From “A German Requiem” to “Hungarian Dances”: His ambitious compositions made Johannes Brahms a leading personality on the international music scene. He was not only known as a composer, but also as a pianist and conductor. Some even called him the “legitimate successor of Ludwig van Beethoven”.

Brahms was born in Hamburg on May 7, 1833. To mark his birthday, Google is honoring the influential German composer with a special doodle that shows his musical roles in three short animations.

Composer, conductor, pianist: That was Johannes Brahms.

Brahms is first seen as a young man and composer working on a new work. Already in his youth Brahms played music in numerous dance halls and inns in Hamburg and composed his first piece before he was discovered in 1853 by the famous composer Robert Schumann.

In the second animation, Brahms appears as a conductor on the main stage. In 1860 he became the conductor of a women’s choir in Hamburg for the first time. Later he led a choral society in Vienna and developed other compositions such as the string sextet in B flat major. His popular works eventually earned him a position as conductor at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.

Finally, the doodle shows an older Brahms as a pianist. However, after his successes with Ein deutsches Requiem, published in 1868 – his most famous choral work – and the Hungarian Dances, which made his debut in 1869, Brahms increasingly concentrated on his compositions. He died in Vienna in 1897 at the age of 63. But his work still has an impact on modern musicians.

The Google search engine repeatedly uses the logo on the start page, called Doodle, to inform its users of commemorations, anniversaries, special people or events. Oddly enough, the Doodle on May 7, 2023 has no sound. In earlier animations by musicians, Google had stored musical samples.

RND/bk