Brahms and His Poets: A Handbook by Natasha Loges (review)

Generally, the standard interpretation of the art songs of Johannes Brahms emphasizes their broad emotional content rather than their poetic details. If scholars and performers take the view, however, that poets and composers necessarily play equal roles in the creation of song, they need to know more about Brahms's poets. Natasha Loges explains that Brahms "must have glimpsed a trace of gold in each poem he set, otherwise this extremely exacting composer would not have bothered" (p. 2). Through his published solo songs, Brahms set the poetry of forty-six poets. Loges designed Brahms and His Poets: A Handbook to illuminate Brahms's relationship to each poet as well as to explore their wider context by providing information on their biographies and contemporary reception. A study of this kind is certainly needed, as most previous literature is either outdated or excludes Brahms's settings and chosen poets from the conversation; this impressive volume fills a noticeable gap.

Loges's inspiration came from two passages extracted from Die Litteratur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts in ihren Hauptströmungen (6 vols. [Leipzig: Veit, 1883–1901]), the German-language version of Hovedstrømninger i det 19. aarhundredes literatur [Main currents in nineteenth century literature] by Danish scholar Georg Brandes (1842–1927), who made marginal notes in the volumes from his own library. The two passages highlight "the sense of a boundless, woven texture of a collective societal consciousness on the one hand, and a poet's individuality on the other" (p. 4). Loges addresses some minor poets more thoroughly than those who are better known, as she fills gaps identified along the way with raw biography. She organizes the poets in alphabetical order, which sets aside issues of chronology and groupings by theme or opus number. Notably, Loges includes poetry that Brahms used for solo song settings only, not ensemble or choral writing, although there is some overlap, and the individual entries make note of these other works.

Loges introduces her handbook with three sections, titled "Brahms the Reader," "Song Poetry in Society," and "Brahms the Friend." Even Brahms's contemporaries and composition students recognized him as "a passionate, knowledgeable and iconoclastic bibliophile who approached song composition more seriously than most of his contemporaries," making it that much more surprising that other scholars have not already fully explored this topic (p. 6). In the mid-1850s, Brahms met Bettina von Armin, a romantic icon in salon culture; Loges writes that "exposure to her household brought Brahms close to the literary values cherished by that circle, and this is evident in the way Brahms's library evolved" (p. 10).

As is well known, Brahms had a lifelong fascination with classical poets like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, but their poems were more effective in large choral-orchestra works such as Schicksalslied, op. 54, Nänie, op. 82, and Gesang der Parzen, op. 89. However, "Brahms's interest in solo song led him precisely to those poets … who shared the values and imitated the techniques [Goethe and Schiller] had favoured, and who were dismissed as epigonal" (p. 12). Brahms also became interested in realist poetry while still focusing on poets who "exemplified the ideal of Bildung, the all-around cultural education which was interwoven through the upper-middle and middle classes" (p. 13).

The next section further introduces how song poetry fit into society. Loges describes the environment for these poets, their commercial popularity, their poetry marketed to women, and the political contexts. Throughout the volume she emphasizes the interwoven nature of the social environment, for example: "Collegial literary societies had significant implications for how poetry was created and received; they also resulted in huge networks of like-minded friends and colleagues, much as Brahms himself cultivated" (p. 14). Loges acknowledges the impact of commercial popularity, as lyric translations of poetry in other languages formed the most common type of anthology and appeared, for example, in Robert...