein.
     Fraeulein Anna Ettlinger.
     Frau Dr. Maria Fellinger.
     Herr Professor Dr. Josef Gaensbacher.
     Otto Goldschmidt, Esq., Hon. R.A.M., Member of Swedish A.M., etc.
     Dr. Josef Ritter Griez von Ronse.
     Herr Carl Graf.
     Fraeulein Marie Grimm.
     Frau Grueber.
     Herr Professor Robert Hausmann.
     Fraeulein Heyden.
     Herr Professor Walter Huebbe.
     Herr Dr. Gustav Jansen.
     Frau Dr. Marie Janssen.
     Herr Professor Dr. Joseph Joachim.
     Frau Dr. Louise Langhans-Japha.
     Mrs. Johann Kruse.
     Herr Carl Luestner.
     J. A. Fuller Maitland, Esq., F.S.A.
     Herr Dr. Eusebius Mandyczewski, Archivar to the Gesellschaft
          der Musikfreunde.
     Carl Freiherr von Meysenbug.
     Hermann Freiherr von Meysenbug.
     Herr Richard Muehlfeld, Hofkammermusiker.
     Herr Professor Dr. Ernst Naumann.
     Herr Professor Dr. Carl Neumann.
     Herr Christian Otterer.
     Fraeulein Henriette Reinthaler.
     Herr Capellmeister Dr. Rottenberg.
     Herr Kammermusiker Julius Schmidt.
     Herr Fritz Schnack.
     Herr Professor Dr. Bernhard Scholz.
     Herr Heinrich Schroeder.
     Fraeulein Marie Schumann.
     Frau Simons (b. Kyllmann).
     Herr Professor Josef Sittard.
     Herr Dr. Julius Spengel.
     Mrs. Edward Speyer.
     Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Mus. Doc.
     Mrs. Edward Stone.
     Frau Celestine Truxa.
     Herr Superintendent Vogelsang.
     Herr Dr. Josef Victor Widmann.

And others who prefer that their names should not be expressly mentioned.

                                                                    F. M.

     SOUTH KENSINGTON,
          _September, 1905_.




                          CONTENTS OF VOL. I.


                                                                       PAGE

     PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS                                               1


                               CHAPTER I
                               1760-1845

     The Brahms family--Johann Jakob Brahms; his youth and marriage--Birth
     and childhood of Johannes--The Alster Pavilion--Otto
     F. W. Cossel--Johannes gives a private subscription concert         45


                               CHAPTER II
                                1845-1848

     Edward Marxsen--Johannes' first instruction in theory--Herr Adolph
     Giesemann--Winsen-an-der-Luhe--Lischen--Choral Society of
     school-teachers--'A.B.C.' Part-song by Johannes--The Amtsvogt
     Blume--First public appearance--First visit to the opera            63


                              CHAPTER III
                               1848-1853

     Johannes' first public concert--Years of struggle--Hamburg
     Lokals--Louise Japha--Edward Remenyi--Sonata in F sharp
     minor--First concert-tour as Remenyi's accompanist--Concerts in
     Winsen, Celle, Lueneburg, and Hildesheim--Musical parties in
     1853--Leipzig and Weimar--Robert Schumann--Joseph Joachim           83


                               CHAPTER IV
                                  1853

     Brahms and Remenyi visit Joachim in Hanover--Concert at Court--Visit
     to Liszt--Joachim and Brahms in Goettingen--Wasielewsky,
     Reinecke, and Hiller--First meeting with Schumann--Albert
     Dietrich                                                           106


                               CHAPTER V
                                 1853

     Schumann's article 'New Paths'--Johannes in Hanover--Sonatas
     in C major and F minor--Visit to Leipzig--First publications--Julius
     Otto Grimm--Return to Hamburg via Hanover--Lost
     Violin Sonata--Songs--Marxsen's influence as teacher               126


                               CHAPTER VI
                                1854-1855

     Brahms at Hanover--Hans von Buelow--Robert and Clara Schumann
     in Hanover--Schumann's illness--Brahms in Duesseldorf--Variations
     on Schumann's theme in F sharp minor--B major Trio;
     first public performance in New York--First attempt at symphony    153


                               CHAPTER VII
                                1855-1856

     Lower Rhine Festival--Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt--Edward
     Hanslick--Brahms as a concert-player--Retirement and study--Frau
     Schumann in Vienna and London--Julius Stockhausen--Schumann's
     death                                                              179


                               CHAPTER VIII
                                 1856-1858

     Brahms and Joachim in Duesseldorf--Grimm in Goettingen--Brahms'
     visit to Detmold--Carl von Meysenbug--Court Concertmeister
     Bargheer--Joachim and Liszt--Brahms returns to Detmold--Summer
     at Goettingen--Pianoforte Concerto in D minor and
     Orchestral Serenade in D major tried privately in Hanover          204


                               CHAPTER IX
                                  1859

     First public performances of the Pianoforte Concerto in Hanover,
     Leipzig, and Hamburg--Brahms, Joachim, and Stockhausen
     appear together in Hamburg--First public performance of the
     Serenade in D major--Ladies' Choir--Fraeulein Friedchen
     Wagner--Compositions for women's chorus                            225


                               CHAPTER X
                               1859-1861

     Third season at Detmold--'Ave Maria' and 'Begraebnissgesang'; performed
     in Hamburg and Goettingen--Second Serenade first publicly performed in
     Hamburg--Lower Rhine Festival--Summer at Bonn--Music at Herr
     Kyllmann's--Life in Hamburg--Variations on an original theme first
     performed in Leipzig by Frau Schumann--'Marienlieder'--First public
     performance of the Sextet in B flat by the Joachim Quartet in
     Hanover                                                            243


                               CHAPTER XI
                                1861-1862

     Concert season in Hamburg--Frau Denninghoff-Giesemann--Brahms
     in Hamm--Herr Voelckers and his daughters--Dietrich's visit to
     Brahms--Music at the Halliers' and Wagners'--First public performance
     of the G minor Quartet--Brahms in Oldenburg--Second
     Serenade performed in New York--First and second Pianoforte
     Quartets--'Magelone Romances'--First public performances of
     the Handel Variations and Fugue in Hamburg and Leipzig by
     Frau Schumann--Brahms' departure for Vienna                        262


                             APPENDIX No. I

     MUSICAL FORM--ABSOLUTE MUSIC--PROGRAMME MUSIC--BERLIOZ
     AND WAGNER                                                         282


                             APPENDIX No. II

     THE MAGELONE ROMANCES--PIERRE DE PROVENCE                          290


                             APPENDIX No. III

     RULES OF THE HAMBURG LADIES' CHOIR                                 304




                           LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


     BRAHMS AT THE AGE OF TWENTY                             _Frontispiece_

     No. 60, SPECKSTRASSE, HAMBURG                        _To face page_ 52

     BRAHMS AND JOACHIM, 1855                                   "       182

     BRAHMS AND STOCKHAUSEN, 1868                               "       262




                        THE LIFE OF JOHANNES BRAHMS




                           PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS


                                BADEN-BADEN.

It was to the kindness of Frau Schumann that I owed my introduction to
Brahms, which took place the very day of my arrival on my first visit to
Germany. I had had lessons from the great pianist during her visit to
London early in the year 1871, and on her departure from England she
allowed my father to arrange that I should follow her, as soon as I
could possibly get ready, to her home in Lichtenthal, a suburb of
Baden-Baden, in order to continue my studies under her guidance.

I can vividly recall the bright morning in the beginning of May on which
I arrived at Baden-Baden, rather home-sick and dreadfully tired, for
owing to a railway breakdown _en route_ my journey had occupied fourteen
hours longer than it ought to have done, and my father's arrangements
for my comfort had been completely upset. It was too early to go at once
to Frau Schumann's house, and I remember to have dreamily watched,
whilst waiting at the station, a passing procession of young girl
communicants in their white wreaths and veils, as I tried to realize
that I was, for the first time in my life, far away from home and from
England. When the morning was sufficiently advanced, I took an open
Droschke, and driving under the great trees of the Lichtenthaler Allee
to the door of Frau Schumann's house, I obtained the address of the
lodgings that had been taken for me in the village. Without alighting, I
proceeded at once to my rooms, where I was almost immediately joined by
Frau Schumann herself, who came round, as soon as she had finished
breakfast, to bid me welcome.

My delight at seeing the great artist again, combined with her
irresistible charm and kindness, at once made me feel less strange in my
new surroundings, and I joyfully accepted the invitation she gave me at
the close of a few minutes' visit, to go to her house the same afternoon
at four o'clock and take coffee with her in her family circle.

On presenting myself at the appointed hour, I was at once shown into a
pleasant balcony at the back of the house, overlooking garden and river.
In it was seated Frau Schumann with her daughters, and with a gentleman
whom she presently introduced to me as Herr Brahms. The name awakened in
my mind no special feeling of interest, nor did I look at its owner with
any particular curiosity. Brahms' name was at that time almost unknown
in England, and I had heard of him only through his arrangement of two
books of Hungarian dances for four hands on the pianoforte. As, however,
from that day onwards I was accustomed, during a period of months, to
meet him almost daily, it may be convenient to say at once a few words
about his appearance and manner as they seemed to me after I had had
time to become familiar with them.

Brahms, then, when I first knew him, was in the very prime of life,
being thirty-eight years of age. Below middle height, his figure was
somewhat square and solidly built, though without any of the tendency to
corpulency which developed itself at a later period. He was of the
blonde type of German, with fair, straight hair, which he wore rather
long and brushed back from the temples. His face was clean-shaven. His
most striking physical characteristic was the grand head with its
magnificent intellectual forehead, but the blue eyes were also
remarkable from their expression of intense mental concentration. This
was accentuated by a constant habit he had of thrusting the rather
thick under-lip over the upper, and keeping it compressed there,
reminding one of the mouth in some of the portraits of Beethoven. His
nose was finely formed. Feet and hands were small, the fingers without
'cushions.'

'I have none,' he said one day, when I was speaking to him about
pianists' hands; and he spread out his fingers, at my request, to show
me the tips. 'Frau Schumann has them, and Rubinstein also; Rubinstein's
are immense.'

His dress, though plain, was always perfectly neat in those days. He
usually wore a short, loose, black alpaca coat, chosen, no doubt, with
regard to his ideas of comfort. He was near-sighted, and made frequent
use of a double eyeglass that he wore hanging on a thin black cord round
his neck. When walking out, it was his custom to go bare-headed, and to
carry his soft felt hat in his hand, swinging the arm energetically to
and fro. The disengaged hand he often held behind him.

In Brahms' demeanour there was a mixture of sociability and reserve
which gave me the impression of his being a kindly-natured man, but one
whom it would be difficult really to know. Though always pleasant and
friendly, yet there was a something about him--perhaps it may have been
his extraordinary dislike to speaking about himself--which suggested
that his life had not been free from disappointment, and that he had
reckoned with the latter and taken his course. His manner was absolutely
simple and unaffected. To his own compositions he alluded only on the
very rarest occasions, nor could he be induced to play them before even
a small party. His great satisfaction and pleasure were evidently found
in the society of Frau Schumann, for whom he displayed the most devoted
admiration, an admiration that seemed to combine the affection and
reverence of an elder son with the sympathetic camaraderie of a
colleague in art. He had established himself for the spring and summer
months at Lichtenthal, in order to be near her, and was always a welcome
guest at her house, coming and going as he liked. I met him there
continually at the hour of afternoon coffee, as on the day of my
arrival; and very often, when the coffee-cups were done with, it was my
good fortune to listen to the two great artists playing duets; Brahms,
the favoured, being always allowed to retain the beloved cigar or
cigarette between his lips during the performance, and taking his turn
in playing the treble part.

It was Frau Schumann's kind habit to invite me to her mid-day dinner on
Sundays, and frequently to supper during the week. Brahms was rarely
absent, and was sometimes accompanied by one or two of his friends. The
talk on these occasions was more or less general, but naturally my chief
interest was in listening to Frau Schumann and Brahms, who used to
discuss all sorts of topics with great animation. Brahms' interest in
politics was keen, and although he had been settled in Vienna for some
years, and had become much attached to that city and to his friends and
surroundings there, yet it was evident that he remained an ardent German
patriot.

He was a great walker, and had a passionate love of nature. It was his
habit during the spring and summer to rise at four or five o'clock, and,
after making himself a cup of coffee, to go into the woods to enjoy the
delicious freshness of early morning and to listen to the singing of the
birds. In adverse weather he could still find something to admire and
enjoy.

'I never feel it dull,' he said one day, in answer to some remark about
the depressing effect of the long-continued rain,'my view is so fine.
Even when it rains