Letter of Brahms to Karl Reinthaler (October 2, 1867)
I have learned from Joachim that you are in possession of my "German Requiem." Might I ask you to have it brought back to me right away . . . . I can't help remarking that it is somewhat embarrassing to me for my work to be known to you. It still bears such bad traces of fleetingness and hurried writing, that it can only be shown to good musicians that I count among my closest friends. . . . Nevertheless it would now be a great joy to me if you would like to tell me briefly or at length your honest opinion of the work . . . .
Reinthaler to Brahms (October 5, 1867)
Enclosed I am sending you back a treasure in your German Requiem . . . ; it has touched me in my deepest soul. For a performance here it seems to me the beautiful cathedral is the only suitable place, and this winter we have only Good Friday free, unless we were to make a special concert. Therefore I examined your "Requiem" and, forgive me, the thought occurred to me that an expansion of the work might be possible, which would bring it closer to a Good Friday performance. It seems to me an expansion of this sort is called for by the idea of the work itself. On the other hand, the work as it now is possesses an exclusive musical unity . . . .
My thought was this: In the work you come close to the perimeter not only of the religious, but even to the thoroughly Christian. Already the second number touches the prophecy of the second coming of the Lord, and in the next to last the mystery of the resurrection of the dead, "that not all sleep," is dealt with in detail. But from a Christian perspective it lacks the point around which everything rotates, namely the saving death of the Lord. "If Christ is not risen, your faith is vain [1 Corinthians 15:17]," says Paul in connection with that passage you dealt with. But now perhaps at the place, "Death where is they sting?" etc., a point might be found -- either in the movement itself shortly before the fugue or through the creation of a new movement. Anyway you say in the last movement, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth," -- in other words, only since Christ has finished the work of salvation.
You show yourself so knowledgeable about the Bible in the way you put the texts together, that you certainly will find the correct words . . . .
Brahms to Reinthaler (October 9, 1867)
. . . Concerning the text, I want to admit that I would gladly give up the "German" [in the title] and simply put "human" [Menschen] -- also with full knowledge and consent go without passages like John 3:16. Yet I have now probably taken quite a lot, because I am a musician, because I could use it, because I cannot dispute or cross out a "henceforth" from my honorable poets.
Source: translated from Johannes Brahms, Briefwechsel vol. 3, 2nd ed., ed. Wilhelm Altmann (Berlin: Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1912; reprinted Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1974) 7-12.