Selig Sindt

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Or perhaps I should say, “selig sindt, die da leid tragen,”since it is, after, the German Requiem of Johannes Brahms that I’m now listening to.

There’s nothing like it, from the moment the piece starts, with a thudding repeated noted from the string basses—perfectly evoking the muffled feet of the horses carrying the coffin through the streets. Then it all seem to be about the middle voices—the cellos, the violas stringing out those long lines. There’s nothing rushed here, nothing stretched out, either. Brahms knew about mourning—his mother had died shortly before he started the work in 1865 (he was to finish in 1869—and at 80 minutes or so, it’s Brahm’s longest work). Brahms had been affected as well by the slow mental decline of Robert Schumann and his death in five or ten years before.  

And it’s a work devoted not to the soul of the departed, but to the comfort of those who have stayed behind. Yes, much of the work is hued with sadness, but Brahms lets it build and build, and eventually the music climaxes into some of the most sublime music you’ll ever hear. Consider what Brahms did with the word Freude—Joy—in the first movement. Anybody who knows the music is waiting for it—anyone hearing it for the first time is stunned.

The text has nothing liturgical about it—Brahms threw out the standard Latin mass, and selected the text himself. And the music is so spacious that you barely notice that the text is minimal. Think of it as meditation on a few simple words. A good idea—there’s not much to say about mourning. But here is the text for the seven movements of the work.

Movement 1

Blessed are they who bear suffering

They that sow tears shall reap in joy

Blessed are they who bear suffering.

Movement 2

For all flesh, it is as grass

Thus be patient

For all flesh, it is as grass

But the Lord’s word remains forever

The ransomed of the Lord shall return

Joy, eternal joy!

Movement 3

Lord, teach me,

Ah, how in vain

Is my hope in you.

The souls of the righteous are in the hands of the God

Movement 4

How lovely are thy dwellings

Movement 5

You now have sadness

I will comfort you

Look at me

I will comfort you

You now have sadness

I will comfort you

Movement 6

For here we have no lasting

Behold I tell you a mystery

The trumpet shall sound

Then shall be fulfilled

Death is swallowed up in victory

Lord, you are worthy

Movement 7

Blessed are the dead

Yea, the spirit speaks that they rest

Blessed are the dead

Opinion on the Requiem has always been mixed. The premiere was marred by the kettle drum playing loudly when it should have been softly, and vice versa. (That’s what you get for messy handwriting, Johannes!) It was later well received, and established or re-established  Brahms as a major composer. Wagner hated it, of course, and that’s a point in its favor. Later writers and critics condemned it as “academic” with “long, empty passages.”

Well, it’s expansive, but long empty passages?

It may be how you feel about Brahms in general. You’ll have to walk a long way indeed to find anyone averse to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart, but I could shake down a Brahms-hater in the next musical block.

To me, this is ravishing music—the fullest exploration of grief possible.