Academic festival overture

The Academic Festival Overture in C minor, Op. 80 is an overture by Johannes Brahms . It was written in Bad Ischl in the summer of 1880 , at the same time as the Tragic Overture in D minor, Op. 81 . The occasion for the composition of the festival overture was the award of an honorary doctorate to Brahms by the University of Breslau in 1879. The world premiere took place on January 4, 1881 under Brahms' direction in Breslau . Compared to the Tragic Overture , the Academic Festival Overture gained more popularity.

On September 6, 1880, Brahms wrote to his publisher Fritz Simrock: “… I recommend that you have the Academic set for military music. That attracts me even if I only knew more about it ... «( It must have been a lack of specialist knowledge of the realities of military music that prevented many composers from doing so. Johannes Brahms was at least as honest as to admit this. ) In any case, an edition was published for this line-up, created by the Breslau military bandmaster A. Reindel; which was only published in 1889. (see: Foreword to the Eulenburg score EE 4562)

To the music

Notes from the Gaudeamus igitur

The line-up consists of 1 piccolo , 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 1 contrabassoon , 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , 1 tuba , 3 timpani in G, C and D, percussion ( bass drum , cymbals , Triangle ) and strings .

The overture uses quotes from the following student songs in counterpoint :

• We had built a stately house (or I surrendered ) - the song about the dissolution of the original fraternity (in the score bar 64ff.)
• Everything is silent (Listen, I'll sing the song of songs) - a phrase from the country's father song (in the score, bars 129ff. And bars 314ff.)
• Fuchsenritt (What comes there from the height) - the fox song , popularly also known as Ein Schneider caught 'ne Maus (in the score, bars 157ff.)
• Gaudeamus igitur as Maestoso finale (in the score bar 379ff.)

Brahms himself compared the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture when he once said, "one laughs, the other cries".

literature

• Renate Ulm : Johannes Brahms, The symphonic work. Bärenreiter, ISBN 3-7618-2111-5 .
• Bernhard Waritschlager: Academic Festival Overture for Orchestra in C minor, Op. 80. In: Johannes Brahms. Interpretations of his works , Vol. 2, ed. v. Claus Bockmaier and Siegfried Mauser , Laaber 2013, ISBN 978-3-89007-445-0 , pp. 574-579.

Web links

• Academic Festival Overture : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project