Brahms the Romantic

German 19th century composer Johannes Brahms is perhaps best known for his orchestral and chamber music, but he was also a prolific writer of vocal works. This week, Donald Macleod focuses his attention on music for the voice in all its guises, including some of Brahms's unjustly neglected folksongs, lieder, vocal quartets and choral works.
As a young man, Brahms, like many of his contemporaries, fell under the spell of Romanticism and all the heady literature that erupted in that era. In those formative years, he had the opportunity to work with two choirs which enabled him not only to hone his conducting skills, but to develop his craft as a composer. During this time he produced a stream of choral works including three a cappella part-songs full of romantic images; a group of colourful choral songs for the unusual combination of women's voices, two horns and a harp and, at the other emotional extreme, an intense funeral song with dark-hued accompaniment from wind and timpani.