Brahm's, German Requeim Program Notes
...rom Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible, Brahms pieced together a mass not for the dead, but for the living. There are no mentions to be found of Judgment Day and its day of wrath. Instead, Brahms weaved together texts of solace to give comfort and acceptance to those who would later encounter death. It must also be mentioned that in no part of the text is Jesus Christ mentioned, most likely due to Brahms’ personal ambivalence to the literal teachings of Christianity. In a naïve way of looking it is one of the first pieces to bridge the gap between what St. Thomas Aquinas referred to as the gap between the “sacred and the secular”, a new age piece of Romanticism. Although Brahms was not the first composer to use a Lutheran liturgical text, his “German Requiem” separates itself on the beauty of its specific texts and its musical setting. The work itself is separated into seven movements, the first being “Selig sind, die da Leid tragen (Blessed are they that mourn)”. Although a somber biblical text the opening music never turns into the bombast and sadness of other masses before it. Instead the first movement ends with the playing of a harp, an instrument rarely used by Brahms, punctuating the ending in a joyful sorrow. The second movement introduces a funeral march, begun softly by growing in tension into full voice as it is repeated. The third movement introduces the Baritone soloist asking, “In what shall I hope?” only to be answered by the chorus with a great climax and the phrase “My hope is in thee.” The fourth and most recognizable movement is the gentle median of the work, balancing the two halves of grief and sadness. By placing “Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen (How lovely is thy dwelling place)” in the center Brahms expresses that in the midst of all...