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The Young Brahms: Biographical Data Reexamined

The Young Brahms: Biographical Data Reexamined 19 TH CENTURY MUSIC The Young Brahms: Biographical Data Reexamined STYRA AVINS Ist das, was du gesagt, erwiesen? —The Magic Flute, act I, sc. 3 Does a juicy story overpower the facts? The biography of Johannes Brahms is a test case in the making. As usually written, the story of his youth has been marked by rumor, half truths, and sheer, vivid invention. Although the old stories persist, recent diggings in the archives and a closer look at the early biographies are bringing to life a very different young Brahms. If the picture that emerges is less worthy of Hollywood, it is perhaps the more inspiring as a believable account of the human spirit. Brahms is portrayed in literally dozens of biographies and articles as having grown up in a Hamburg slum, his father something of a rustic, comical musical jack-of-all-trades, the family so poor they had to send him even as a boy to play in brothels and drinking establishments (Lokals or Schänken) to help put food on the table.1 These “facts” are even used by some to interpret the character of the adult Brahms and of his music. Early biographical sketches and memoirs written during Brahms’s http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png 19th-Century Music University of California Press

The Young Brahms: Biographical Data Reexamined

Avins, Styra
19th-Century Music , Volume 24 (3) – Apr 1, 2001
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Publisher
University of California Press
Copyright
Copyright © by the University of California Press
Subject
Research Article
ISSN
0148-2076
eISSN
1533-8606
DOI
10.1525/ncm.2001.24.3.276
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Abstract

19 TH CENTURY MUSIC The Young Brahms: Biographical Data Reexamined STYRA AVINS Ist das, was du gesagt, erwiesen? —The Magic Flute, act I, sc. 3 Does a juicy story overpower the facts? The biography of Johannes Brahms is a test case in the making. As usually written, the story of his youth has been marked by rumor, half truths, and sheer, vivid invention. Although the old stories persist, recent diggings in the archives and a closer look at the early biographies are bringing to life a very different young Brahms. If the picture that emerges is less worthy of Hollywood, it is perhaps the more inspiring as a believable account of the human spirit. Brahms is portrayed in literally dozens of biographies and articles as having grown up in a Hamburg slum, his father something of a rustic, comical musical jack-of-all-trades, the family so poor they had to send him even as a boy to play in brothels and drinking establishments (Lokals or Schänken) to help put food on the table.1 These “facts” are even used by some to interpret the character of the adult Brahms and of his music. Early biographical sketches and memoirs written during Brahms’s

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19th-Century Music – University of California Press

Published: Apr 1, 2001

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