Brahms wrote two overtures in the summer of 1880 at Ischl--the _Academic_ and the _Tragic_. They come between the Symphony in D major and that in F major in the list of his orchestral works. It is said by Heuberger that Brahms wrote two "Academic Festival overtures"; so he must have destroyed one of them. When the _Academic_ was first played at Breslau, the rector and Senate and members of the Philosophical faculty sat in the front seats at the performance, and the composer conducted his work. Brahms was not a university man, but he had known with Joachim the joyous life of students at Göttingen--at the university made famous by Canning's poem:
_Whene'er with haggard eyes I view This dungeon that I'm rotting in, I think of those companions true who studied with me at the U- niversity of Göttingen-- niversity of Göttingen_;
--the university satirized so bitterly by Heine.
Brahms wrote to Bernard Scholz that the title '_Academic_' did not please him. Scholz suggested that it was "cursedly academic and boresome," and suggested _Viadrina_, for that was the poetical name of the Breslau University. Brahms spoke flippantly of this overture in the fall of 1880 to Max Kalbeck. He described it as a "very jolly potpourri on students' songs à la Suppé"; and, when Kalbeck asked him ironically if he had used the "Foxsong," he answered contentedly, "Yes, indeed." Kalbeck was startled, and said he could not think of such academic homage to the "leathery Herr Rektor," whereupon Brahms duly replied, "That is also wholly unnecessary."
The first of the student songs to be introduced is Binzer's "Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus" (We had built a stately house, and trusted in God therein through bad weather, storm, and horror). The first measures are given out by the trumpets with a peculiarly stately effect. The melody of "Der Landesvater" is given to the second violins. And then for the first time is there any deliberate attempt to portray the jollity of university life. The "Fuchslied" (Freshman Song) is introduced suddenly by two bassoons. There are hearers undoubtedly who remember the singing of this song in Longfellow's "Hyperion"; how the freshman entered the _Kneipe_, and was asked with ironical courtesy concerning the health of the leathery _Herr Papa_ who reads in Cicero. Similar impertinent questions were asked concerning the _Frau Mama_ and the _Mamsell Soeur_; and then the struggle of the freshman with the first pipe of tobacco was described in song. "Gaudeamus igitur," the melody that is familiar to students of all lands, serves as the _finale_.