☰ Ostinato

Karl Geiringer, the eminent Brahms scholar, grew up in a Vienna that remembered Johannes Brahms well. For some years Geiringer served as librarian of the prestigious Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, of which Brahms had been artistic director and to which he had bequeathed his large music collection. Having immigrated to the United States in 1940, Geiringer played an important role in establishing historical musicology as a discipline of this country and, as a university professor, imparted his knowledge and passion for the Austro-German musical tradition to several generations of students. His insightful books and writings enlightened an even broader readership.

The present volume, edited by George S. Bozarth, brings together essays, articles, and program notes on Brahms written by Karl Geiringer between 1933 and his death. As such in constitutes a companion volume to Geiringer's classic "life and works" study of Brahms, co-authored with his first wife, Irene. The research has been updated and provided with context through footnotes and editorial postscripts. The articles in German have been translated into English and letters to and from Brahms that Geiringer published only in English translation have had their original German texts added.

In these nineteen chapters we may experience Brahms's conflicted personality, see him studying the music of the past, gain insight into his symphonic works and concertos and encounter him through the eyes of young female admirers. We can read his private communications from his family and from such figures as Dvor(ák and Wagner, the singer George Henschel, and music historians George Grove, C. F. Pohl, and Friedrich Chrysander. And we may chart the course of his last days.

The volume opens with remarks by Bernice Geiringer, his second wife, and essays by Brahms specialists Walter Frisch and the editor.


About the Editor

George Bozarth is professor of musicology at the University of Washington and the founding executive director of the American Brahms Society. A distinguished Brahms scholar, he has recently completed a new edition of George Henschel's memoirs of Brahms and their correspondence.

Sisällysluettelo:

Preface
Introduction
Geiringer and Brahms
Abbreviations

PART 1 - Essays and Articles on Brahms
1 Brahms the Ambivalent
2 Brahms the Collector of Books and Music
3 Brahms the Music Historian
4 Brahms the Reader of Literature, History, and Philosophy
5 Schumann's Last Years
6 The Picture Book of the Ettlinger Sisters
On the Youthful Years of Hermann Levi and His Friends
Johannes Brahms and Julius Allgeyer
7 Brahms the Symphonist
8 Brahms, Joachim, and the Two String Concertos
9 The Final Days

PART 2 - Correspondence with Brahms
10 The Brahms Family
11 Carl Ferdinand Pohl
12 George Grove
13 Eusebius Mandyczewski
14 Friedrich Chrysander
15 George Henschel
16 Antonín Dvorák
17 Richard Wagner

PART 3 - Editions of Music

18 Brahms's Performance Arrangements of "Es ist genug"
19 The Ophelia Lieder

Index of Compositions
Index of Names