Late in October 1880, a twenty-two-year-old Viennese musician was travelling by train from his home city to take up a post as a choirmaster in Mühlhausen. As an organist Hans Rott had completed with distinction his course of studies with Anton Bruckner at the Vienna Conservatory, but he had found it difficult to establish himself in Vienna as a composer and so had been forced, much against his wishes, to seek employment elsewhere. During the journey to Mühlhausen something snapped; a fellow passenger tried to light a cigar, only to be forcibly restrained by Rott brandishing a revolver and saying that Brahms had filled the train with dynamite.