Text extracted from opening pages of book: DR, KAR '-> LL BRAHMS
AT THE AGE OF TWENTY, BY LAURENS ( 1853) TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER
PREFACE Is a new biography of Brahms really necessary? Have not
enough books been written on the master's life? These questions
will be asked by many who hear of this new publication. The answer
can only be: Undoubtedly, the number of first-rate books on Brahms
is considerable; but so many hitherto unknown documents relating to
Brahms, as man and as artist, have recently come to light, that a
new work seems not only justified, but really essential. A unique
body of material, until now inaccessible to other investigators,
has been placed at my disposal. It consists of over a thousand
letters received by Brahms from all sorts of correspondents. In
accordance with an agreement between Brahms's heirs, they were
handed over to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, and
there kept under official seal. As Custodian of this collection, I
was authorized to be the first - to read and use them for the
purpose of my book. The bulk of the letters are from Brahms's
mother, father, brother, and sister. They are supplemented by
letters from a large number of eminent persons, among them some of
Brahms's intimate friends; for example: Eugen d'Albert, Adolf
Brodsky, Daniela von Bulow, Fried rich Chrysander, Peter Cornelius,
Anton Dvorak, John Farmer, Benjamin Godard, Edouard Grieg, Sir
George Grove, Sir George Henschel, Ferdinand Hiller, Hermann
Kretzschmar, Franz Liszt, Adolf Menzel, Arthur Nikisch, Gustav
Nottebohm, C. F. Pohl, Anton Rubinstein, Robert Schumann, Richard
Strauss, Karl Tausig, Mathilde Wesen donck. From this valuable
source new and interestingdocuments are available for almost every
period of the master's life. Important supplements to these are:
the letters from Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim to Brahms's
parents; a particularly interesting letter from Brahms to Amalie
Joachim; numerous letters from Brahms to Hans von Billow; and
Brahms's correspondence with J. Allgeyer, A* I0 BRAHMS: HIS LIFE
AND WORK which is in the possession of the Viennese Municipal
Library, and has been made available by the courtesy of Professor
Alfred Orel. Unknown as yet in the English Brahms litera ture is
the correspondence between Brahms and Eusebius Mandyczewski, the
former librarian of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde ( published
by me in 1933), Brahms 's correspondence with Theodor Billroth (
recently published by Dr. Gottlieb-Billroth), and also the master's
letters to his Hamburg relatives ( which were published in 1933 by
Stephenson). With reference to the master's works, I was once more
enabled to draw upon extensive material, which, though of the
highest importance, had remained almost unnoticed in former
biographies of Brahms. This material consists of the composer's
sketches, also preserved by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde ( the
heir to his artistic legacy), which are exceptionally rare, as he
generally destroyed all his first drafts. In addition to this there
are the manuscripts, which were thoroughly studied, as they give
valuable indications of the changes which many compositions
underwent between their first conception and their publication. The
c' Gesell schaft der Musikfreunde possesses also Brahms's own
collection of single copies of each of his published compo sitions,
in which he noted corrections and alterations forpossible further
editions, throwing light on his later attitude to his works. Taken
as a whole, this material illustrates the different phases in the
process of composition, and gives one a profound insight into the
master's mode, of working. In the musical chapters I have not
arranged the composi tions under the Opus numbers referring to the
year of publication the mo
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