The genius of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) touched many fields and he was great in every field that he entered--orchestral, pianoforte, chamber, song and choral. Several of his choral works, notably the _Deutsches Requiem_, the _Schicksalslied_ and the _Triumphlied_, are among the great things of choral literature and enjoy undisputed popularity. Even those that are modest in dimensions are equally serious with the larger ones in conception and in treatment and spring from the deep places of the composer’s soul. In all of them, as in his symphonies, he reached a point of sublimity that had seldom been touched, if at all, since Beethoven. All of his published compositions between his opus 40 and opus 60, with two exceptions, were vocal works, songs or choral. The ‘Requiem’ was opus 45 and his period of greatest activity as a writer of choral works followed soon after. Of these only ‘Rinaldo,’ the first one written after the ‘Requiem,’ can really be called a cantata; the others partake more of the character of the ode or the choral ballad. They are _Rhapsodie_, founded on fragments from Goethe’s _Harzreise_ for alto solo, male chorus and orchestra; _Schicksalslied_ (‘Song of Destiny’) for chorus and orchestra; _Triumphlied_ (‘Song of Triumph’) for eight-part chorus and orchestra; _Naenie_ for chorus and orchestra and _Gesang der Parzen_ (‘Song of the Fates’) for six-part chorus and orchestra, the last two of which were later compositions in the form of short choral ballads like the _Schicksalslied_. He wrote liberally in forms approximating the part-song. In many of the early _Marienlieder_, male choruses and mixed choruses, he adopts the form of the simple harmonized melody, while in others, as the two motets, opus 29, he is the direct descendant of Bach, the contrapuntist. In some of his little known _a cappella_ choruses, as the lovely _Vineta_ from his opus 42 and two from his opus 104, he produces strange and wonderful effects through a masterly handling of harmonic changes and melodic interweavings.