From its first performance in Vienna in 1867, Johannes Brahms' German Requiem has been the subject of critical debate, often polemical, controversial, and even contradictory. Even the conditions surrounding the composer's choice of the Requiem form have sparked numerous debates ranging from historical and personal motivating factors to Brahms' own religious beliefs and intentions. 从1867年的维也纳首演开始，勃拉姆斯的《德意志安魂曲》就一直饱受争议，批评家对它争论不休，有时甚至互相矛盾。作曲家在选择安魂曲的形式时深受周围环境的影响，这些环境因素也成为无休无止的争论的导火索，这些争论包括来自历史和自身的启发，以及勃拉姆斯本人的宗教信仰和动机。On a musical level, the text has been praised, attacked, accepted, and reevaluated in a circular, cyclical progression: from the early debates between Brahms' and Wagner's respective supporters to the newfound acclaim from Schoenberg and other modern theorists, the only element of the Requiem's reception that has remained in any way constant is its continued popularity in concert performances.在音乐层面上，安魂曲的歌词也受到了赞赏、批评、接受和持续不断的重新评价：从当年勃拉姆斯和瓦格纳各自的粉丝之间的纷争直到当今的勋伯格和其他理论家的褒奖，唯一不变的是《安魂曲》在音乐会上所受到的喜爱经久不衰。
Certain key issues, most notably Brahms' use of traditional compositional elements and the enigmatic religious debates surrounding his choice of texts, can be seen to be the motivating factors throughout the reception of the work and to the present day. By examining these and other factors in greater detail, we can arrive at an appraisal of the Requiem's sometimes puzzling historical and musicological position.有些主要问题可以看作是《安魂曲》至今仍然广受欢迎的原因，其中最引人注目的是勃拉姆斯对传统作曲原理的运用和歌词的选择，后者引起了令人费解的宗教方面的争议。仔细分析这些问题有助于我们理解时常让人困扰的《安魂曲》在历史上和音乐上的地位。As with any such musical masterpiece, much study has been devoted to reconstructing the process by which Brahms came to produce the German Requiem. It appears, by all accounts, that the idea for the piece was already well-conceived by April of 1865, when Brahms mentioned his plans in several letters to Clara Schumann.正像任何一部杰出的音乐作品，人们做了大量的研究工作，试图重现勃拉姆斯创作《德意志安魂曲》的过程。大家似乎一致认为1865年四月份勃拉姆斯已经胸有成竹，当时他在写给克拉拉.舒曼的好几封信里都提到了这部作品。
He avoided particular details, but seemed to have the basic structure of the work clearly in mind, and he had apparently already decided on the individual texts (taken from the Luther Bible) as well. 尽管没有提供太多细节，但是作品的雏形已经了然于心，而且歌词（来自路德版的圣经）也已经定了下来。The writing of the Requiem began intensively in February of 1866, and the bulk of the piece -- movements 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 -- was complete by August of the same year. The next few months, through December of 1866, brought revisions and minor changes, which were also discussed with several of his correspondents, among them Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim. 《安魂曲》的紧张创作开始于1866年二月，同年八月份完成了主要的部分—第一、二、三、四和第六乐章。接下来的几个月，一直到1866年十二月，勃拉姆斯在信里和包括克拉拉·舒曼和约瑟夫.约阿希姆（Joseph Joachim）在内的几个人进行了讨论，然后做了修订和细微的修改。
The first two performances of the work, in Vienna and Bremen in 1867-8, led to further revisions of the existing movements [1] and the final addition of the fifth movement, written from April to June of 1868 and performed in a private concert in September.1867和1868年之间在维也纳和不来梅（Bremen）举行了头两场演出之后，然后又做了进一步的修改，并且于1868年四月到六月之间增写了第五乐章，同年九月在一个私人音乐会上进行了演出。The motivations for Brahms' composition are a complicating factor in the work's production history. Early critics, among them Max Kalbeck, Brahms' first biographer, insisted that the idea for a Requiem mass was inspired by the death of the composer's mother, in 1865.勃拉姆斯的创作动机使作品的历史随着时间的推移日益复杂。早期的评论家，其中包括勃拉姆斯的第一位传记作者，马克思.卡尔贝克（Max Kalbeck），坚持认为安魂曲弥撒的创作是因为作曲家的母亲于1865年去世。
This date does coincide with the letters written to Clara Schumann, and Brahms does in fact mention that his work was spurred on by the memory of his mother; in addition, the textual excerpts from the Luther Bible refer to a motherly comfort which consoles those whom the dead have left behind: 'ich will euch trösten, wie einen seine Mutter tröstet.' 这个日期的确和写给克拉拉·舒曼的信吻合，勃拉姆斯确实提到对母亲的回忆萌发了这部作品的创作；另外，来自路德圣经的话语饱含了母爱的关怀，籍慰着那些未亡之人：“母亲怎样安慰儿子，我就照样安慰你们。”Later critics, however, have also noted that Brahms was greatly affected by the death of his friend and benefactor Robert Schumann, and had considered, within months after Schumann's death in 1856, composing some sort of musical memorial to him. 然而，后来的评论家却认为1856年舒曼去世对勃拉姆斯影响深远。罗伯特.舒曼生前是勃拉姆斯的好朋友，并且曾经对他音乐事业鼎力相助。舒曼去世后没过几个月，勃拉姆斯就开始考虑创作一些纪念作品。
Undoubtedly, as Musgrave has concluded, 'it seems unlikely that there was only one personal influence on the Requiem,' and that both his mother's and Schumann's death were for Brahms 'a stimulus to the completion of existing ideas, rather than the source of them.'毫无疑问，就像马斯格雷夫（Musgrave）总结的那样，“《安魂曲》似乎并不是只受到一个人的影响，”母亲和舒曼的去世“并不是《安魂曲》的起因，而是促使勃拉姆斯完成了已有的计划。”Indeed, on numerous later occasions Brahms was heard to insist that his Requiem was intended for all humanity, despite (or indeed because of) its title; its innate themes of melancholy and consolation are applicable to any number of occasions. Not surprisingly, some critics have searched for other possible motivating factors for the Requiem, often with quite surprising results: Erb, as cited in Evans, even claims that the Franco-Prussian War, ending in 1866, also played a role in Brahms' choice.确实如此，人们后来很多次听到勃拉姆斯坚称，虽然（或者说因为是）名叫《德意志安魂曲》，但他的《安魂曲》属于全人类；它本身浸透了悲哀和安慰的主题适用于任何场合。毫不奇怪，有些评论家试图发现《安魂曲》的其它创作动机，发现的结果却令人吃惊：正像埃文斯所说，厄尔布甚至宣称1866年结束的普法战争也或多或少对勃拉姆斯的决定有所影响。[4] Clearly, we cannot determine with certainty whether any one event became the impetus for the work's creation, although many separate issues can be found to connect with the Requiem's textual and musical message.显而易见，尽管很多毫不相干的因素可以和《安魂曲》的歌词和音乐联系起来，但是我们无法确定其中的任何一个可以作为创作这部作品的推动力。
