Johannes Brahms and the Train: Musings on Musicians and Steam 393 The second train event occurred at the time of Clara Schumann’s death, 20.5.1896. Marie Schumann sent Brahms a telegram in Wien the same day, saying » Our mother fell gently asleep today « . What she didn’t know was that Brahms was at that time in Bad Ischl. Brahms’s housekeeper Frau Truxa, not realizing what the telegram contained, forwarded it to Bad Ischl by mail. When Brahms received it two days later, Brahms had only an hour to get on the train for Frankfurt, where he assumed the funeral service would be held. Exhausted, he decided to nap on the train and asked the conductor to wake him at Attnang, where he had to catch his connection. The conductor forgot and Brahms work up to find himself speeding east, in the wrong direction. He was forced to wait all night in the Linz station for the next train. Finally after a full day’s travel he got to Frankfurt, only to find that the funeral was in Bonn, where Clara would be buried beside her husband Robert. After a nightmare journey of over forty hours he arrived nearly prostrate in Bonn the next day. They had delayed the funeral, waiting for him, but when he arrived the procession to the grave was underway.50 Using the Österreichische Bundes-bahnen trip planner at <www.oebb.at> , a trip using the same routing as Brahms took would now take between 10—16 hours. Once again, we see how train travel has shrunk distances over time. The Nineteenth Century was a time of rapid change and all levels of society were affected. Musicians and composers like Brahms had opportunities open up for them. Their lives were made easier, as they carried out activities that they could only have done before in a complex logistical manner, or under significant physical hardship. European civilization in the Nineteenth Century was vigorous at virtually every level, and advances in basic research were accompanied by an amazing technological vitality. Applications of knowledge wrought basic changes in the level of popular culture 51 and the appearance of the railroad, for one, received an enthusiastic reception. The steam train in the Romantic Age was not simply a means of transportation, but the symbol of speed, modern technology, press, and culture. Take, for example, Hungarian national poet Sandor Petőfi. On 15.7.1846, Hungary opened its first long steam railroad (40 kms.) between Pest and Vác. Petőfi rode on the line, and was inspired to write the following occasional poem:Railroads by the hundreds, by the score!Keep building more and more!Cover the world with railways As the earth is covered with veins.2010, based on CPI. Calculated on Samuel H. Williamson: Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to present, 2011, <http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/result.php?use%5B%5D=DOLLAR&year_ source=1871&amount=1&year_ result=2010>, 27.6.2011; Pricing on <www.bahn.de> for one-way Second Class ticket on this route is 172,20 – 190,80 € = $223.86 – 248.04 USD in 2010 values. According to <www.oanda.com> on 28.7.2010, 1 € = $ 1.30 USD. 50 Kalbeck, Max: Johannes Brahms. IV. Zweiter Halbband. 1891–1897, (1914; reprint edition 1976) as re-ported in Swafford: p. 612 (see Note 20).51 Brison D. Gooch: Europe in the Nineteenth Century. A History, New York, London 1970, p. 341, 377.