Johannes Brahms was born May 7th, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany. Brahms grew up to become a composer and artist of classical music in the Romantic Era. Around the age of 7 he began studying piano with Otto Cossel. Cossel was a German pianist who tried to teach Brahms to play and very well saw his potential, but could not quite keep the attention of the young composer. Brahms then began studying with Eduard Marxsen. Marxsen was also a German pianist along with a composer and teacher. Just 3 years after the lesson from Marxsen, Brahms performed his first solo piano piece. Brahms looked up to Beethoven and Bach, former composers, and also composers such as Schumann who was thriving and learning at the same time he himself was. Brahms grew into a composer …show more content…
Her death inspired him to begin writing his German Requiem’s. He personally selected biblical texts for her memory. Around the age of forty, Brahms settled down and worked on more of his compositions, more specifically his symphonies. He composed a total of 4 different symphonies. The one specific symphony I am going to break down is going to be his Symphony No. 1 specifically the first movement. This movement is in sonata form. It also has an extended introduction. The introduction involves strings, flutes and cellos sticking out and playing the melody. The exposition is a very sudden start. Once there is a small section between the start of the exposition, it sounds as if the violins take over the main theme. The theme is suddenly taken over by the woodwinds, and strongly the flutes and clarinets. The development sounds as if it involves many modulations that sound like they do not belong. These modulations all lead back to the recapitulation in the end. The recapitulation repeats the theme and the coda involves the same string sound as in the introduction. The overall tone color of the song is very dark and eerie to me. There are slight sections of resolution, but due to the song being in minor key, they only sound creepy. His use of the dynamics of the crescendos and decrescendos add to the slight fear the song puts in