Brahms was Chilean

436px-Johannes_Brahms_1853

To honor Brahms’s 180th birthday, let’s recall the article about his birthplace that ignited a musicological firestorm!

In “Brahms era chileno” (Pauta: Cuadernos de teoría y crítica musical, no. 63 [July-Sept 1997] pp. 39–44), the Argentine composer Juan María Solare states that Johann Jakob Brahms (1806–72), accompanied by his wife, Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen (1789–1865), took part in a tour of South America as a performer in the orchestra of the Alsterpavillon in Hamburg, and that Johanna gave birth to Johannes Brahms in the village of Copiapó, northern Chile, on 6 February 1833.

He further states that the birth is documented in a letter that Johanna wrote to her sister in Hamburg, but which was lost and eventually ended up in the archive of an obscure village in Patagonia, where it can still be seen; the birth was concealed from German society, and Brahms was baptized under a false place and date of birth upon his parents’ return to Germany.

Later, in an interview, Solare clarified his intention: He wrote the article as a piece of speculative fiction, a type of writing that Pauta sometimes publishes; but since the journal also presents peer-reviewed research, the piece was mistaken for authentic musicology, generating widespread controversy among Brahms scholars.

BONUS: Brahms was from New Orleans:

More posts about Brahms are here.

5 Comments

Filed under Curiosities, Humor, Romantic era

5 Responses to Brahms was Chilean

  1. Yes, I still remember that… it was great – but the musicologists had been wrongly informed by the press; only one (Constantin Floros, whom I’ve admired long BEFORE that episode) really had a scientific approach to the issue.
    Have a nice day – Juan María Solare

  2. Reblogged this on LaDona's Music Studio and commented:
    An amusing post (from a few weeks ago) about a journal article that caused an uproar in the musicological community.

  3. Pingback: Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op.115 | ListenToGoodMusic

  4. Pingback: Brahms and Breitkopf | Bibliolore

  5. Pingback: Johannes Brahms, railfan | Bibliolore