Max Kalbeck’s Album

The friendship album in which Brahms’s biographer Max Kalbeck collected signatures, poems, music excerpts, and drawings between 1873 and 1901 was purchased at auction in December 2020 by Ronald G. Franklin of Houston, Texas. Mr. Franklin has generously provided scans of the album for our website, so that the album’s contents may be widely available. They are posted here, together with transcriptions, translations, and commentary by Albrecht Gaub, and an article by Henrike Rost that views Kalbeck’s album against the backdrop of traditions and practices relating to friendship albums. The numbering of the scans reflects the numbering of the entries in Dr. Gaub’s document. The ABS expresses heartfelt thanks to Mr. Franklin and to Drs. Gaub and Rost for this welcome collaboration.

Viewers may download images from the gallery for study, publication, or other purposes; no further permission is needed. In crediting an image, please include the words “Collection of Ronald G. Franklin, Houston, TX,” followed by the appropriate url on this website.

Henrike Rost, “‘Into the circle of illustrious spirits, masters of words and music’: Max Kalbeck’s Stammbuch (1873–1901) ,” The American Brahms Society Newsletter 39, no. 2 (Fall 2021): 1–8 (PDF). Includes a table of entries in the album.

Max Kalbeck’s Album, Transcriptions, Translations, and Commentary by Albrecht Gaub (PDF)

The entries are displayed in the gallery below. To explore them together with the transcriptions, you can download the PDF and click the entry listings to see the images, or use these directions to open dual windows:

• Use this link to open the transcriptions on the left half of your screen
• and this one to open the gallery on the right side of your screen
• then resize and adjust to your liking