Brahms chose the title "Tragic" to emphasize the turbulent, tormented character of the piece, in essence a free-standing symphonic movement, in contrast to the mirthful ebullience of a companion piece he wrote the same year, the Academic Festival Overture. Despite its name, the Tragic Overture does not follow any specific dramatic program. Brahms summed up the effective difference in character between the two overtures when he declared "one laughs while the other cries." Brahms quotes some material from the last movement of the Second Symphony in this overture.[citation needed]
Date of composition | 1880 |
Premiered | 1880, December 26th in Vienna, Austria |
First published | 1881, N.Simrock in Berlin, Germany |
Type | Overture |
Tonality | D Minor |
Catalogue | Op. 81 |
Instruments | Orchestra |
Autotranslations beta |
Johannes Brahms: Tragic Overture en ré mineur, Op. 81 Johannes Brahms: Tragic Overture in re minore, Op. 81 Johannes Brahms: Tragic Overture d-moll, Op. 81 |