Overview

Originally published in 1936, as a second edition in 1948 and as an enlarged and third edition in 1982, Karl Geiringer’s biography of Brahms is generally regarded as one of the finest studies of the composer ever published in any language. It is based on the body of material in the archives of the Viennese Society of Friends, for which Karl Geiringer was curator from 1930-1938, and which contains more than a thousand letters written by and to Brahms. These letters, exchanged with family and with his famous contemporaries, reveal his loneliness, grim humour, loyalty, painful shyness and enthusiasm for the music of Beethoven and Schubert – moods that the self-effacing composer did not like to publicly display. Divided into sections on Brahms’s solitary, scholarly existence and his fruitful composing career – including examinations of rare first drafts – the biography relates how crises in Brahm’s personal life were translated into his music, and how he often managed to ignore or suppress them.

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9781032896304

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Reviews

Original Review of Brahms: HIs Life and Work ‘As subtle and life-like a portrait of the most reserved of composers as we are ever likely to get.’ Desmond Shawe-Taylor ‘It is altogether a rare book, equally a product of fine scholarship, a splendid literary gift, and intimate feeling for his subject.’ Irving Kolodin ‘The main librarians who sought long and hard for copies of the book during its out-of-print years will be happy to have it back. Highly recommended’. Library Journal

Author Information

Karl Geiringer (1899-1989) was an Austrian-American musicologist, prolific author and Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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