Description
Extremely rare AMQS on an off-white 7 x 4.25 card, signed boldly at the bottom in black ink, "Johannes Brahms, Wien, Mai 91." Brahms pens seven bars of brisk music from a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 'Deutscher Parnass,' with Brahms adding the German lyrics below: "Doch was hor ich? Welch ein Schall uberbraust den Wasserfall, sauste heftig durch den Hain?" The translation: 'But what do I hear? What a sound. Are you not overwhelming the waterfall? Rushing through the grove?' In fine condition. Brahms contributed this musical quotation to a spring festival hosted by the 'Freie Buhne Berlin' in May 1891, at which autographs of various artists were to be auctioned. Of all the German literary giants, Brahms appreciated most the poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, long thought the greatest of his generation. In discussing the perfection of Goethe's work, Brahms wrote, 'Schubert's Suleika songs are to me the only instances where the power and beauty of Goethe's words have been enhanced by the music. All other of Goethe's poems seem to me so perfect in themselves that no music can improve them.'
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