Verdi knew.
Strauss knew, but he had lapses.
Beethoven knew, but he was more concerned with other things.
Wolf knew, but he wasn't letting anyone else in on it.
Tchaikovsky knew, but set out to prove he didn't.
Milhaud didn't know.
Honegger didn't have the foggiest.
Mozart had the idea, but he didn't live very long.
Berg knew, but that didn't have anything to do with it.
Puccini knew, and milked it for all it was worth.
Gilbert and Sullivan didn't know, and milked it for all it wasn't worth.
Gershwin caught on finally.
Britten took someone else's word for it.
Schoenberg didn't know, but he gets credit anyway.
Stravinsky didn't know, but he didn't let that stop him.
Rossini didn't know, and didn't care.
Chopin knew, but it upset him.
Wagner knew, but not a fraction of what he thought he knew.
Schumann knew that Clara knew that Brahms knew.
Bernstein was trying like mad to find out.
It's unclear if Debussy knew or not.
Bach knew, but it was too early to do anything about it.
Liszt didn't know, but he made a lot of money anyway.
Menotti didn't know anyone ever knew.
Some people find it hard to believe that Bartok knew.
Mahler knew, and look what it did to him.
Schubert knew all along, but it never got out of Vienna.
Berlioz didn't know, but he orchestrated it loudly.
Bellini didn't know, but he made it difficult to sing.
Prokofiev had to hide it from the Kremlin.
Bruckner didn't know, but wrote it over and over.
Andy Haydn tried and tried and tried.
But it was Brahms who really knew.
I love this. I've saved it since undergraduate school (I think) because I so agree with it. Brahms definitely knew. My only comment - Debussy didn't know. I do not know the author.
I don't know but wish I did. Can you give us a clue? This puzzle is like an earworm melody! Help!
ReplyDeleteCan someone please explain the meaning of this? What did Brahms know???
ReplyDeleteIt is simply a funny commentary concerning various composers; its basically someone's opinion. If you are a musician you are probably familiar with the music of all of these composers. Every composer has his or her own style and and if you listen to an entire music work you can probably figure out who wrote it. Many musicians love Brahms. I used to sing professionally and personally, I'd take any Brahms composition over anything any of these others wrote. The lines are great, the harmonies are beautiful, and when you come together as a group of musicians, you know what others are hearing will knock their socks off. The little quips about the other composers make sense if you know a little about their music or their lives. For example, Wagner wrote operatic works that are grand in any sense of the word, but he was known to be incredibly arrogant. Mozart was an composer beyond his time but died young. One wonders what he would have written had he lived longer. Bach's works are amazing but he lived before intricate harmonies were used so although his music is heavy on the notes and is wonderful, just imagine what he could have composed had he lived a little after Beethoven expanded harmonies. One of my favorite works to sing was written by Mahler, but it is somewhat moody and dark. Mahler's life was awash with deaths in his family, including a young daughter. He also had lots of health problems and had a great deal of difficulty because he was Jewish and lived in Austria. All of these things are reflected in his music. Some composers were able to write brilliant works...the knew, but many still had quirks with their music. But Brahms is at the pinnacle of composers. His works are absolutely brilliant. Brahms knew.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking for this for years. Don't know the author, either, but one of my best friends has this on a poster in her college dorm room. Love it.
ReplyDelete