Johannes Brahms
Symphony no. 1 c minor op. 68
Brahms struggled for years with composition of his First Symphony -- the feeling of impotence in the face of Beethoven’s works seemed overwhelming. He wrote to his friend, the conductor Hermann Levi: “I will never compose a symphony! You have no idea how the likes of me feels when he always hears such a giant (Beethoven) marching behind him.” But in October 1876 Brahms finally did complete it, and the first – acclaimed – performances of his First Symphony immediately took place in Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Munich, and Vienna. We herewith offer the score of this work, published within the framework of our New Collected Edition, as a convenient study score. In his preface to this Urtext edition in small format, our editor – Brahms expert Robert Pascall – presents interesting information about the work’s genesis and publishing history.
About the Composer
Johannes Brahms
His significant output comprises chamber music, piano works, numerous choral compositions and songs (including settings of folk-song lyrics), as well as large-scale orchestral works in the 1870s and 1880s. His compositions are characterized by the process of developing variation. He is considered an antithesis to the New German School around Liszt, and an advocate of “absolute” music.
| 1833 | Born in Hamburg on May 7, the son of a musician. His first piano instruction with Willibald Cossel at age seven, then with Eduard Marxen; first public performances from 1843. |
| 1853 | Concert tour through German cities; he meets Schumann, who announces him as the next great composer in his essay “Neue Bahnen” (“New Paths”). A lifelong, intimate friendship develops with Clara Schumann. |
| 1854–57 | Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. |
| 1857–59 | Choir director, pianist, and teacher at the royal court in Detmold. |
| 1859–61 | Director of the Hamburg Women’s Choir. |
| 1860 | Manifesto against the New Germans around Liszt. |
| 1863 | Cantata “Rinaldo,” Op. 50. |
| 1863–64 | Director of the Wiener Singakademie. |
| 1868 | Partial performance in Vienna of “A German Requiem,” Op. 45 (the complete work premiered in Leipzig in 1869) |
| 1871–74 | Artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) in Vienna. |
| 1873 | Haydn Variations, Op. 56a, for orchestra. |
| from 1877 | His symphonic output begins with the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (begun 1862); composition of the Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73; the Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883); and Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (1884–85): cantabile themes, chamber-music-like style. |
| from 1878 | Travels in Italy. |
| 1878 | Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, for Joseph Joachim. |
| 1881 | Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83, with a scherzo movement. |
| 1886 | Honorary president of Vienna’s Tonkünstlerverein (Association of Musicians). |
| 1897 | Four Serious Songs, Op. 121. Dies in Vienna on April 3. |
About the Authors
Robert Pascall (Editor)
Prof. Dr. Robert Pascall (b. Colwyn Bay, 1944, d. June 9, 2018) studied under Sir Jack Westrup at Oxford. He wrote books, analyses and editions of music from Bach to Schoenberg, with a special focus on Brahms. He was Professor and Head of Music at the University of Nottingham 1988-1998 and at Bangor University 1998-2005.
Until his death he was Honorary Professor of Music Philology at the University of Cambridge. He acted as Vice-chair of the new Complete Brahms Edition from its inception in 1991 and was then a member of its Beirat. He edited the symphonies for this edition, including Brahms’s own arrangements of them for piano duet, and advised conductors and orchestras on historically informed performance of Brahms’s music. He was President of the Society for Music Analysis 1996-2000, and was Corresponding Director of the American Brahms Society and an Honorary Member of the Royal Musical Association.
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