Брамстың «Немецтік реквиемі»: Қайғыдан құдайылық жұбатуға дейін

Work by Johannes Brahms

A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures, Op. 45 (Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift) by Johannes Brahms, is a large scale work for chorus, orchestra, and soprano and baritone soloists, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work both Brahms's longest composition and largest ensemble work. A German Requiem is sacred but non liturgical, and unlike a long tradition of the Latin Requiem, A German Requiem, as its title states, is a Requiem in the German language.

Brahms's mother died in February 1865, a loss that caused him much grief and may well have inspired Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms's lingering feelings over Robert Schumann's death in July 1856 may also have been a motivation, though his reticence about such matters makes this uncertain. His original conception was for a work of six movements; according to their eventual places in the final version, these were movements I–IV and VI–VII. By the end of April 1865, Brahms had completed the first, second, and fourth movements. The second movement used some previously abandoned musical material written in 1854, the year of Schumann's mental collapse and attempted suicide, and of Brahms's move to Düsseldorf to assist Clara Schumann and her young children. Johann Herbeck conducted the first three movements in Vienna on 1 December 1867. This partial premiere went poorly due to a misunderstanding in the timpanist's score. Sections marked as (loud, then soft) were played as (loud) or (very loud), essentially drowning out the rest of the ensemble in the fugal section of the third movement. The first performance of the six movements premiered in the Bremen Cathedral six months later on Good Friday, 10 April 1868, with Brahms conducting and Julius Stockhausen as the baritone soloist. Although the Requiem Mass in the Roman Catholic liturgy begins with prayers for the dead ("Grant them eternal rest, O Lord"), A German Requiem focuses on the living, beginning with the text "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." from the Beatitudes. This theme—transition from anxiety to comfort—recurs in all the following movements except movements IV and VII, the central one and the final one. Although the idea of the Lord is the source of the comfort, the sympathetic humanism persists through the work. Brahms prepared an alternative version of the full seven movement work to be performed with piano duet accompaniment, making it an acceptable substitute accompaniment for choir and soloists in circumstances where a full orchestra is unavailable. The vocal parts can also be omitted, suggesting that it was also intended as a self contained version probably for at home use. The alternative version was used, sung in English, for the first complete British performance of the Requiem on 10 July 1871 at 35 Wimpole Street, London, the home of Sir Henry Thompson and his wife, the pianist Kate Loder (Lady Thompson). The pianists were Kate Loder and Cipriani Potter. This piano duet accompaniment version of the Requiem has become known as the "London Version" (Londoner Fassung). An arrangement of the first movement for concert band by Barbara Buehlman, under the title "Blessed Are They", has been a standard part of that ensemble's literature for many years.

A German Requiem inspired the titles of Jorge Luis Borges' 1949 short story "Deutsches Requiem" and Philip Kerr's 1991 novel A German Requiem. The start of the piece's second movement, "Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras" ("For all flesh, is as grass"), is used in the opening credits of the BBC documentary film series The Nazis: A Warning from History, with various sections of this part of the movement being used for the closing credits.