PAN PIPES
Winter 2019
23
By Jayne I. Hanlin
In
his 1853 article New Paths,
Robert Schumann introduced
the twenty-year-old Johannes
Brahms (1833-1897) to the world.
Years later, Brahms visited the widowed Clara
Schumann and her family in Baden-Baden, Ger-
many. For nine years thereaer, the composer
spent from May to October in this Black Forest
town.
Fortunately, about a half century ago, the
Brahms Society purchased his 1850 hilltop
building, Lichtental No. 8, before its scheduled
demolition. In Brahms House, now a museum,
the composer wrote his first and second sym-
phonies, chamber music (a piano quintet and a
string sextet), part of his German Requiem, and
a lullaby for Clara's birthday.
e view outside this dwelling is almost the
same as Brahms enjoyed. Inside are the original
floors and windows, as well as an oven. Resi-
dents shared a bathroom. In the once communal
kitchen are exhibits, including a plaster mold of
Clara Schumann's hand and a ring from Felix
Visit https://brahms-baden-baden.de/ for more information.
Mendelssohn to Clara with his hair woven in the
band. e furnishings in the former living room,
the Blue Room, include a piano, a red chaise
lounge, a table, chairs, and a bookcase.
is retreat is the only preserved residence
inhabited by this composer who Schumann
thought would be his musical heir. Today one
can soak up the beauty of the area's natural sur-
roundings that Brahms so loved because the
exterior and interior of the flat still look as they
did when he resided there between 1865-1874.
What a bargain for only two euros!
A
World
of
Music
