Tragedy and comedy masks, Scarbrough Hotel, Bishopgate, Leeds

Johannes Brahms composed only two concert overtures, Tragic Overture and Academic Festival Overture. And he composed both of in the summer of 1880. Describing them to a friend, he wrote, “One weeps, the other laughs.”

He composed the laughing piece in gratitude for receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Breslau. He chose to compose the weeping piece at the same time, saying, “I simply could not refuse my melancholy nature the satisfaction of composing an overture for tragedy.”

By 1880, Brahms had given up on receiving an official appointment as music director. Nevertheless, he was internationally famous and financially well off. He made his living from presenting concerts and from the royalties from his published compositions. The concerts occupied his winters, and he had little time for composition. So he spent most of his summers composing, usually somewhere other than Vienna.

He chose to spend the summer of 1880 at one of his favorite resorts, Bad Ischl. Unusually stormy weather made it impossible for him to take long daily walks, but it certainly gave him plenty of time to compose.

Sketches for much of the material in Tragic Overturewere found with drafts of Liebeslieder Waltzes and Alto Rhapsody, composed in the late 1860s. He had abandoned whatever he intended at the time. Like many other composers, Brahms found a new use for old ideas.

Brahms and his time

Johannes Brahms / photo by C. Brasch, 1889

Brahms had become the leader of the musicians opposed to the “New German School” associated with Liszt and Wagner. The latter believed, among other things, that music ought to ally itself with literature and express a program.

In composing Tragic Overture, Brahms had no particular tragedy in mind. That hasn’t kept critics from suggesting he was angling for a commission to compose incidental music for Goethe’s Faust or that he had been influenced by Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. For that matter, he loved the tragedies of Sophocles and Shakespeare.

But if he had taken inspiration from a literary source, it probably would have been reflected in the title. And it would have seemed to his ideological supporters like a defection to the Liszt school. Besides, Nietzche had dedicated his book to Wagner.

In fact, Brahms had no clear preference for the title of his weeping overture. He told conductor Bernhard Scholtz that either dramatic or tragic would be a suitable title.

Eduard Hanslick, the principal critical voice of the Brahms school, wrote that music couldn’t express anything but itself. It could suggest feelings and impressions but not tell a story. Music expressed itself in form, and Beethoven represented the pinnacle of formal achievement. Therefore, Tragic Overture represents “absolute music” with no literary associations.

Tragic Overture

A bust of Johannes Brahms in the palace gardens in Detmold. Brahms lived and worked in this small town for a couple of years.

Tragic Overture is a sonata form in D minor. If Brahms had planned to write a symphony, the overture would have made a suitable first movement. Since the time of Haydn, sonata forms frequently started with a slow introduction. Tragic Overturefollows the example of Beethoven’s EroicaSymphonyby starting with two heavy chords instead.

Sonata forms in minor typically move to the relative major for the second theme. In this case, the relief of F major doesn’t last long. Unlike most sonata-form movements, Tragic Overturehas three main theme groups. The short development slows down to half the speed of the rest of the piece. In the recapitulation, the three themes appear in reverse order. The color of low brass lends to the dark emotional mood of the piece.

Tragic literature or drama often centers on interpersonal conflict and includes moments of violence—especially in the death of one or more characters. The emotion in Tragic Overturemore nearly portrays a stifling loneliness.

Hans Richter conducted the premiere of Tragic Overture in Vienna on December 20, 1880. The audience greeted it with little enthusiasm. Eight days later it was paired with the premiere of Academic Festival Overture in Breslau, with Brahms himself conducting. There, the Tragic Overtureaffected the audience so deeply that some critics complained that it detracted from the gaiety of its fraternal twin.

Photo credits:

Tragedy and comedy masks. Some rights reserved by The Tim Green
Brahms portrait. Public domain from Wikimedia Commons
Brahms bust. Some rights reserved by Bernd Sieker