Brahms: Complete Sonatas and Variations for Solo Piano

by Johannes Brahms

The most ambitious in scale of Brahms's pieces for piano solo, the sonatas and variations, are contained complete within this the three beautifully lyrical Sonatas in C Major, F-sharp Minor and F Minor, and the five sets of on a theme by Schumann, F-sharp Minor; on an Original Theme, D Major; on a Hungarian Song, D Major; Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, B-flat Major; and Variations on a Theme by Paganini, A Minor.The music is reproduced directly from the definitive Vienna Gesellschaft der Musik-freunde edition, edited by its renowned musicologist, Eusebius Mandyczewski, who made his revisions from original sources, often Brahms's own manuscripts. For this Dover edition, the Editor's Preface and the Table of Contents have been translated into English.Noteheads have been reproduced in a size large enough to be read easily as the keyboard. Margins and spaces between staves are generous, permitting insertion of written notes, analysis, fingerings, running measure numbers, etc. This edition will be welcomed, not only by the classical pianist, but by all who will find it highly practical and convenient for instruction, study, reference, enjoyment, and virtually any other purpose.

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1971

About the author

In 1833, Johannes Brahms was born in Germany. As a teenager playing for drunken sailors in a Hamburg bar, Brahms would prop up books of poetry to read as a diversion. His favorite poet was the anticlerical G.F. Daumer, described by the Catholic Encyclopedia as "an enemy of Christianity". Brahms' works were influenced by such writers as Hoffman, Friedrich Schiller and Robert Burns. He was well-read in philosophy and science, and was an avid hiker who took inspiration from nature. When asked by a conductor to add additional sectarian text to his German Requiem, Brahms responded, "As far as the text is concerned, I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human; also with my best knowledge and will I would dispense with passages like John 3:16." (Jan Swafford, Johannes Brahms: A Biography). A liberal, Brahms ardently opposed anti-Semitism, was approachable even at the height of his fame, and was always generous with his time and charity. Biographer Swafford writes of the young composer: "Though he was to be a freethinker in religion, Johannes pored over the Bible beyond the requirements for his Protestant confirmation." From then on, "Music was Brahms' religion." According to Swafford, Brahms was "a humanist and an agnostic." After nearly 64 years of near perfect health, never even enduring a headache, Brahms succumbed quickly to liver cancer. There was no deathbed conversion. D. 1897.

In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs". The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes...

http://www.johannesbrahms.org/

http://www.biography.com/people/johan...

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Brah...

http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/rom/br...

http://www.naxos.com/person/Johannes_...

http://www.last.fm/music/Johannes+Brahms

http://www.classicalarchives.com/brah...

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/johann...

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/educati...