Brahms's a German Requiem: Reconsidering Its Biblical, Historical, and Musical Contexts

Examines in detail the contexts of Brahms's masterpiece and demonstrates that, contrary to recent consensus, it was performed and received as an inherently Christian work during the composer's life.

Despite its entirely biblical text, Brahms's long-beloved A German Requiem is now widely considered a work in which the composer espoused a theologically universal view. R. Allen Lott's comprehensive reconsideration of the work's various contexts challenges that prevailing interpretation and demonstrates that in its early years the Requiem was regarded as a traditional Christian work.

Brahms's "A German Requiem" systematically documents, for the first time, the early performance history and critical reception of this masterful work. A German Requiem was effortlessly incorporated into traditional Christian observances, and reviews of these performances and other appraisals by respected critics and scholars consistently deemed that the work possessed not only a Christian perspective, but a specifically Protestant one.

A discussion of the musical traditions used by Brahms demonstrates how the work is imbued with the language of Lutheran church music through references to chorales and through allusions to preceding masterworks by Schütz, Bach, Mendelssohn, and others.

Lott also offers an insightful exegesis of the Bible verses that Brahms selected. Altogether, this richly detailed study leads to a thorough reappraisal of Brahms's masterpiece.