Johannes Brahms in film and popular culture

As with all of the celebrated composers of classical music, Johannes Brahms and his works have appeared widely in film and popular culture. The following is a list of such appearances.

Perhaps the most famous use of a music piece by Brahms can be seen and heard in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) where he shaves a man to the sound of Brahms' Hungarian Dances.

Brahms figures prominently in the 1947 fictionalized biography Song of Love, which focuses mainly on the love story of Clara and Robert Schumann. In the movie, Brahms is played by Robert Walker, Clara by Katharine Hepburn, and Robert by Paul Henreid.

The sound track to Douglas Sirk's 1955 film All That Heaven Allows, starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, features prominent motives from Brahms' 1st Symphony.

In Anatole Litvak's Goodbye Again (1961), based on Françoise Sagan's novel Aimez-vous Brahms?, the Brahms motives are from the 1st Symphony (Più andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio), and the 3rd (Poco allegretto).

In the cartoon strip Peanuts, Schroeder was originally intended by Charles Schulz to idolize Johannes Brahms, but was changed to Ludwig van Beethoven because his name "sounded funnier".

Claude Chabrol's film Que la bête meure (1969) begins with the sound of Brahms's "Four Serious Songs" (Op.121) as a car drives though the countryside, on its way to an accident.

Yes (band) remade one of Brahm's songs and called it Cans and Brahms for their album Fragile (Yes album).

The Star Trek: Original Series episode "Requiem for Methuselah" tells the story of an immortal man named "Flint" (born in the year 3834 BCE), one of whose 19th-century identities was the historical figure Johannes Brahms. Brahms' musical knowledge and expertise are explained as the result of centuries of artistic study; and during the episode Mr. Spock sits at a piano and sight-reads a new and original waltz written by Flint. Spock later identifies the work as "definitely late Brahms". (In reality, the simple piece of 'library music' used has no Brahmsian characteristics). The character of Flint/Brahms was played by actor James Daly.

The famous "Brahms' Lullaby" (composed for voice and piano as "Wiegenlied", Op. 49 No. 4, 1868) appears repeatedly in cartoons and elsewhere as an emblem for sleep.

In the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, Basil listens to Brahms and Sybil refers to the music as "that racket". Cue Basil: "Racket? That's Brahms! Brahms' third racket!"

In Mel Brooks's parody film, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Count Dracula and Mina Murray dance to Brahms' Hungarian Dance #5 in a scence where Dracula's identity is revealed.

Brahms' and Tchaikovsky's ghosts appear as recurring characters in the comic strip Leonard and Larry.[1]

[edit] See also

Missed one: a Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies episode.