7 May: Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms, the German composer, was born this date in 1833. Ten things you might not know about him.

1. He was born in Hamburg in Germany. His father was a musician who played the double bass and French horn. His mother was a seamstress.
2. The Brahms family weren't well off and so as a child, Brahms was forced to play the Piano in taverns and brothels to earn Money. Some of the violent and sexual acts he witnessed in those times affected him deeply, and performing in smoke filled rooms affected his health.
3. He began playing the piano at the age of seven and was composing music by the time he was 11 but when he grew up, he decided his early compositions were embarrassing and destroyed most of them.
4. When he was 15, he met a Hungarian refugee called Eduard Remenyi. They toured together for a while, and hence Brahms's music was influenced by the folk and gypsy music of his friend's homeland.
5. Brahms never married, although he was engaged to a time to Agathe von Seibold. Rumours abound that he was in love with the wife of his friend, Robert Schumann. However, even after Schumann died, they remained in the friend zone. Publicly anyway – the pair destroyed a number of the letters they wrote to each other so perhaps there was more going on that they didn't want the world to know about.
6. He decided to retire from composing at 57 but inspiration ignored him and kept on coming, so that even after he supposedly retired, he wrote his Clarinet Trio Op. 114, Clarinet Quintet Op. 115, two clarinet sonatas, several song cycles for piano and the Eleven Chorale Preludes for Organ Op. 122.
7. He was known for his modesty. He'd dismiss his compositions as “a piece of folly” or “feeble” and even when he became a well known and wealthy composer, he still lived in a small apartment, ate at the cheapest restaurants and wore a coat held together with a Safety pin.
8. He was such a perfectionist that it took him over 20 years to write his first symphony. He started writing it in 1854 and edited it ruthlessly several times before it finally premiered in 1876.
9. There was a strong rivalry between Brahms, Schumann and other conservative composers, with the likes of Wagner and Liszt who were more radical and experimental. This became known as the War of the Romantics. It probably didn't help that Brahms once fell asleep during a performance of one of Liszt's works.
10. Brahms died at the age of 63 from cancer, exactly a month after his final public appearance when his Symphony No. 4 received several standing ovations.

NEW!

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book