The death of Johannes Brahms, on the third of last month, removes from the musical world another prominent figure.
Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833, at Hamburg, where his father was contrabassist in the orchestra; from him he received his first instructions and then studied under Eduard Marxden.
Schumann’s warm praise of the young man in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik attracted general attention, and he thenceforward advanced slowly but surely on the road to fame. For some years Brahms was director at Lippe Detmold, and then devoted himself to study of the old masters in Hamburg, and in 1862 went to Vienna, which became his second home, for although he left it for the period between 1864 and 1869, he found no place that he liked so well.
From 1871 to 1874 he directed the Society concerts till they were resumed by Herbeck. After a short sojourn in Heidelberg he returned to Vienna in 1878. He received in 1877 the title of Doctor from the University of Cambridge, and in 1881 from the University of Breslau. In 1886 he was made a Knight of the order Pour le Merite by the Prussian Government, and Member of the Berlin Academy, while in 1889 Hamburg made him an honorary citizen.
The hopeless condition of the author had been announced some time before the end came, the fatal disease being cancer of the liver.
