Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/466

* BBAHMS. 412 BRAILLE. into them. His are the most modern songs— and are now the dominant people. Both phys- more modern even than those of Schumann or ically and linKuistieally they are said,^ =V |!?"^^ Franz. Brahms, iu setting a poem to music, seelvs the matter ~ ' "" to interpret the emotional significance of the work as"a whole. This emotional trend of the words he embodies in liis vocal melody. A Brahms song is not a realistic expression of ev- ery passing mood, that is reHected in the poet's lines. It is meant to be the musical expression of the thought or feeling out of which the poem grew, and so includes the lesser moods in the greater as it develops toward its climax. Here we have an illustration of Brahms's power of concentration. The inter-relation between the vocal melody and the accompaniment is absolute. The latter "rarely carries the melody, but is closely interknit "with it harmonically. There is one great characteristic of Brahms which no student of his songs can fail to appre- s still obscure, to be related to the Dravidian tribes of India. The Brahui profess the Sunnite creed of Islam with native additions and modifications. Physically they are well built, thickset, short in stature as compared with the tall Balucliis, and have round faces, with brown hair and beards. Some of these traits may be due to their mountain environment. They are altogether a most interesting primitive people. An account of the Brahui is given in Bellew, Indus to Euphrates (London, 1871). BRAID, James (c.1705-18GO). An English physician : born in Fife, Scotland. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, and settled as a surgeon in Manchester. He is especially noted for his researches on the subject of animal magnetism, for which he originallv used tlu^ term neuro- ciate. His climaxes are musical in the strictest hypnotism, later shortened into the term hypno- sense. Take, for instance, "Hie hist du, mcinc tism. He read a paper at the meeting of the- Konigin — perhaps the most frequently sung of British Association in JIanchester on June 29, "' " ■ ' ' " 1842, entitled Practical Essay on the Curative- Agency of Xeurohypnotism, and in 1843 he pub- his Licder. The climax is reached on the very last word of the poem — the exclamation B"on»!e- voll! It is thrice repeated. Brahms produces, on the third repetition, a climax neither loud nor strenuous, but deep and moving; and this emotional wrench is not due to a massing of chords, nor to uprushing runs, but to a simple ])rolongation of a plirase by one bar, and a de- scending sweep of the voice. For the piano Brahms has composed two con- certos, several sets of variations, and shorter pieces, among them the series from Op. lltillD, which preceded the Serious Songs, his last work. Modern piano music usually echoes Chopin and Liszt. Brahms, however, was gifted with genius enough to enable him to work independently of those two great masters. Brahms not only never attempted to compose an opera, but did "not care for opera as an art- form. He rarely visited the theatre, and more rarely sat through an entire operatic perform- ance." Not infrequently, after the first act, he would remark to his companion, "You know I lished his work Keurypnology ; or, the liationale of Xercous Sleep considered in relation to Ani- vial Magnetism. See Hypnotism. BRAID'ISII. See Hypnotism. BRAID'WOOD, Thomas (1715-1806). An early and successful Scottish teacher of deaf unites. He first started his school in 1700 in Edinburgh, but in 1783 removed to Hackney, near London. His method was not allowed to be- known outside his own family for many years, consequently his family enjoyed a monopoly, teaching it after his deat'li. He used the Hcinicke system principally, "reading from the lip," giv- ing prominence to attempts at articulation. A little work, called Yo-v Osculis Subjecta, pub- lished by an American, Green, whose son was educated there, gives a good idea of the school in Edinburgh. BRAIL (OF. hraicl, a breech-girdle, cincture, from Lat. hracce, breeches). A rope fitted to understand nothing about the theatre," and a fore-and-aft sail for the purpose of hauling it would then rise and leave. So far as he can be in to the mast when taking it in (the reverse of said to have had anv preference at all among setting, or spreading it). Brails are usually modern operas, his favorite was Bizet's Carmen, fitted in pairs and lead from the after bolt-rope As a man, he had an aversion to marriage; as of the sail to small blocks or dead-eyes on the a composer, to opera: and he classed them to- mats and thence down to the deck. To 'brail gethcr. "Toward marriage," he once said, "my "P' '» to haul the sail close in to the mast ready position is the same as toward opera. If I had for furling. already composed an opera and, for all I care, BRAILA, bra'e-la, BRAILOV, brii'e-lAv, or Been it fail, I should certainly compose another. IBRAIL, e-bra'el. A town of liumania, in But I cannot make up my mind to a first opera allachia, situated on the left bank of the Dan- or a first marriage." ubc, about 102 miles northeast of Bucharest. It Brahms died in Vienna, April 3, 1897. Until contains a number of churclies and synagogues, overtaken by the disease which proved fatal, he enjoyed rugged health. It was said of him that he" "made foot-tours like a student, and slept like a child." He appears also to have been a child of nature in social intercourse; which gave rise to the anecdote of his parting remark at a musical soiree in Vienna: "I beg the company's pardon if I have neglected to offend anybody this evening." Consult: Deiters, lirnhms, a Biographical Sketch, translated by Rosa Newmarch (London, 1838) ; Dietrich and Widmann, Recollections of Johannes Brahms, translated by Dora E. Heclet (London, 1899). BRAHUI, brS-hoS'^. The aboriginal popula- tion who preceded the Baluchis in Baluchistan, but is of little architectural interest. Braila is a place of great commerciiil imiiortance, being the centre of the grain export trade of Wallachia. .fter 1774 it was converted into a strong fortress by the Turks, but wa,s unable to withstand the U'ussians in 1828. It has ceased to be a fortress, Galatz liaving supi)lanted it. Population, in 1899, ;")8,392, including a number of Greeks and Bulgarians. BRAILLE, bri'y', Louis (1809-52). A French teacher of the blind, who himself was blind from his third year. He was l>orn at Coupvray, and in 181t) went to the Institute for the Blind in Paris, as a foundling. He l)ecame a teacher there in 1828, and in 1829 devised his point system of