Brahms, Johannes

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Johannes Brahms, - natal chart (Placidus)
Johannes Brahms,
natal chart (Placidus)
natal chart English style (Equal houses)
natal chart with Whole Sign houses
Name
Brahms, Johannes Gender: M
born on 7 May 1833 at 03:30 (= 03:30 AM )
Place Hamburg, Germany, 53n33, 9e59
Timezone LMT m9e59 (is local mean time)
Data source
Quoted BC/BR
Rodden Rating AA
Collector: Rodden
Astrology data s_su.18.gif s_taucol.18.gif 16°16' s_mo.18.gif s_sagcol.18.gif 24°13 Asc.s_aricol.18.gif 18°41'
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Johannes Brahms

Biography

German musician, a composer, pianist and conductor whose compositions of every type of music, except opera, are still played. Brahms is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Brahms was the son of a seamstress, lame and homely, 17 years older than her husband, who lavished affection upon the boy. With a strong attachment to her until her death in 1865, Brahms cried out over her grave, "I no longer have a mother. I must marry!" His father was a double bass player who literally eked out a living playing in a cafe near Hamburg. At one time his dad tried raising chickens and rabbits, at another time, attempted business in a small shop; he even considered emigrating to America. Jakob Brahms instilled in his son a desire for bourgeois respectability and comfort, but also a restless independence. Adept as a youngster, the boy first played piano professionally at 13 in taverns near the Hamburg docks where sailors just in from long voyages came to bed down with the ladies of the town. Always courteous to prostitutes, who found him an eager if awkward lover, his caustic side was more likely to surface with society women. He like to do all the courting; if a woman showed initiative, he put her off. Though he had at least seven major, unconsummated relationships with respectable women, he slept only with prostitutes.

As a child prodigy, Brahms performed a piano concert at age 15 and gained fame during his lifetime. Even when famous, Brahms lived modestly, dressed with economy and took pride in spending little on his food. He had no extravagant tastes and even in his passion for collecting original manuscripts of great masters, observed a frugal budget. Nonetheless he loved good food and drink, and when dining with friends, enjoyed a more liberal palate.

Gruff, acerbic and orderly, he never married. He had so pedantic a love of order that he boasted that he could find anything instantly, even in the dark, of his books or his work. This acute organization stopped short at his own person. He was always hopelessly rumpled in ill fitting garments, perhaps held together with a large safety pin in places. His clothes were always in disarray whether in his closet on his body. As he matured, he cultivated a great, untidy gray beard.

His letters to his publisher show remarkable commercial astuteness, and he insisted on being paid enormous fees for his works. As conscientious as he was about his income, once in hand, he was careless about its management. Whole bundles of bank notes lay uncounted in his closet and he seldom if ever checked his bank balance. Though passionate and precise about his music, positions of conductor that were offered to him were regarded with indifference or evasion.

In his youth, Brahms declared that he could not marry and have a family as he had no money or position. However, even when he had both, marriage was not in his lexicon. He was not a misogynist as he paid homage to the fair sex by unconditional worship. He felt himself in love frequently, especially fascinated by a beautiful voice, but feeling that love would be returned, always avoided the decisive step. His solitude, privacy and independence were more important.

His closest approach to romance seems to have been his circumspect relationship, largely by correspondence, with Clara Shumann, the wife and later widow of Robert Shumann, one of Brahms earliest sponsors. He met the 14-year-older Clara when he was a handsome youth of 20, in September 1853. She was famed for her beauty and charm, the mother of seven children and deeply in love with her husband. When he played, she admired him profusely, calling him "a charming little man" to her sister. By the following year they were writing warm and encouraging letters to each other, filled with tenderness and care.

He was actually rather crusty and sharp-tongued. Once, before leaving a group of associates, he remarked, "If there is anyone here whom I've not insulted, I beg his pardon." When complimented upon the resemblance of one theme to that of another excellent passage, he told a fan, "Any ass can see that."

Two totally different sides may be seen in Brahms character, irony and reserve, coupled with genuine kindness and a readiness to help. He revered beauty, and was personally uncouth. He was a musical genius with an intense intellectual life, but he had aversions to ties of all kinds that would infringe upon his own self interests.

Brahms health began to decline in May 1896. Shocked by the death of his beloved Clara Schumann on 20 May, he was further upset by missing the funeral when he took the wrong train in error. He caught a chill at the cemetery from which he never quite recovered, though it was cancer of the liver that ultimately caused his death. The old bachelor took to his bed on 25 March 1897 under the devoted care of his housekeeper, Celestine Truxa, in his Vienna lodgings for the quarter century. All day on 2 April he lay unconscious. Early on the following morning, he turned over and two great tears rolled down his jaundiced cheeks. When he died at 10:30 AM, the burly figure had become a thin old man.

Link to Wikipedia biography

Relationships

  • has other family relationship with Annot (born 27 December 1894). Notes: Godfather

Events

  • Relationship : Meet a significant person September 1853 (Clara Schumann)
    chart Placidus Equal_H.
  • Death of Mother 1865 (Beloved mother died)
  • Health : Medical diagnosis May 1896 (Health began to fail)
    chart Placidus Equal_H.
  • Death of Significant person 20 May 1896 (Beloved Clara died)
    chart Placidus Equal_H.
  • Death by Disease 3 April 1897 in Vienna (Cancer of the liver or pancreas, age 63)
    chart Placidus Equal_H.

Source Notes

Barbault quotes Hans Ritter for an old parochial register. Kraum gave the same data in "Astrol Rundschau," NAJ, 7/1935. Andre Barbault in personal correspondence with LMR May 2001 confirms the data from Ritter.

(Formerly, Lyndoe had 3:40 AM in AA, 1/1968. Robert Jansky had 4:00 PM. Sabian Symbols No.124 has 3:41 AM)

Sy Scholfield quotes the catalogue "Johannes Brahms: The Man and His Work" (Kurt Hofmann et al, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 1980), p. 7: "Excerpt from the baptismal records of St. Michaelis in Hamburg from the year 1833 PHOTOGRAPH The birth of Johannes Brahms on May 7th at 3:30 am is recorded under number 494. He was baptized on May 26, 1833."

Categories

  • Traits : Body : Other body (Rumpled, untidy in person)
  • Traits : Mind : Child prodigy (Piano)
  • Diagnoses : Major Diseases : Cancer (Liver)
  • Family : Childhood : Family extraordinarily supportive (Adored by his mother)
  • Family : Relationship : Married late/never (Never married)
  • Family : Relationship : Other relationship (Subject to unrequited loves)
  • Passions : Sexuality : Fetishism (Slept only with prostitutes)
  • Vocation : Entertainment : Child performer (Piano, age 13)
  • Vocation : Entertain/Music : Composer/ Arranger (Musical genius)
  • Vocation : Entertain/Music : Instrumentalist (Piano)
  • Notable : Famous : Top 5% of Profession
  • Notable : Book Collection : American Book
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