Johannes Brahms: 75 Songs

SKU: BR.CHB-5143-02

ISBN 9790004410684. 7.5 x 10.5 inches. German.

I think they are very easy to play and delightful too, wrote Johannes Brahms in August 1860 to Breitkopf & Hartel to heighten the songs' appeal to the publisher. He had already sent his Four Songs Accompanied by Two Horns and Harp to his Hamburger Frauenchor. He chose prominent texts by Shakespeare, Ossian, Eichendorff and others, and soon turned to his trusted friend Clara Schumann, whose transcription of three of the four Songs is the principal source of the work today. The publishers Brahms had contacted did not entirely share the composer's vision of horns and harp as a particularly fitting and attractive instrumental accompaniment, and felt there could be problems here. Nonetheless, their reservations could not hinder the lasting success of the Four Songs.

SKU: BR.CHB-16001

ISBN 9790004413289. 7.5 x 10.5 inches.

The song cycle Zigeunerlieder (Gypsy Songs) by Johannes Brahms consists of eleven settings of Hungarian folk songs in a German adaptation by Hugo Conrat, which, according to the composer, could be understood to form a novel-like structure. Four more of these were later published as part of the Six Quartets op. 112 (CHB 16000). The cycle originated in a relatively short time in February 1888 and went into print in October 1888, as the editor of the respective volume of the new Brahms complete edition is explaining in detail in the preface. In a way, the Zigeunerlieder op. 103 form the exotic counterpart of the Liebeslieder (Love Songs) op. 52 and op. 65 and the vocal counterpart of the Hungarian Dances. Although Brahms had conceived them for vocal quartets in domestic use, public performances with choirs already happened during his lifetime. This tradition continues until today, taking advantage of modern grand pianos with a larger volume to enable a larger choral scoring.

SKU: CA.940205

ISBN 9790007314439. German/English. Text: Rückert, Friedrich.

“Lösc he die Lampe getrost, hülle in Frieden dich ein” (“Put out thy lamp with good heart, lay thee then peacefully down”) – Johannes Brahms’s final cycle of secular songs for mixed choir a cappella paints a striking picture of mortality, ultimate happiness and lost youth. The 4- to 6-part songs fascinate with their immense power and range of expression, which runs from short, quiet, melancholy phrases (“breathe tremblingly forth”, “O lifeless falleth”) to elements of folk song (the horn calls in Nightwatch II) to mighty climaxes and double-choir effects produced with great economy of means. The closing movement In Autumn, with its idiosyncratic harmonies, is certainly one of Brahms’s best secular compositions.

All the songs are also available separately and as digital editions. The accompanying English text is the translation authorized by the composer himself.

SKU: BR.CHB-5321-02

ISBN 9790004412497. 7.5 x 10.5 inches. German.

The musicologist Helmut Lauterwasser, staff member of the Repertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) in the work group located at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, recently discovered two choral pieces for men's voices by the young Johannes Brahms: Des Postillons Morgenlied (text by Wilhelm Muller) and Goldne Bruecken (text by Emanuel Geibel).Brahms presumably wrote Des Postillons Morgenlied as early as 1847 at the age of 14. The piece is thus the earliest of all of Brahms' transmitted works. Goldne Bruecken was perhaps written for a concert given in Celle in early May 1853. Brahms dedicated the two works to the men's choral society of that town. When he later tried to collect the non-published early works in order to destroy them, he apparently forgot the Celle pieces. The previously unknown copies had been preserved in the estate of the Alte Celler Liedertafel. Their authenticity has since been confirmed by the Brahms Complete Edition in Kiel. The Chorus of the Bayerischer Rundfunk gave the first performance and the world- premiere broadcast of the pieces in its BR-KLASSIK program on 5 March 2010.