Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Choral Works Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833, the son of a double-bass player and his much older wife, a seamstress. His childhood was spent in relative poverty, and his early studies in music, for which he showed a natural aptitude, developed his talent to such an extent that there was talk of touring as a prodigy at the age of eleven. It was Eduard Marxsen who gave him a grounding in the technical basis of composition, while the boy helped his family by playing the piano in dockside taverns.

In 1851 Brahms met the émigré Hungarian violinist Remenyi, who introduced him to Hungarian dance music that had a later influence on his work. Two years later he set out in his company on his first concert tour, their journey taking them, on the recommendation of the Hungarian violinist Joachim, to Weimar, where Franz Liszt held court and might have been expected to show particular favour to a fellow-countryman. Reményi profited from the visit, but Brahms, with a lack of tact that was later accentuated, failed to impress the Master. Later in the year, however, he met the Schumanns, through Joachim's agency. The meeting was a fruitful one.

In 1850 Schumann had taken up the offer from the previous incumbent, Ferdinand Hiller, of the position of municipal director of music in Dusseldorf, the first official appointment of his career and the last. Now in the music of Brahms he detected a promise of greatness and published his views in the journal he had once edited, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, declaring Brahms the long-awaited successor to Beethoven. In the following year Schumann, who had long suffered from intermittent periods of intense depression, attempted suicide. His final years, until his death in 1856, were to be spent in an asylum, while Brahms rallied to the support of Schumann's wife, the gifted pianist Clara Schumann, and her young family, remaining a firm friend until her death in 1896, shortly before his own in the following year.

Brahms had always hoped that sooner or later he would be able to return in triumph to a position of distinction in the musical life of Hamburg. This ambition was never fulfilled. Instead he settled in Vienna, intermittently from 1863 and definitively in 1869, establishing himself there and seeming to many to fulfil Schumann's early prophecy. In him his supporters, including, above all, the distinguished critic and writer Eduard Hanslick, saw a true successor to Beethoven and a champion of music untrammelled by extra-musical associations, of pure music, as opposed to the Music of the Future promoted by Wagner and Liszt, a path to which Joachim and Brahms both later publicly expressed their opposition.

Brahms had a varied connection with choral singing. In short autumn seasons at the court of Detmold he had conducted a choir in 1857, 1858 and 1859 and in the last of these years he had established in Hamburg a women's choir, the Hamburg Frauenchor, formed by enthusiastic members of the Akademie choir directed by his friend Karl Grädener. In addition to the regular Monday morning meetings of the larger Frauenchor, Brahms also involved himself with a smaller group, who held evening meetings. His first appointment in Vienna, in 1863, was as conductor of the Singakademie, reviving the fortunes of the choir in a repertoire that ranged from unfashionable music of the Renaissance to that of Beethoven and Schumann and compositions by Brahms himself. He was offered a three-year extension of his agreement with the Singakademie, but resigned in 1864. Nevertheless, in 1872 he took up the position of director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. This involved him in work with the most distinguished of the large choirs in Vienna. For three seasons he was able to offer a varied and innovative choral and orchestral repertoire, including some of his own major choral compositions, most notably his masterpiece, A German Requiem.

Brahms wrote his Fest und Gedenksprüche (Festal and Commemorative Sentences) in 1889 for the opening of the Hamburg Industrial Exhibition and in acknowledgement of the honour bestowed on him of the freedom of the city. The three motets for double choir are dedicated to Dr Carl Petersen, Mayor of Hamburg. The first of these, Unsere Väter hofften auf dich (Our fathers hoped in thee), makes antiphonal use of the two choirs, the first answering in embellished imitation the opening phrase of the second, with a technique that has its basis in earlier practice, suggesting, in particular, the influence of Heinrich Schütz. The second, Wenn ein starker Gewappneter (When a strong man armed), brisker in mood, allows word-painting at ein Haus fället über das andere (a house divided against a house falleth). The group ends with the imitative Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk (For what nation is there so great).

The setting made by Brahms of the Ave Maria, Opus 12, was composed in September 1858 at Göttingen, designed for women's choir with organ accompaniment. He made use of it the following year in Hamburg at the Michaeliskirche, its performance marking the start of the Hamburg Frauenchor. It is a work of gentle simplicity in a lilting 6/8 Andante, with the traditional text abbreviated by the omission of the final phrase. The Two Motets, Opus 74, were published in 1878, with a dedication to his friend, the music historian Philipp Spitta. The first of these, Warum ist das Licht gegeben (Wherefore is light given) has been dated to 1877 and the second, 0 Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf (0 Saviour, tear the Heavens apart) to a much earlier period, possibly 1863. The first of the motets makes use of biblical texts carefully assembled by Brahms, expressing initial defiance and despair and final resignation. The opening four-part setting of words from the Book of Job is marked by the repeated question Warum? (Why?). The second section, with its use of canon, as one voice enters in imitation of another, moves from D minor to F major in a six-part setting of words of relative consolation from the Book of Lamentations. A passage in C major precedes the F major plea for patience from the Epistle of St James and the motet ends with a chorale, a setting of words from the Nunc dimittis, to Luther's melody and adaptation, a Dorian mode movement that culminates in a positive D major. The second motet, in four parts, sets a rhyming German verse translation of a traditional Latin hymn. Here the chorale melody is heard in verses 1 and 2 in the soprano part, and in verses 3 and 4 in the tenor and bass parts respectively. The fifth of these chorale variations ends in a melismatic and intricately contrapuntal Amen.

The Two Motets, Opus 29, published in 1864, were written in 1859 and 1860. The first of these, Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (It is salvation that comes here to us), is a setting of strictly Lutheran words by the sixteenth-century Paul Speratus and opens with a five- part version of the original chorale. This is followed by a fugue, introduced by the tenor, followed by alto, soprano and second bass. The first bass enters with the longer notes of the chorale itself, a process that continues, as the fugue presents new subjects, derived from each line of the chorale. The whole work, modal in flavour, although nominally in E major, demonstrates the composer's complete mastery of traditional form. The second motet, Aus dem 51. Psalm (From Psalm LI), is in three brief movements, marked Andante moderato, Andante, espressivo, and Andante respectively, the first in five parts, the second in four and the third in six, leading to a five-part fugue. The G major opening, with its theme in augmentation in the second bass and the soprano offering a version in diminution in canon, is followed by a fugal movement in G minor. The initial G major Andante of the third movement, with antiphonal use of male and female voices and intricate use of canon, leads to a final Allegro, in form a fugal exposition.

Brahms's setting of Psalm XIII, Opus 27, for three-part women's choir with organ, harp or piano accompaniment, with a possible arrangement for string orchestra, was published in 1864, having been completed in 1859. It makes relatively modest demands on the Hamburg ladies and is allowed a satisfying instrumental accompaniment, to add effectiveness in performance. The setting falls into various sections, a slow introductory verse leading to an Allegro, followed by an initially fugal Allegro non troppo.

Brahms published his Three Motets, Opus 110, in 1890, having completed them in the previous year, after his motets for the Hamburg Industrial Exhibition. The first, with a biblical text, Ich aber bin elend (But I am poor and sorrowful), is for two four-part choruses, treated antiphonally, while the second, Ach, arme Welt (Ah, base world), in four parts, is largely chordal in style. The third motet, Wenn wir in öchsten Nöten sein (When we are in greatest need), is again for double choir, varying in texture from canonical writing to the homophonic and marking the composer's final contribution to a form of which he had long demonstrated complete mastery.

The Geistliches Lied, Opus 30, was written in 1856 and is directly the product of Brahm's studies in canon. It is for four-part choir with organ or piano accompaniment and was published in 1864. This setting of a well-known poem by the early seventeenth-century write Paul Fleming is, as the manuscript of the work indicates, a double canon at the ninth, with tenor imitating soprano at that interval and bass imitating alto, an example of the technical and musical competence Brahms was achieving by his own assiduous study of earlier masters.