Johannes Brahms on Music Theory Print

A German Requiem (Brahms)

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History#

Brahms’s mother died in February 1865, a loss that caused him much grief and may well have inspired Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms’s lingering feelings over Robert Schumann’s death in July 1856 may also have been a motivation, though his reticence about such matters makes this uncertain. His original conception was for a work of six movements; according to their eventual places in the final version, these were movements I–IV and VI–VII. By the end of April 1865, Brahms had completed the first, second, and fourth movements. The second movement used some previously abandoned musical material written in 1854, the year of Schumann’s mental collapse and attempted suicide, and of Brahms’s move to Düsseldorf to assist Clara Schumann and her young children. Johann Herbeck conducted the first three movements in Vienna on 1 December 1867. This partial premiere went poorly due to a misunderstanding in the timpanist’s score. Sections marked as (loud, then soft) were played as (loud) or (very loud), essentially drowning out the rest of the ensemble in the fugal section of the third movement. The first performance of the six movements premiered in the Bremen Cathedral six months later on Good Friday, 10 April 1868, with Brahms conducting and Julius Stockhausen as the baritone soloist. The performance was a great success and marked a turning point in Brahms’s career. In May 1868 Brahms composed an additional movement, which became the fifth movement within the final work. The new movement, which was scored for soprano soloist and choir, was first sung in Zürich on 12 September 1868 by Ida Suter-Weber, with Friedrich Hegar conducting the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. The final, seven-movement version of A German Requiem was premiered in Leipzig on 18 February 1869 with Carl Reinecke conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chorus, and soloists Emilie Bellingrath-Wagner and Franz Krückl.

Academic Festival Overture

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Background#

Initially, Brahms had contented himself with sending a simple handwritten note of acknowledgment to the university, since he loathed the public fanfare of celebrity. However, the conductor Bernhard Scholz, who had nominated him for the degree, convinced him that protocol required him to make a grander gesture of gratitude. The university expected nothing less than a musical offering from the composer. “Compose a fine symphony for us!” he wrote to Brahms. “But well orchestrated, old boy, not too uniformly thick!”

Alto Rhapsody

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Recordings#

The Alto Rhapsody is not frequently performed in concert, perhaps because of the expense of hiring a soloist and chorus for a short piece, but it has been recorded many times both by contralto and mezzo-soprano singers. A selection of recordings available as of 2012 illustrates the wide range of tempi adopted by different interpreters of the Rhapsody, with playing duration ranging from 11 minutes 15 seconds to 16 minutes 10 seconds.

Ballades, Op. 10 (Brahms)

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Music#

Brahms’s ballades are arranged in two pairs of two, the members of each pair being in parallel keys. The first ballade was inspired by a Scottish poem “Edward” found in a collection Voices of the Peoples in Their Songs compiled by Johann Gottfried Herder. It is also one of the best examples of Brahms’s bardic or Ossianic style; its open fifths, octaves, and simple triadic harmonies are supposed to evoke the sense of a mythological past. # D minor. Andante # D major. Andante # B minor. Intermezzo. Allegro # B major. Andante con moto The tonal center of each ballade conveys an interconnectedness between the four pieces: the first three each include the key signature of the ballade that follows it somewhere as a tonal center, and the fourth ends in the key signature of D major/B minor despite cadencing in B major. Brahms returned to the wordless ballade form in writing the third of the Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118. His Op. 75 vocal duets titled “Ballads and Romances” include a setting of the poem “Edward”—the same that inspired Op. 10, No. 1.

Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet

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Background and production#

Arnold Schoenberg’s orchestration of Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 premiered in 1937. The ballet is plotless and has four movements, titled Allegro, Intermezzo, Andante and Rondo Alla Zingarese. In 1985, two years after Balanchine died, NYCB switched to a new set designed by David Mitchell, Mark Stanley later redesigned the lighting. On the premiere, The New York Times critic Clive Barnes called the ballet “careful but tedious”. In 2016, the Paris Opera Ballet performed Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet with new sets and costumes by Karl Lagerfeld. The San Francisco Ballet had also performed the ballet.

Cello Sonata No. 1 (Brahms)

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Background#

Brahms composed the first two movements during the summer of 1862, as well as an Adagio which was later deleted. The final movement was composed in 1865. The sonata is entitled “Sonate für Klavier und Violoncello” (for piano and cello) and the piano “should be a partner - often a leading, often a watchful and considerate partner - but it should under no circumstances assume a purely accompanying role”. It is dedicated to Josef Gänsbacher, a singing professor and amateur cellist. In the course of a private performance for an audience of friends, Brahms played so loudly that the worthy Gänsbacher complained that he could not hear his cello at all - “Lucky for you, too”, growled Brahms, and let the piano rage on. It is “a homage to J. S. Bach” and the principal theme of the first movement and of the fugue are based on Contrapunctus 4 and 13 of The Art of Fugue. Brahms performed the sonata in Mannheim in July 1865 and then offered it to Breitkopf & Härtel, who turned it down. He had however also sent the sonata to Simrock describing it, in one of the most mendacious statements made by a major composer about his own work, as “a violoncello sonata which, as far as both instruments are concerned, is certainly not difficult to play”, and they published it in 1866. The work was championed in Europe and London by Robert Hausmann. In gratitude, Brahms dedicated his Second Sonata to Hausmann.

Cello Sonata No. 2 (Brahms)

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Musical description#

There are four movements:

I. Allegro vivace#

The Allegro vivace is a sonata form opening with a fragmented cello theme over a tremolo piano part. Its bipartite exposition somewhat unusually traverses F major, C major, and A minor; Roger Graybill argued that the tonal plan may be read as ultimately returning to F major, given the intricate motivic structure of its voice leading.

II. Adagio affettuoso#

Adagio affettuoso, with the cello part opening in a pizzicato exposition of the main theme over piano chords. The central section is in F minor.

Clarinet Quintet (Brahms)

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Clarinet quintets#

At the time Brahms started composing his Clarinet Quintet, only a few works had been composed for this type of ensemble. Examples of clarinet quintets include those by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anton Reicha, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Sigismund von Neukomm, Carl Maria von Weber, Franz Krommer, Alexander Glazunov, Heinrich Baermann, and Thomas Täglichsbeck. The Brahms quintet shows parallels to the Mozart Quintet, especially in form.

Brahms and Mühlfeld#

Brahms had retired from composing prior to listening to Richard Mühlfeld play. Brahms may have met Mühlfeld already when Hans von Bülow was directing the Meiningen Court Orchestra. But it was Fritz Steinbach, Bülow’s successor, who brought Mühlfeld’s playing to the attention of Brahms in March 1891. Brahms was very enthusiastic about Mühlfeld. That summer at Bad Ischl, he composed the Clarinet Quintet and his Clarinet Trio Op. 114, both of them for Mühlfeld. He later also composed his two Clarinet Sonatas Op. 120.

Clarinet Sonatas (Brahms)

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Background#

By 1890, Brahms vowed to retire from composing, but his promise was short lived. In January 1891 he made a trip to Meiningen for an arts festival and was captivated by performances of Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 and the Mozart Clarinet Quintet. The solo clarinetist was Richard Mühlfeld, and Brahms began a fond friendship with the man whom he so admired. The beautiful tone of “Fräulein Klarinette” (as Brahms would nickname Mühlfeld) inspired him to begin composing again less than a year after he retired. The fruits of their friendship were four remarkable additions to the still modest clarinet repertoire of that time, including the trio in A minor for clarinet, cello and piano Op 114 (1891), the B minor quintet for clarinet and strings, Op. 115 (1891), and two clarinet sonatas. In July 1894, at his Bad Ischl retreat, Brahms completed the sonatas. He wrote to Mühlfeld on August 26, inviting him to Bad Ischl, to perform them, stating cryptically that “it would be splendid if you brought your B clarinet.” As Mühlfeld had other commitments that summer, he delayed responding, but went to Vienna in September to meet Brahms and to acquaint himself with the two sonatas. They were first performed (by Brahms and Mühlfeld) privately for Duke Georg and his family in September of that year. Brahms and Mühlfeld then performed them for Clara Schumann in November 1894, before their public premieres on January 7, 1895. Brahms’ experience in writing his Clarinet Quintet three years earlier led him to compose the sonatas for clarinet and piano because he preferred the sound over that of clarinet with strings. The keys of the sonatas—F minor and E major—correspond to the keys of the two clarinet concertos which Weber composed more than eighty years earlier.

Clarinet Trio (Brahms)

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History#

Brahms composed the Clarinet Trio in the summer of 1891 while staying in Bad Ischl. The work’s composition followed a creative crisis for Brahms, who had grown tired of composing after finishing the difficult revision of his Piano Trio Op. 8. Brahms had even announced to his publisher Fritz Simrock in late 1890 that it was “finally time to quit composing “. However, Brahms’ closer acquaintance with Richard Mühlfeld, the principal clarinettist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, inspired him to dedicate himself to three new chamber music combinations featuring the clarinet between 1891 and 1894. Brahms had likely first met Mühlfeld in October 1881 during a visit to the court of Meiningen, but their closer collaboration developed ten years later. In letters to friends, Brahms raved about Mühlfeld’s playing, writing to Clara Schumann in March 1891: “One cannot play the clarinet more beautifully than Herr Mühlfeld here”. Brahms carried the impressions of his stay in Meiningen with him to his summer holidays in Ischl, and by the end of June, he had completed the first movement of the Clarinet Trio. The composition was finished soon after, and Brahms sent the manuscript to his friend Eusebius Mandyczewski in Vienna, attaching a self-effacing note saying it was “the twin sister of an even bigger folly,” referring to the Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115. After intensive rehearsals and first performances at the court of Meiningen in November 1891 with Mühlfeld, Joseph Joachim, and cellist Robert Hausmann, the Trio was performed in Berlin and Vienna in December. The painter Adolph Menzel attended the Berlin performance on 12 December 1891, with Hausmann on cello and Brahms on piano. Deeply moved by Mühlfeld’s playing, Menzel made a sketch of the clarinetist as a Greek god and told Brahms, “We often think of you here, and often enough, comparing notes, we confess our suspicions that on a certain night the Muse itself appeared in person for the purpose of executing a certain woodwind part. On this page I have tried to capture the sublime vision.” Following these performances, Brahms sent the Trio to Simrock for publication in late December. He insisted that “enough cue notes be added” in the clarinet part and made further corrections after a January 1892 performance in Vienna with Joachim. The Clarinet Trio was ultimately published by Simrock in early March 1892. Although the published title page allowed for a viola to substitute for the clarinet, and Brahms had tried the piece with Joachim on viola during rehearsals, the clarinet was undoubtedly the composer’s first choice. The suggestion of the viola alternative was primarily a marketing decision. The work calls for a clarinet in A to reach the low C prominent in the first movement’s main theme. Mühlfeld’s own clarinet, which still exists, is known for its unusually dark tone and high pitch, just slightly below modern concert pitch.

Die Blümelein, sie schlafen

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Text#

Die Blümelein, sie schlafen schon längst im Mondenschein, sie nicken mit den Köpfen auf ihren Stengelein. Es rüttelt sich der Blütenbaum, er säuselt wie im Traum: Schlafe, schlafe, schlaf du, mein Kindelein! Die Vögelein, sie sangen so süß im Sonnenschein, sie sind zur Ruh gegangen in ihre Nestchen klein. Das Heimchen in dem Ährengrund, es tut allein sich kund: Schlafe, schlafe, schlaf du, mein Kindelein! Sandmännchen kommt geschlichen und guckt durchs Fensterlein, ob irgend noch ein Liebchen nicht mag zu Bette sein. Und wo er nur ein Kindchen fand, streut er ihm in die Augen Sand. Schlafe, schlafe, schlaf du, mein Kindelein! Sandmännchen aus dem Zimmer, es schläft mein Herzchen fein, es ist gar fest verschlossen schon sein Guckäugelein. Es leuchtet morgen mir Willkomm das Äugelein so fromm! Schlafe, schlafe, schlaf du, mein Kindelein! The little flowers are sleeping Already well under the moonlight, They bow their heads On their stems. The flower tree is rustling, It whispers as in a dream: Sleep, sleep, you sleep, my little child. The little birds, they warbled so sweetly in the sun, they have gone to slumber in their little nests. The cricket on the blade of grass, Only he coos softly: Go to sleep, go to sleep, my precious child! The sandman comes creeping and peeks through the window, to see if still a child might not yet be in bed. And where he finds even one child, he scatters the sand in his eyes. Go to sleep, go to sleep, my precious child! The sandman exits from the room, my darling sleeps so well, his eyes are shuttered firmly, quite tightly locked the lids. The welcome dawn illuminates those little eyes so pure! Go to sleep, go to sleep, my precious child!

Double Concerto (Brahms)

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Origin of the work#

The Double Concerto was Brahms’ final work for orchestra. It was composed in the summer of 1887, and first performed on 18 October of that year at the in Cologne. Brahms approached the project with anxiety over writing for instruments that were not his own. He wrote it for the cellist Robert Hausmann, a frequent chamber music collaborator, and his old but estranged friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. The concerto was, in part, a gesture of reconciliation towards Joachim, after their long friendship had ruptured following Joachim’s divorce from his wife Amalie. (Brahms had sided with Amalie in the dispute.) The concerto makes use of the musical motif A–E–F, a permutation of F–A–E, which stood for a personal motto of Joachim, Frei aber einsam (“free but lonely”). Thirty-four years earlier, Brahms had been involved in a collaborative work using the F-A-E motif in tribute to Joachim: the F-A-E Sonata of 1853.

Eleven Chorale Preludes

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Transcriptions#

Preludes 4, 5, and 8–11 were transcribed for solo piano by Ferruccio Busoni in 1902 as BV B 50. These transcriptions have been recorded by Paul Jacobs, Wolf Harden, Lydia Artymiw, Igor Levit, and Samson Tsoy.

External links#

, Robert Pecksmith, 1872 Ladegast organ of St. Jakob, Köthen
, Robert Pecksmith, 1879 Sauer organ of Sankt-Gertraud-Kirche, Frankfurt (Oder)

F-A-E Sonata

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Recordings#

Recordings of the sonata on period instruments includes the following ones: * Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov. Albert Dietrich, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms. Violin Sonatas Op. 100 & 108, F.A.E. Sonata. Label: Harmonia Mundi. * Lisa Marie Landgraf, Tobias Koch. Albert Dietrich, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Joachim, Ferdinand David. Complete Works for Violin and Pianoforte. Label: Genuin. * Sergiu Luca, Brian Connelly. Felix Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Albert Dietrich, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms. Die romantische Violine. Label: Paladino Music. * Annemarie Astrom, Terhi Dostal. Albert Dietrich, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms. F.A.E. Sonata, Two Sonatas Op. 120. Label: NCA. * Gudrun Schaumann, Wolfgang Brunner. Clara Schumann, Albert Dietrich, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Carl Reinecke, Theodor Kirchner. Circle of Robert Schumann 2. Label: Capriccio. Dietrich’s Allegro and Brahms’s Scherzo only * Thomas Albertus Irnberger, Edoardo Torbianelli. Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms. Werke für Violine und Klavier. Label: Gramola. Schumann’s Intermezzo and Brahms’s Scherzo only * Helena Dearing, Ilia Korol, Gert Hecher. Johannes Brahms. Die Leiden des jungen Brahms. Label: Schwechtenstein Records. Brahms’s Scherzo only

Fest- und Gedenksprüche

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History#

Brahms composed the work in response to his recognition by the city of Hamburg as an honorary citizen. He chose biblical verses in the translation of Martin Luther, and began the composition for a mixed double choir a cappella in 1888. He dedicated the work to Carl Petersen, then the mayor of Hamburg. The original titles of the three movements are: The chosen biblical verses, Sprüche or dicta, are concerned with a people (Volk), its national culture, and tradition passed from fathers to sons. The topics matched the recent unification of Germany to an empire (Kaiserreich) in 1871, which led to festivities in the country. Brahms used a double chorus to illustrate both arguments and unification. His setting has been regarded as “an optimistic bulwark against the centrifugal antagonisms that would soon beset the young German nation”. The work was first performed in Hamburg on 9 September 1889 - with the aid of six brassplayers, three in each chorus (for the support of the alto-, tenor- and bass-singers) - for the ceremony of honorary citizenship by the Cäcilienverein, expanded to around 400 singers, conducted by Julius Spengel. The performance was part of the Musikfest in der Hamburgischen Gewerbe- und Industrieausstellung (Music festival in the Hamburg exposition of trades and industry). It was published by Simrock in February 1890. Performances in Germany followed at festivities commemorating the unified Germany.

Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan

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Background and production#

During the Easter holiday in 1921, the 17-year-old Ashton saw a performance of Isadora Duncan at Prince of Wales Theatre, London. Duncan, 44, was in semi-transparent drapes and had badly dyed red hair, though the performance captivated Ashton, and he returned a few more times. One of the dances is set to a Brahms Waltz, with her running forward while strewing rose petals with her hands. Ashton chose to be inspired by the Duncan performances he saw, rather than recreate her choreography, though he replicated some of Duncan’s choreography, including the petal dance at the beginning of the solo. He described, " Seymour had her hands full of petals and as she runs forward the petals streamed behind her." He brought photos of Duncan taken by Arnold Genthe, watercolour paintings by André Dunoyer de Segonzac and Abraham Walkowitz, and a programme from a Duncan performance he had kept to rehearsals. According to Seymour, Ashton drew a peachy-pink line on the programme, as a reminder of the colour of Duncan’s costume. The costume of the ballet included a red wig and transparent pink chiffon dress, similar to what Duncan wore.

Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119 (Brahms)

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Background#

The Four Pieces for Piano were published in 1892 and 1893 along with three other collections of smaller piano pieces: Seven Fantasias Op. 116, Three Intermezzos Op. 117, and Six Pieces for Piano Op. 118. Each of the first three pieces is called an intermezzo, and the last a rhapsody (the German spelling Rhapsodie is also common in English publications). The fact that Brahms originally intended the title ‘Capriccio’ for his earlier Rhapsody, Op. 79, No. 1, suggests that he used such terms rather loosely. ‘Intermezzo’ can be seen as an umbrella term under which Brahms could collect anything which he regarded as neither capricious nor passionate. He completed these pieces during his summer holiday in Bad Ischl, Upper Austria, in 1893, the first intermezzo being written in May and the following three pieces in June. Since Brahms has combined these 20 character pieces in collections, he may have included some earlier compositions, and it is quite possible, although there is no definite proof, that some works—such as the E major rhapsody—may have been conceived before 1892. Two earlier collections of smaller lyric piano pieces, Eight Pieces for Piano Op. 76, and Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79, date from 1871-79 (published 1879 and 1880 respectively).

Fünf Gesänge, Op. 104 (Brahms)

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Songs#

The songs are set for a choir of four to six voices, SATB to SAATBB

Recordings#

NDR Chor, conducted by Günter Jena – Deutsche Grammophon, 1983
Monteverdi Choir, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner – Philips, 1992
Kammerchor Stuttgart, conducted by Frieder Bernius – Sony, 1995
Chamber Choir of Europe, conducted by Nicol Matt – Brilliant, 2003
Cappella Amsterdam, conducted by Daniel Reuss – Harmonia Mundi, 2014

External links#

Fünf Gesänge op.104 (Brahms): Free scores at the Brahms Institut.
Fünf Gesänge op.104 (Brahms): Free MP3s (op. 42, op. 93a, op. 104 and op. 52)
Detailed Listening Guide using the recording by the NDR Chor

Fünf Lieder, Op. 105 (Brahms)

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History#

Brahms recorded in a pocket diary entry written in Thun, Switzerland, in August 1886, that he had set several poems to music, including Klaus Groth’s "" (Like melodies it steals softly through my mind), Hermann Lingg’s "" (Ever quieter grows my slumber), Carl von Lemcke’s "" (Betrayal / I stood in one balmy night) and another song by Paul Flemming, all of them authors from the 19th century. He probably composed the songs with the voice of Hermine Spies in mind, who privately sang some of them for him. Two years later, Brahms offered a group of songs for lower voice to his publisher Simrock, to be his Op. 105, together with a group for high voice as Op. 106. The final grouping and order was achieved in a personal meeting of the composer and the publisher, ultimately adding to Op. 105 a setting of a traditional Lower Rhenish song, "" (Beloved, do not trust) and a poem by Detlev von Liliencron, "" (At the graveyard / “The day was heavy with rain and storms”): # "" (Groth) # "" (Lingg) # "" (traditional) # "" (Liliencron) # "" (Lemcke) The group, as others by Brahms, has been metaphorically described as a “song bouquet”, likening it to flowers “plucked” from different sources and then combined into a whole. The songs were premiered individually, the first song on 11 February 1887 in Vienna, the second at a recital of Amalie Joachim in Berlin on 1 February 1888, the third on 6 March 1888 in Vienna, the fourth on 30 November 1888 there, and the fifth also there on 5 December 1888, in a concert of Olga Segel. Later performances and recordings also often ignored the published grouping, placing individual songs in different contexts. The melodies of some of these songs also make appearances in Brahms’ instrumental works, especially “”, which he had used a few years earlier as a cello solo theme in the third movement of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in B major. Motifs from three of the songs appear in his Violin Sonata No. 2, "" as the second subject of the first movement, and both "" and "" in the final movement.

Geistliches Lied

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Background#

Beginning in March 1856, Brahms and the violinist Joseph Joachim engaged in a weekly “back and forth” trade of contrapuntal studies. Among the works Brahms composed during this exchange was Geistliches Lied, which Brahms sent to Joachim on June 5, 1856 (Jan Swafford dated the piece’s composition to April 1856). Brahms himself wrote to Joachim: “No doubt the canon Geistliches Lied does not especially please you? The interludes are quite terrible? The ‘Amen’ (I mean the word generally) will do; that part pleases me the most.” Joachim approved of Brahms’s work, describing it as “On the whole very beautiful…” However, Joachim criticized the music’s lack of harmony: “But there are many harsh places! For example, in the Amen in question, the tenor, which is beautiful in and of itself, clashes all too harshly with the alto and soprano at the place marked!” The violinist proceeded to accuse Brahms of being more concerned over counterpoint than beauty: “Your ear is so used to rough harmonies, of such polyphonic texture, that you rarely consider the voices just in their mutual clashing—because for you the proper and complementary is always associated right away. But you cannot ask that of the listener, even the most musical; and since all art is meant to inspire collective delight, since that is its holiest virtue, I beg you to think about that.” Ultimately, the only one of these contrapuntal exercises Brahms considered for publishing was the Geistliches Lied, which was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1864 as Brahms’s Op. 30. The work was first performed on July 2, 1865, at St. James’s Church, Chemnitz.

Gesang der Parzen

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External links#

Full score from the International Music Score Library Project
German text and English translation from the LiederNet Archive
Listening Guide by Kelly Dean Hansen

Horn Trio (Brahms)

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The natural horn#

Brahms chose to write the work for natural horn rather than valve horn despite the fact that the valve horn was becoming more common. The timbre of the natural horn is more somber and melancholic than the valve horn and creates a much different mood. Brahms himself believed that the open tones of the natural horn had a fuller quality than those produced by valves. Nineteenth-century listeners associated the sound of the natural horn with nature and the calls of the hunt. Fittingly, Brahms once said that the opening theme of the first movement came to him while he was walking through the woods. Brahms also learned natural horn (as well as piano and cello) as a child, which may be another reason why he chose to write for these instruments following the death of his mother. Notwithstanding Brahms’s love for the sound of the natural horn, he did specify that the horn part could be played by a cello and it was indeed published with a transposed cello part. Much later in 1884 Brahms also reworked the part for viola.

Hungarian Dances (Brahms)

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Background#

Brahms’ Hungarian Dances should be placed in the context of interest in folk music. Both Haydn and Boccherini refer frequently to gypsy music, but in Brahms’ day it was Franz Liszt with his Hungarian rhapsodies who was an inspiration to Brahms, both artistically and financially (despite their differences in musical philosophy). In 1850 Brahms met the Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi and accompanied him in a number of recitals over the next few years. This was his introduction to “gypsy-style” music such as the csárdás, which was later to prove the foundation of his most lucrative and popular compositions, the two sets of Hungarian Dances (published 1869 and 1880). Only numbers 11, 14 and 16 are entirely original compositions. The better-known Hungarian Dances include Nos. 1 and 5, the latter of which was based on the csárdás "" (Memories of Bártfa) by Hungarian composer Béla Kéler, which Brahms mistakenly thought was a traditional folksong. A footnote on the Ludwig-Masters edition of a modern orchestration of Hungarian Dance No. 1 states: “The material for this dance is believed to have come from the Divine Csárdás (ca. 1850) of Hungarian composer and conductor Miska Borzó.”

Initials R.B.M.E.

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Production#

Cranko set Initials R.B.M.E. to Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2. The four had been Cranko’s close friends and muses since their early days at Stuttgart Ballet, and their dancing styles were instrumental in shaping Cranko’s works there. in the order of their appearances in the ballet. The ballet’s costumes and sets were designed by Jürgen Rose. Initials R.B.M.E. premiered on 18 January 1972, at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In his biography on Cranko, dance critic John Percival described the ballet as one of his most successful works. It is also one of Cranko’s final ballets before his sudden death in 1973.

Liebeslieder Waltzes (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External influences#

The discussion of influence as it pertains to Brahms and the Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 52 refers to the inspiration that a composer draws from an admired predecessor, which was commonplace among writers, artists, and composers of the 19th century. To contextualize influence, many relevant theorists will cite Harold Bloom, author of The Anxiety of Influence. According to Hussey, Bloom asserts, “all poets must deal with the anxiety that they feel toward their most admired predecessors. The predecessor, whose work inspired the later poet to pursue literary composition, is now the object of both envy and admiration from the later poet, who fears the precursor has left nothing else to be said”. In other words, composers feel a more urgent need to create original work that equals the merit of those of the preceding tradition. Rosen refers to Brahms as a “master of allusion” to other composers, further arguing that one cannot begin to understand Brahms’s work without an awareness of the contributing influences, which were a “necessary fact of creative life” for the composer. Another reference to Schubert is the “Im ländler tempo” marking in Op. 52, alluding to the Twenty Ländler directly. Furthermore, the date of composition of the Liebeslieder Walzer’s composition suggests that Brahms had completed the editing of the Twenty Ländler before starting his work on his own waltzes. Also, a specific request by Brahms to have each of his movements copied onto a separate sheet of paper demonstrates, to an extent, his uncertainty of how to order such seemingly unrelated pieces. This suggestion reflects a struggle similar to that which he faced in establishing an order for Schubert’s dances. Brahms’s experience in editing Schubert’s Twenty Ländler is important in understanding the ideas of influence relevant to 19th century composers. This experience was merely editorial, as Brahms used his own “compositional and aesthetic preferences” to organize pieces that “Schubert never intended to be performed together” into a coherent order. Due to the initial, unrelated nature of these dances, Brahms was able to extend the work of an admired predecessor by, in a sense, making original work out of those pieces which already existed, therefore reverting the direction of influence from successor back to predecessor. However, as Brahms shifts from editor of the Twenty Ländler to composer of the Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 52, he replicates his editorial behavior by composing eighteen movements that seemed to function autonomously. Brahms ordered them into a whole piece that is a sum of what were, initially, unrelated parts. This behavior, as it relates to the Twenty Ländler and the Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 52, allows Brahms to give what theorist Bloom would believe to be “deeper meaning” to his editorial and compositional work through establishing a clear, influential relationship between the two works through their similarity. In addition, this accomplishes the challenges of originality and creativity that composers faced from their talented predecessors, relieving Bloom’s so-called “anxiety of influence”. Overall, external influence from the Twenty Ländler not only shaped the Liebeslieder Walzer from a compositional perspective, but also added a sense of depth, significance, and credibility to Brahms’s repertoire.

Liebeslieder Walzer (ballet)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure and analysis#

In the first part of Liebeslieder Walzer, which features 18 songs, Following a brief break with the curtains lowered, before returning two by two, in the costumes from the first half of the ballet, Balanchine had remarked that the ballet is about the “changing aspects of love.” All of them are dressed in evening suits and ball gowns, identical to the ones worn by the dancers.

Music#

Liebeslieder Walzer is set to Johannes Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52 and Neue Liebeslieder, Op. 65, Apart from the final song, which is set to poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, all the lyrics are taken from Georg Friedrich Daumer’s poets. Balanchine had said that he “had to do dances set to this music” despite its length.

Nänie

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Poem#

Schiller’s lament is not for a specific person but the death of the abstract “beautiful” (“Das Schöne”). Schiller mentions three episodes from Greek mythology, but again mostly without names, assuming that the reader with knowledge will make the connections. The first episode refers to Orpheus who tries to rescue Eurydice from the underworld, the second refers to Aphrodite’s mourning of her lover Adonis, the third refers to the failed effort of Thetis to save her son Achilles from death.

Neue Liebeslieder

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Musical aspects#

The Neue Liebeslieder differs from the earlier Liebeslieder in that only seven of its 15 songs are for the ensemble quartet, while seven others are solo songs for individual members of the quartet, and one is for a duo. Throughout the quartet songs, Brahms uses innovative techniques to portray a central idea. For example, in the first song, measures 16–21, he depicts the rocky shores by the repeated cry of “zertrümmert”, which in English means “wrecked”. Brahms also enhances the text “Well auf Well” (“wave after wave”) with octave leaps in all four parts in measure 4 and 29. In No. 8, Brahms’s use of the musical rest in the middle of the words mixed with the chorus singing dolce helps to create a gentle atmosphere. The seven solo songs and one duet differ from the quartet songs in that the soloists illustrate different characters who behave in certain ways when it comes to love. The soprano is a female who continuously has no luck when it comes to men; the alto is depicted as a female who has suddenly abandoned her lover; the tenor is portrayed as a male who is selfish and irresponsible when it comes to sexual relationships with women; and the bass is one who is hopelessly in love with his married lover. The final song in this cycle, “Zum Schluß”, written for the entire vocal quartet, moves away from the subject of lovers and puts the spotlight on the muses and thanks them for inspiring not only the author (Goethe), but also all of the artists in the world. With this change in subject comes the change in meter. When Brahms changes the standard meter to , the nine beats are grouped into three groups of three; thus, it is a waltz within a waltz. In addition, “Zum Schluß” has a Baroque influence in two respects: the music is much more contrapuntal than the previous songs in this cycle, and the song is actually a passacaglia, with the theme (F–C–B–A–D–C) running throughout the outer sections. At the climax of this song in measure 16, the piano drops out and the choir sings a cappella and moves from the dominant key back to the tonic key of F major. J. A. Fuller Maitland, in Grove’s Dictionary, wrote: It is self-evident that Zum Schluß, whose text and music are in stark contrast to all of the other waltzes in both Op. 52 and Op. 65, is a personal statement by Brahms, who throughout the troubled relationships in his life (sich Jammer und Glück wechseln in liebender Brust) found solace in music (Linderung kommt einzig, ihr Musen , von euch).

Op. 120, No. 1 (Berio)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

An avant-garde composer, Luciano Berio was also active as an arranger, an example being his Quattro versioni originali della “Ritirata notturna di Madrid”, an arrangement of Luigi Boccherini’s Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid. Op. 120, No. 1 is an arrangement for clarinet and orchestra of Johannes Brahms’s Clarinet Sonata Op. 120, No. 1, and was premiered with clarinetist Michele Zukovsky in Los Angeles, on 6 November 1986. The composition was dedicated to Franco Debenedetti and Barbara Debenedetti and was later published by Universal Edition. Brahms himself stated once in a letter to the dedicatee of the original composition, Richard Mühlfeld, that he had not “been so impulsive as to write a concerto” for him. The arrangement retains the title of ‘Sonata’ even though, given that it is arranged for soloist and orchestra, it could be considered a concerto.

Piano Concerto No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Form#

This concerto is written in the traditional three movements and is approximately 40 to 50 minutes long. The first movement is in sonata form, divided into five sections: orchestral introduction, exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda. This movement is large, lasting between 20 and 25 minutes. Although without a cadenza, the strict adherence to forms used in the Classical Period earned Brahms a reputation for being musically “conservative”, but his innovative harmonies and chord-progressions were hardly that. The theme heavily makes use of arpeggiated chords and trills. Within the orchestral introduction other themes are introduced, and the thematic material is further developed by both orchestra and soloist. : The second movement is in a ternary form, with the theme in the violins accompanied by bassoons. : The structure of the rondo finale is similar to that of the rondo of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. There are three themes present in this rondo; the second theme may be considered a strong variation of the first. The third theme is introduced in the episode but is never explicitly developed by the soloist, instead the soloist is “integrated into the orchestral effect”. A cadenza follows the bulk of the rondo with an extensive coda that develops the first and third themes appearing afterward. The coda is in the parallel major, D major. :

Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The piece is scored for 2 flutes (1st also piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (initially 2 in B bass, 2 in F), 2 trumpets (B), timpani (B and F, A and D in second movement) and strings. (The trumpets and timpani are used only in the first two movements, which is unusual.) The work opens with the following horn call, which provides much of the thematic material for the first movement: : \relative c’ \set Staff.midiInstrument = #“french horn” \key bes \major \time 4/4 \tempo 4 = 92 bes4( c d) \times 2/3 es8( d c) d4( f2.) r1 bes4( f es) \times 2/3 d8( c bes) c4( f2.)

Piano Quartet No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The quartet is in four movements:

I. Allegro#

This first movement, a sonata form movement in G minor and common time, begins immediately with the first theme, a declamatory statement in straight quarter-notes, stated in octaves for the piano alone. This theme is the opening cell that governs the content of the rest of the musical material in the movement. The other instruments soon join in to develop this initial theme and cadence in G minor. There are four other themes in the exposition. The second is in B major (for all instruments), the third is in D minor (beginning with solo cello), and the fourth and fifth are in D major (the fourth being the D minor theme in the major mode and developed differently as well, and the fifth being a more exuberant idea for all instruments, marked ‘animato’). The exposition ends with a closing section that develops only the opening theme and oscillates between D major and D minor, and eventually ends, almost reluctantly, in D major. Although the exposition is not repeated, Brahms creates the illusion of its repetition by starting the development section with the identical ten measures that begins the exposition, up to and including the strong G minor cadence. The development section then goes through many of the themes previously heard and extends them in new ways, and moves from A minor to E minor and eventually to D major. Very atypically, the recapitulation begins not with the first theme, but with the second theme in G major. The resolution is short-lived, as it moves back to the minor mode, where it cadences after an imitative development of the first theme in G minor. The recapitulation ends with a coda that is relatively brief but intense, concluding with an ascending passage built through imitation of the opening cell, whose buildup comes suddenly crashing down in a descending ‘fortissimo’ phrase. The piece ends on a desolate and incomplete-sounding G minor chord, the highest notes being the third and fifth scale degrees of the tonic triad rather than the tonic.

Piano Quartet No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The quartet is in four movements: The first movement is in sonata form. The second movement is in rondo form. The third movement is a scherzo and trio in compound ternary form, where both the scherzo and the trio are in sonata form. The fourth movement is in sonata-rondo form.

Piano Quartet No. 3 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The quartet is in four movements:

I. Allegro non troppo#

The first movement is a sonata-form movement in C minor in triple meter. It begins with the piano playing bare octaves on C. The violin, viola, and violoncello then play the first theme, consisting of two sighing gestures of a descending minor second, followed by a descending theme. Some have speculated that the sighing motive is a musical utterance of the name “Clara”, in reference to Clara Schumann, the composer, pianist, and lifelong friend and love interest of Brahms. More clear is Brahms’s transposed version of Robert Schumann’s “Clara theme”, found in various pieces such as his Bunte Blätter, Op. 99 (1841), on which both Clara and Brahms wrote sets of piano variations. The Clara theme (C–B–A–G–A, often transposed: here E–D–C–B–C) was first detected by Eric Sams in his essays and books on Schumann and Brahms. In his 1971 essay “Brahms and his Clara Themes”, Sams writes on the “Clara content” in op. 60: “The first sentence of that autobiographical work is doubly expressive of Clara. Furthermore, there is direct evidence that this melodic form actually embodied her, for Brahms as for Schumann.” After the first statement of the theme, the piano plays octaves on B. The opening motives, again played by the strings, becomes more chromatic and unsettling, until finally coming to rest on the dominant of C, G major. The viola and violin play pizzicato octaves on E before the strings cascade down the C harmonic minor scale that ushers in the first theme, stated forte. After a brief development of this theme, an ascending gesture based on sixteenth-notes alternating between the notes of a minor second serves as the transition to the second theme in the relative major of C minor, E major. This second theme is an uplifting eight-measure theme stated initially in the piano alone. Brahms then uses the technique of theme and variations to construct four variations on this theme, each eight measures long. A short idea based on the opening theme closes the exposition, which is not repeated. The development section begins by restating the theme from measures 32–35 in E minor. This moves to B major for a new fortissimo idea (perhaps a variation) based on the same theme. The quartet’s opening sighing motives become developed in an E minor passage that incorporates a triplet figure on the second beat of the measure, and eventually the previous B major idea is restated identically in G major. The second theme from the exposition is then treated in imitative (almost canonic) counterpoint in C minor. After the beginning of the third contrapuntal treatment of this theme, a dominant pedal is sustained in octaves on G. This resolves unexpectedly to an A major chord that is quickly brought down to C minor by the opening sighing motive in the piano. The sighing motive indicates the beginning of the recapitulation. Rather than affirming the tonic of C minor, however, Brahms takes the recapitulation in a different direction: the opening section again ends on a dominant pedal on G with the violin and viola playing pizzicato octaves on E, but the E is used to turn the music to E minor. Chromatic descent is employed to bring the music to a half-cadence on D, leading to the second theme in G major. This is perhaps the only sonata form movement in the minor mode in which the recapitulation features the second subject in the key of the major dominant. The second theme is first stated by the viola, which is then followed by three new variations (the first being played by the violin, the second and third by the piano), and one of the same variations as the exposition. A fifth variation leads to a short digression in C major but becomes chromatic and ends with a development the first theme, coming to a cadence on C. This is followed by a brief coda that expands on the first motives heard in the piece. Nevertheless, the key of C minor is arguably not clearly established by the recapitulation (the key signature of C minor is present at the end of the movement for less than two complete pages). The movement ends with a clear tonic–dominant–tonic perfect cadence, stated piano. The expansive and exploratory nature of the movement, along with the quiet closing dynamic, helps make the conventional final cadential progression appear mysterious.

Piano Quintet (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The piece is in four movements:

I. Allegro non troppo#

This movement begins with a unison theme in all instruments. It is in sonata form with the exposition concluding in the major-mode submediant (D), which is approached through a second subject in its enharmonic parallel minor (C). The first theme’s heavy emphasis on D prepares and smooths out this modulation, as well as its reversal with the approach to the expositional repeat. It is notable that Brahms’ other F minor sonata-form first movements – from the Sonata Op. 5 and the Clarinet Sonata Op. 120/1 – also have an expositional goal of D major, and both also are followed by a slow movement in A major. In the recapitulation, the bridge and first half of the second theme are transposed by a fifth, with the latter beginning in F minor, before the tonic key is restored halfway through. A peaceful post-recapitulory coda in F major is cut short by a return to the stormy first theme.

Piano Sonata No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The sonata is in four movements: The first movement is in conventional sonata form with a repeated exposition. The opening of the first theme has been compared to the opening of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata. The second movement is a theme and variations inspired by the song Verstohlen geht der Mond auf. Brahms was to rewrite it for female chorus in 1859 (WoO 38/20). The third movement is a scherzo and trio. The fourth is a loose rondo whose theme is noticeably changed at every recurrence. It is highly technically demanding on the performer, with toccata-like intensity and rapid thirds throughout. The form of the rondo is a palindrome ABACACABA.

Piano Sonata No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The sonata is in four movements: The first movement is in the conventional sonata-allegro form. The second movement is a theme and variations based on the German Minnesang “Mir ist leide”. Like the theme and variations of the Piano Sonata No. 1, the variations move from the minor mode to the parallel major. The third movement is a scherzo and trio whose beginning theme is almost identical to that of the second movement. The finale begins with a brief introduction in A major, the relative major of F minor. The main subject of the introduction serves as the first theme of this movement, which is in sonata form and contains a repeated exposition. The coda of the finale, marked pianissimo and to be played with the soft pedal, returns to and expands upon material from the movement’s introduction.

Piano Sonata No. 3 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The sonata is in five movements: A performance generally lasts between 30 and 40 minutes, depending on tempo and whether repeats are observed.

I. Allegro maestoso#

The first movement begins with fortissimo chords that span almost the entire range of the piano register. A movement in sonata form, it is essentially composed of two musical subjects. The first of these is in F minor, which is followed by a brief episode that features the “fate motif” from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in the same key as the symphony, C minor. After a return of the initial F minor subject, the second subject area begins in the key of the relative major (A major) but ends in D major. Brahms uses these keys in the same way in the second movement of this sonata as well. The exposition is repeated and leads to a complex development section in which the “fate motif” is incorporated. After the beginning of the recapitulation, the piece moves directly to the second subject, by-passing the C minor episode, in the parallel key of F major, and finishes with an extended coda.

Piano Trio in A major (attributed to Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Discovery and publication#

The trio first came to light in 1924 when it was discovered amongst papers musicologist Ernst Bücken had inherited from the Bonn-based musical collector Erich Preiger. Despite the fact that the manuscript lacked a title page and was in the hand of an unknown copyist rather than Brahms’ own handwriting, Bücken believed the work was genuine based both on perceived stylistic similarities between the newly discovered work and the Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8 and the fact that it was known from a letter to Schumann that prior to the publication of the B major trio he had composed several others. The trio was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1938, in an edition edited by both Bücken and Karl Hasse. The original manuscript on which it was based disappeared shortly after publication.

Piano Trio No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The trio is in four movements: Original version (1854): (a typical performance takes around 42 minutes) Revised version (Neue Ausgabe) (1889): (a typical performance takes around 33 minutes)

First movement#

B major, , alla breve in revised version This movement is a sonata form movement in B major. It begins with a broad theme in the cello and piano and builds in intensity. Between the two versions of the trio, Brahms made hardly any changes to the first 80 bars or so, except for omitting little interjections by the violin that he supposedly only included in the first version to meet a desire of Joseph Joachim. In the first version, the second subject group in G minor (bar 84) includes various thematic elements, only one of which is taken up in the recapitulation as the basis for a fugue in stile antico (bar 354). In the coda of the original version, the main subject is finally brought to a climactic, fortissimo conclusion on the tonic (bar 473).

Piano Trio No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In early 1880, Brahms began working on two new piano trios, one in C major, the other in E major. By June, he completed an Allegro movement for each of them, and showed them to Clara Schumann, who preferred the E-major piece. However, he set these two movements aside while he worked on his Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 3. He picked them up again two years later, destroying the E major Allegro to concentrate on the C-major piece. He completed the remaining three movements in the summer of 1882 while on vacation in the spa town of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria, having temporarily put oit aside while there to compose his String Quintet No. 1, Op. 88. The piece was the only piano trio shown to his confidants Clara Schumann and Theodor Billroth which was later published.

Piano Trio No. 3 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The trio is in four movements: The first movement is in sonata form. Orrin Howard calls this movement “unrelentingly compulsive,” and James Keller say the first theme “springs into action with a furious outburst, rather in the mode of a Beethovenian eruption,” which is balanced by the “aristocratic poise” of the second theme. The entire movement is organized with terse economy. Brahms’s friend Heinrich von Herzogenberg wrote, “Smaller men will hardly trust themselves to proceed so laconically without forfeiting some of what they have to say.” The second movement takes the form of an intermezzo in ternary form, in place of the traditional scherzo and trio. Keller calls this a “mere will-o’-wisp of a scherzo.” Howard writes: “It is a peculiar little movement, hypnotic as it continually reflects its motivic and rhythmic ideas, until we are almost shocked to discover that time has passed.” The third movement, also in ternary form, involves the use of alternating time signatures: and , as well as and . Keller writes: “With the third movement we turn to an ultra-familiar Brahmsian landscape: an intermezzo, characteristically marked Andante grazioso. But where most Brahms intermezzos are calm and consoling, perhaps dreamy, this one may leave listeners feeling uneasy in a way that may seem hard to pin down.” The last movement is in sonata form. Howard calls this movement “rhythmically intense,” and Keller writes, “By now we will understand that this piano trio is to a large extent “about” rhythmic variety, and the finale carries that idea through to the end through an abundance of hemiolas (i.e. brief passages of duple against triple meter), falsely placed accents, and cross-rhythms.”

Schicksalslied

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Brahms began the work in the summer of 1868 at Wilhelmshaven, but it was not completed until May 1871. The delay was primarily due to Brahms’s hesitation over how the piece should end. Hesitant to make a decision, he began work on the Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53, which was completed in 1869 and first performed in 1870. Schicksalslied is considered to be one of Brahms’s best choral works along with Ein deutsches Requiem. In fact, argues in his book on Brahms, “Had Brahms never written anything but this one work, it would alone have sufficed to rank him with the best masters.” The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Library of Congress.

Serenades (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11#

The first serenade was completed in 1858. At that time, Brahms was also working on his Piano Concerto No. 1. Originally scored for wind and string nonet and then expanded into a longer work for chamber orchestra, the serenade was later adapted for orchestra; Brahms completed the final version for large orchestra in December 1859. In the orchestration of the Concerto, Brahms had solicited and got a great deal of advice from his good friend Joseph Joachim. For this Serenade, Joachim also gave advice, although to a lesser extent. The first performance of the Serenade, in Hanover on 3 March 1860, “did not go very well” in Brahms’s opinion, but evidently the unusually large audience of 1,200 did not notice any mistake during the performance. At the end, applause “persisted until I came out and down in front.” After every piece in the concert “the audience was shouting.” This was a vastly better reception than the Piano Concerto had in either of its first two performances. But at its third performance, 24 March, also in Hamburg, it had been a success, perhaps not to the same degree as the Serenade. The Serenade consists of six movements and lasts around 45 minutes. Scorings for Serenade 1 are: * Nonet: flute, 2 clarinets in A (movements I, V, VI) and B flat (movements II, III, IV), bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, double bass * Orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (as in the nonet), 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings (violins I and II, viola, cello, double bass)

Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

These waltzes were written for piano four hands, and were also arranged for solo piano by the composer in two different versions – difficult and simplified. The three versions were published at the same time—and sold well, contrary to the composer’s expectations. Brahms wrote the waltzes while he lived in Vienna where he permanently settled in 1872. They were intended as a tribute to the waltz dance form which had become especially fashionable in his adopted city.

String Quartet No. 3 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

- Performance of String Quartet No. 3 by the Borromeo String Quartet from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

String Quartets, Op. 51 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

Brahms was slow in writing his first two string quartets. A letter from Joseph Joachim indicates that a C minor quartet was in progress in 1865, but it may not have been the same work that would become Op. 51 No. 1 in 1873. Four years before publication, however, in 1869, we know for certain that the two quartets were complete enough to be played through. But the composer remained unsatisfied. Years passed. New practice runs then occurred in Munich, probably in June 1873, and Brahms ventured south of the city to the small lakeside town of Tutzing for a summer respite. There, with the Würmsee (as Lake Starnberg was then called) and the Bavarian Prealps as backdrop, he put the finishing touches on the two quartets. He was 40 years old at the time of publication. Brahms regarded the string quartet as a particularly important genre. He reportedly destroyed some twenty string quartets before allowing the two Op. 51 quartets to be published. Explaining his progress to a publisher in 1869, Brahms wrote that as Mozart had taken “particular trouble” over the six “beautiful” Haydn Quartets, he intended to do his “very best to turn out one or two passably decent ones.” According to his friend Max Kalbeck, Brahms insisted on hearing a secret performance of the Op. 51 quartets before they were published, after which he substantially revised them.

String Quintet No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Johannes Brahms tried writing in the genre of the string quintet as a young man in the early 1860s, writing a work for string quartet and a second cello, as in Schubert’s String Quintet.

Music#

Brahms structured the quintet in three movements: The first movement is in sonata form. The first subject group is in F major, while the second is in A major, the first of the “pervasive mediant relationships” in this work. The second movement is in double variation form. The first theme is based on a sarabande Brahms wrote in 1854, while the second theme is based on a gavotte that he wrote in the same year. The movement starts in C major, and ends in A major, another mediant relationship. The third movement is a fusion of sonata and contrapuntal forms. The final key of the previous movement, A major, and the key of this movement, F major, represent another mediant relationship. Brahms described the quintet to his friend Clara Schumann as “one of his finest works” and told Simrock, “You have never before had such a beautiful work from me.”

String Quintet No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The quintet has four movements: The first movement is marked Allegro non troppo, ma con brio, and is in . Its opening is dominated by a cello solo in G major. The middle section is in G minor, though it passes through numerous keys before returning to G major by the end. The second movement is marked Adagio, and is in . It starts with a viola solo accompanied by cello pizzicato. Then a ghostly triplet motif is presented by the viola. Both of these thematic materials are played by different instruments and developed, with one section combining the triplet and pizzicato motifs with the opening theme. There is a stormy middle section reminiscent of Schubert’s Cello Quintet. The entire movement has a key signature of D minor, but it ends on a D major chord. The third movement, marked Un poco allegretto, is in time and is loosely based on a minuet and trio form, finishing with a short coda that uses the material of the trio instead of that of the minuet. The “minuet” section, which is in G minor, is followed by a “trio” section in G major, followed by another “minuet” section (written out) and finally the coda section in the key of the trio. The fourth movement, marked Vivace, ma non troppo presto, is in and has a key signature of one sharp (G major and E minor) throughout. It displays influences of Hungarian music. The opening theme in the first viola is in B minor and is copied by the first violin nine bars later. However, a new, upbeat, dance-like theme in G major is presented shortly after in the 1st violin. Many different thematic materials are presented in this movement’s exposition, many of which are developed in the intensely fugal development section. After a recap of the original thematic material, there is a large unison scale played forte by all of the instruments right before the stringendo coda. The movement (and the piece) end in G major.

String Sextet No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The sextet is scored for two violins, two violas, and two cellos. The sextet has four movements: The outlines of the main themes of the first movement and finale are similar (the first four notes of the cello theme of the first movement are almost identical with those of notes two to five of the finale, and there are other similarities more easily heard). In the same year of its composition, Brahms transcribed the second movement for solo piano, dedicating the arrangement to Clara Schumann.

String Sextet No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Arrangements#

Brahms himself arranged the work for piano four-hands. Theodor Kirchner arranged it for piano trio. Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg arranged the sextet for string orchestra in 1939.

Popular culture#

The first movement of this sextet is prominent in the last sequence of Bertrand Blier’s 1979 film Buffet froid.

External links#

*Recording by the Borromeo String Quartet with violist Liz Freivogel and cellist Daniel McDonough from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Brahms began composing a D minor symphony in 1854, but this work underwent radical change before much of it was finally recast as his first Piano Concerto, also in D minor. The long gestation of the C minor Symphony which would eventually be his first may be attributed to two factors. First, Brahms’s self-critical fastidiousness led him to destroy many of his early works. Second, there was an expectation from Brahms’s friends and the public that he would continue “Beethoven’s inheritance” and produce a symphony of commensurate dignity and intellectual scope – an expectation that Brahms felt he could not fulfill easily in view of the monumental reputation of Beethoven. It was probably 1868 when Brahms finally realized what would become the final structure of his First Symphony. In September of that year, he sent a card to his lifelong friend Clara Schumann sketching the Alphorn tune which would emerge in the symphony’s Finale, along with the famous message “Thus blew the shepherd’s horn today!” Despite the evidence of the work’s development, the symphony would not premiere for eight more years, in 1876. Fritz Simrock, Brahms’s friend and publisher, did not receive the score until after the work had been performed in three cities – and Brahms still wished trial performances in at least three more. The autograph manuscript of the second, third, and fourth movements is held by the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City (the manuscript to the first movement apparently has not survived). It has been reproduced in miniature facsimile by Dover Publications.

Symphony No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The symphony is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings.

Movements#

In the Second Symphony, Brahms preserved the structural principles of the classical symphony, in which two lively outer movements frame a slow second movement followed by a short scherzo:

I. Allegro non troppo#

: The cellos and double-basses start the first-movement sonata form in a tranquil mood and “serene” mood by introducing the first phrase of the principal theme, which is continued by the horns. The woodwinds develop the section and other instruments join in. A new melody, based on the three opening notes, appears in the violins, imitated by the woodwind. This gradually progresses to a full-bodied forte (at bar 58). At bar 82, the violas and cellos introduce the movement’s second “Lullaby” theme in F minor, which eventually moves to A major. The development begins with a restatement of the opening theme, which modulates through several keys. A fugal passage follows, based on a fragment of this theme. It is interrupted by the three-note motive from the first bar, first in the woodwind and brass, then in diminished form in the strings. This gives way to mysterious statements of the violin melody in minor keys, interspersed with the opening figure of the horn theme. The music builds to a climax, with the orchestra playing this two-note figure fortissimo, before dying away unexpectedly. The recapitulation begins at bar 302 in D minor, with the second theme returning at bar 350. The principal theme and violin melody are played simultaneously, before the transition to the second theme. Towards the conclusion of the movement, Brahms marked bar 497 as in tempo, sempre tranquillo, and it is this mood which pervades the remainder of the movement as it closes in the home key of D major. The second theme’s opening bars are recognizable for their passing resemblance to , Op. 49, the tune commonly referred to as “Brahms’s Lullaby”. It is introduced at bar 82 and is continually brought back, reshaped and changed both rhythmically and harmonically.

Symphony No. 3 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

By 1877, Johannes Brahms had completed his first two symphonies: The First Symphony in C minor (Op. 68) was the product of a famously long gestation; its initial drafts dated to as early as 1862. The D major Second Symphony followed barely 12 months after the First, and the next few years saw Brahms’ creative peak, during which he created “a series of large-scale masterpieces with fluency and ease.” Among these masterpieces were Brahms’ Violin Concerto (1878/79) and Second (B major) Piano Concerto (1881), the two symphonic overtures, two large collections of songs (lieder) and duets, several major piano pieces including the third and fourth sets of Hungarian Dances (1879), and three important chamber works, including the ‘lyrical’ and highly popular G major Violin Sonata (1879). By 1883, Brahms’ attention had returned to the symphony, and he spent the summer of that year at Wiesbaden composing a new F major symphony. In October, he played the first and last movements (on piano) for Antonín Dvořák, who remarked to Fritz Simrock: “I say without exaggerating that this work surpasses his first two symphonies; if not, perhaps, in grandeur and powerful conception—then certainly in—beauty.”

Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The symphony is scored for two flutes (one doubling on piccolo in the third movement only), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon (third and fourth movements), four horns, two trumpets, three trombones (fourth movement only), timpani (two in first and second movements, three in third and fourth movements), triangle (third movement only), and strings.

Movements#

The symphony is divided into four movements with the following tempo markings: This is the only one of Brahms’ four symphonies to end in a minor key. A typical performance lasts about 40 minutes.

Three Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Brahms composed the three Intermezzi of Opus 117 in the summer of 1892 while staying in Bad Ischl. In June of that year he asked his friend, the musicologist Eusebius Mandyczewski, to send him manuscript paper so that Brahms could “properly sketch” the three pieces. In September 1892 Clara Schumann learned of the pieces’ existence from her student Ilona Eibenschütz and wrote to Brahms requesting he send them to her. He sent her the completed pieces on 14 October 1892.

Tragic Overture (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The Tragic Overture comprises three main sections, all in the key of D minor. Theorists have disagreed in analyzing the form of the piece: Jackson finds Webster’s multifarious description rather obscurist and prefers to label the work’s form as a “reversed sonata design” in which the second group is recapitulated before the first, with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture as a possible formal model.

Instrumentation#

The work is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings.

Triumphlied

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Brahms began the composition in autumn of 1870 under the impression of German victories during the Franco-Prussian War. The first part was finished after the proclamation of Wilhelm I as emperor. The second and third part were composed after the conclusion of a peace treaty in summer of 1871. The first print of the Triumphlied was published in 1872. It was dedicated to “His Majesty the German Emperor Wilhelm I reverentially devoted by the composer”. Originally Brahms, who admired Otto von Bismarck, had intended to dedicate the work to both the emperor and the chancellor exalting the “victory of German arms”.

Two Motets, Op. 74 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Brahms composed the two motets based on Biblical texts and chorales but without a liturgical occasion in mind. He first wrote O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf as individual settings of the five stanzas of Friedrich von Spee’s Advent song “O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf”, possibly in 1863/64. In Pörtschach in 1877, he wrote Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Mühseligen?. As was the case for his earlier Ein deutsches Requiem, he chose biblical texts from the Book of Job, the Book of Lamentations, and the Epistle of James. In the manner of Johann Sebastian Bach, he ended the motet with a chorale, the first stanza of Luther’s “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin”. The two motets were published together by N. Simrock in December 1878, with a dedication to Philipp Spitta. The motets have been performed and published individually.

Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

The celebrated violinist Joachim, who also played viola, married Amalie Schneeweiss in 1863. She appeared as a contralto singer under the stage name Amalie Weiss. Both were friends of Brahms, who composed the song “Geistliches Wiegenlied” for the occasion of their wedding; he withdrew it but sent it again a year later for the baptism of their son, named Johannes after Brahms. Probably in 1884, Brahms revised the song and added the setting of Rückert’s poem, beginning “In goldnen Abendschein getauchet”. It was again intended for the couple, but this time to help their troubled marriage. Brahms announced to his publisher Simrock in a letter from August 1884 that he would send (a few small pieces to be sung) to be published, Opp. 91–95. The first public performance was on 30 January 1885 in a (evening of chamber music) in Krefeld on the occasion of the (foundation celebration) of the Singverein. The singer was contralto Auguste Hohenschild, the violist Alwin von Beckerath, and the composer played the piano.

Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The Handel Variations were written in September 1861 after Brahms, aged 28, abandoned the work he had been doing as director of the Hamburg women’s choir (Frauenchor) and moved out of his family’s cramped and shabby apartments in Hamburg to his own apartment in the quiet suburb of Hamm, initiating a highly productive period that produced “a series of early masterworks”. Written in a single stretch in September 1861, the work is dedicated to a “beloved friend”, Clara Schumann, widow of Robert Schumann. It was presented to her on her 42nd birthday, September 13. At about the same time, his interest in, and mastery of, the piano also shows in his writing two important piano quartets, in G minor and A major. Barely two months later, in November 1861, he produced his second set of Schumann Variations, Op. 23, for piano four hands. From his earliest years as a composer, the variation was a musical form of great interest to Brahms. Before the Handel Variations he had written a number of other sets of variations, as well as using variations in the slow movement of his Op. 1, the Piano Sonata in C major, and in other chamber works. In particular, between the time he wrote his previous Two Sets of Variations for piano, (No. 1, Eleven Variations on an Original Theme, in D major (1857) and No. 2, Fourteen Variations on a Hungarian Melody, in D major (1854)), Op. 21, and the Handel Variations, Op. 24, Brahms did a careful study of “more rigorous, complex and historical models, among others preludes, fugues, canons and the then obscure dance movements of the Baroque period. Two gigues and two sarabandes that Brahms wrote to develop his technique are extant today. The results of these historical studies are seen in his choice of Handel for the theme, as well as his use of Baroque forms, including the Siciliana dance form (Var. 19) from the French school of Couperin and, in general, the frequent use of contrapuntal techniques in many variations. One aspect of his approach to variation writing is made explicit in a number of letters. “In a theme for a set of variations, it is almost only the bass that has any meaning for me. But this is sacred to me, it is the firm foundation on which I then build my stories. What I do with a melody is only playing around … If I vary only the melody, then I cannot easily be more than clever or graceful, or, indeed, if full of feeling, deepen a pretty thought. On the given bass, I invent something actually new, I discover new melodies in it, I create.” The role of the bass is critical. Identifying the bass as the essence of the theme … Brahms advocated using it to control the structure and character of individual variations and of the entire set. But by this he apparently did not mean retaining in the variations the bass line of the theme or even its harmonies … To invent something actually new and to discover new melodies in the bass give the bass a role at once passive and active. While maintaining the structure of the theme—the passive bass, so to speak—Brahms may actively create melodies and figurative patterns (including melodies “discovered in” the bass), project different contrapuntal textures, and draw on an expanded harmonic vocabulary, sometimes interpreting the melody as the bass of the harmony or regarding major and minor or sharp and flat versions of the same passage as equally valid and available. The result is a great diversity of expression and character founded on a relatively strict conception of the “given” material. Brahms also took into careful account the character of the theme, and its historical context. Unlike the great model of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, where the variations departed widely from the character of the theme, Brahms’s variations expressed and developed the character of the theme. Because the theme for the Handel variations originated in the Baroque era, Brahms included forms such as a siciliana, a musette, a canon and a fugue. Still not fully established in his career in 1861, Brahms had to struggle to get the work published. He wrote to Breitkopf & Härtel, “I am unwilling, at the first hurdle, to give up my desire to see this, my favourite work, published by you. If therefore, it is primarily the high fee that stops you taking it, I will be happy to let you have it for 12 Friedrichsdors or, if this still seems too high, 10 Friedrichsdors. I very much hope you will not think I plucked the initial fee arbitrarily out of the air. I consider this work to be much better than my earlier ones; I think it is also much better adapted to the demands of performance and will therefore be easier to market …” The theme of the Handel Variations is taken from an aria in the third movement of Handel’s Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B Major, HWV 434 (Suites de pièces pour le clavecin, published by J. Walsh, London 1733 with five variations). Brahms himself owned a copy of the 1733 First Edition. The appeal of the aria for Brahms might have been its simplicity: its range is restricted to one octave; the harmony is plain, with every note taken from the B-flat major scale; it “made an admirably neutral starting-place”. While Handel had written only five variations on his theme, Brahms, with the piano as his instrument rather than the more limited harpsichord, enlarged the scope of his opus to 25 variations ending with an extended fugue. Brahms’s use of Handel exemplifies his love of the music of the past and his tendency to incorporate it and transform it in his own compositions. Of the overall concept of the work, Malcolm MacDonald writes “Some of Brahms’s models in this monumental work are easy enough to identify. In the scale and ambition of his conception both Bach’s ‘Goldberg’ and Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli Variations’ must have exercised a powerful if generalized influence; in specific features of form Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Variations is a closer parallel. But the overall structure is original to Brahms.” And MacDonald suggests what might have been a more contemporary source of inspiration, the Variations on a Theme of Handel, Op. 26, by Robert Volkmann. “Brahms might well have known that large and often admirable work, published as recently as 1856, which Volkmann based on the so-called ‘Harmonious Blacksmith’ theme from the Air with Variations in Handel’s E major Harpsichord Suite.”

Variations on a Theme by Haydn

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origin of the theme#

Brahms composed the work on a theme entitled “Chorale St. Antoni”, which Brahms found in a wind ensemble composition. When Brahms discovered it, the wind ensemble piece carried an attribution to the composer Joseph Haydn. Brahms titled his own composition accordingly, crediting Haydn for the theme. However, music publishers in the early nineteenth century often attached the names of famous composers to works by unknown or lesser-known composers, to make the pieces more saleable. Subsequent research has concluded that the wind piece Brahms used as a source does not fit Haydn’s style. The wind ensemble piece remains without clear attribution. As a result, Brahms’s piece is sometimes referred to today, in recordings and concert programs, as the St. Anthony Variations or Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale, in addition to the original title that Brahms gave it. A detailed survey of the controversy can be found in Douglas Yeo’s 2004 edition of the “Haydn” piece (ISMN M-57015-175-1). In 1870, Brahms’s friend Carl Ferdinand Pohl, the librarian of the Vienna Philharmonic Society, who was working on a Haydn biography at the time, showed Brahms a transcription he had made of a piece attributed to Haydn titled “Divertimento No. 1”. The second movement bore the heading “St. Anthony Chorale”, and it is this movement which provides the theme on which the variations are based. Brahms’s statement of the theme varies in small but significant ways from the original, principally with regard to instrumentation. Some sources state the Divertimento was probably written by Ignaz Pleyel, but this has not been definitively established. A further question is whether the composer of the divertimento actually wrote the “St. Anthony Chorale” or simply quoted an older theme taken from an unknown source. To date, no other mention of a “St. Anthony Chorale” has been found.

Variations on a Theme of Paganini

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work consists of two books. Each book opens with the theme, Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor, followed by fourteen variations. The final variation in each section is virtuosic and climactic. Brahms intended the work to be more than simply a set of theme and variations; each variation also has the characteristic of a study. He published it as Studies for Pianoforte: Variations on a Theme of Paganini. The work was dedicated to the piano virtuoso Carl Tausig. It is well known for its harmonic depth and extreme physical difficulty. A particular emphasis of the technical challenges lie on hand independence, with the left hand often mirroring the right hand throughout the piece or having its own set of obstacles. David Dubal describes it as “a legend in the piano literature,” and “fiendish,” “one of the most subtly difficult works in the literature.” Clara Schumann called it Hexenvariationen (Witch’s Variations) because of its difficulty. Dubal quotes critic James Huneker: “Brahms and Paganini! Was ever so strange a couple in harness? Caliban and Ariel, Jove and Puck. The stolid German, the vibratile Italian! Yet fantasy wins, even if brewed in a homely Teutonic kettle … These diabolical variations, the last word in the technical literature of the piano, are also vast spiritual problems. To play them requires fingers of steel, a heart of burning lava and the courage of a lion. ”

Vier ernste Gesänge

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Between 1865 and 1868, as a young man, Brahms had composed Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), dealing with death, based on a compilation of biblical quotations in Luther’s translation. He wrote Vier ernste Gesänge late in life, again on words from the Bible. His friend Clara Schumann had suffered a stroke on 26March 1896. Brahms completed the composition of this set of songs, his last, by his birthday on 7 May that year, in anticipation of her death.

Violin Concerto (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The Violin Concerto is scored for solo violin and orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons; 2 natural horns crooked in D, and 2 natural horns crooked in E, 2 trumpets in D, timpani, and strings. Despite Brahms’s scoring for natural (non-valved) horns in his orchestral works, valved horns have always been used in actual performance, even in Brahms’s time.

Structure#

The concerto follows the standard concerto form, with three movements in the pattern quick–slow–quick: Originally, the work was planned in four movements like the second piano concerto. The middle movements, one of which was intended to be a scherzo—a mark that Brahms intended a symphonic concerto rather than a virtuoso showpiece—were discarded and replaced with what Brahms called a “feeble Adagio”. Some of the discarded material was reworked for the second piano concerto. Brahms, who was impatient with the minutiae of slurs marking the bowing, rather than phrasing, as was his usual practice, asked Joachim’s advice on the writing of the solo violin part. Joachim, who had first been alerted when Brahms informed him in August that “a few violin passages” would be coming in the mail, was eager that the concerto should be playable and idiomatic, and collaborated willingly, but not all his advice was heeded in the final score. The most familiar cadenza, which appears in the first movement, is by Joachim, though a number of people have provided alternatives, including Leopold Auer, Henri Marteau, Max Reger, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, George Enescu, Nigel Kennedy, Augustin Hadelich, Joshua Bell, and Rachel Barton Pine. A recording of the concerto released by Ruggiero Ricci has been coupled with Ricci’s recordings of sixteen different cadenzas.

Violin Sonata No. 1 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

Each of the three movements of this sonata shares common motivic ideas or thematic materials from the principal motif of Brahms’s two songs “Regenlied” and “Nachklang”, Op. 59, and this is why this sonata is also called the “Rain Sonata” (Regensonate). The first movement, Vivace ma non troppo is written in sonata form in G major; the second movement, Adagio – Più andante – Adagio, is an expanded ternary form in E major, and the third movement, Allegro molto moderato is a rondo in G minor with coda in G major. The dotted rhythm motif from the two songs is not only directly quoted as a leading theme in the third movement of this sonata but also constantly appearing as fragmented rhythmic motif throughout the all three movements of the sonata so that the entire sonata has a certain coherency. The rhythm of the rain motif appearing in the middle section of the second movement is adapted to a funeral march. The two disruptive appearances of the main theme of the Adagio in the third movement also represent cyclic form used in this sonata.

Violin Sonata No. 2 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

The sonata consists of three movements, with the middle movement doing service as both a slow movement and a scherzo:

Commentary#

By giving the work the formal title of “Sonata for Piano and Violin”, rather than the more usual “Sonata for Violin and Piano”, Brahms indicated the piano part was just as important as the violin part. to the first three notes of “Walther’s Prize Song” (Morgenlich leuchtend im rosigen Schein) from Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Although they were musical rivals, Brahms was a great admirer of Wagner’s music, It is also sometimes called the “Thun” Sonata from the place of its creation. Motifs from three of the songs Brahms wrote that summer with Hermine Spies’s voice in mind The song “Komm bald”, Op. 97/5 (“Come soon”; words by Groth) is also said have provided thematic inspiration for the sonata. An outstanding quotation of Brahms’ own music can also be found at bar 89 in the last movement. Lied Meine liebe ist grün (Op. 63 no 5, poem by Felix Schumann, son of Robert and Clara, died in 1879) provides the dramatic portion of its melody corresponding to die glänzt wohl herab auf den Fliederbusch lyrics (‘which gleams down on the lilac bush’). For French musicologist Georges Kan, this is the location of the little phrase in Vinteuil Sonata which Swann listens to in ‘In Search of Lost Time’ by Marcel Proust. The Violin Sonata No. 2 was premiered in Vienna on 2 December 1886 by the violinist Joseph Hellmesberger and Brahms himself at the piano.

Violin Sonata No. 3 (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The sonata consists of four movements:

I. Allegro#

The first movement is in traditional sonata-allegro form. The first subject, a long, lyrical cantabile line in D minor, is stated sotto voce by the violin with the piano providing a simple accompaniment; off-beats in the right hand provide a quietly agitated character. Immediately after the violin’s closing cadence ends the first statement of the first subject, the subject is taken up by the piano, subito forte and with a virtuosic, heroic character; now it is the violin’s turn to provide an accompaniment, again in syncopated rhythm. The second subject, a romantic, expressive melody in F major, is then stated by the piano alone, and repeated by the violin with a simple arpeggiated piano accompaniment. Next comes the development section: the violin plays a variant of the first subject elaborated with bariolage bowing, while the piano again provides the accompaniment in the right hand. Of particular interest in this section is the pedal point on the dominant (A) which the pianist sustains in the left hand for the entire duration of the development section. The recapitulation begins with the violin restating the first subject as in the beginning but an octave lower, the piano plays an elaborated version of the original accompanying figure. After the final cadence of the subject, three sudden unison chords announce, subito forte, an unexpected direct modulation into F minor. In the ensuing section, of virtuosic and symphonic character, violin and piano toss back and forth fragments of the original theme. After a direct modulation back to D minor, the recapitulation resumes its course, and then the second subject is restated in D major. Once more back into D minor and the first subject makes one more appearance in the violin, in the original octave, accompanied by the original figure in the piano. There is a brief sotto voce return to the elaborated material of the development section which then passes through a series of modulations. One final sostenuto statement of the first subject across three octaves leads to a cadence in D major, which leads directly into the second movement.

Wiegenlied (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Brahms based the music of his “Wiegenlied” partially on “S’Is Anderscht”, a duet by published in the 1840s. The cradle song was dedicated to Brahms’s friend, Bertha Faber, on the occasion of the birth of her second son. Brahms had been in love with her in her youth and constructed the melody of the "" to suggest, as a hidden counter-melody, a song she used to sing to him. Simrock published Brahms’s Op. 49 in November 1868.

Zigeunerlieder (Brahms)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The first eleven pieces of the cycle, which formed some well-connected story, were put to music by Brahms either in his Thun summer of 1887 or in winter 1887/88 straight-away during a stay in Budapest. Further four songs followed in 1891 and were published together with the song quartets Sehnsucht and Nächtens (text by Franz Theodor Kugler), which had no connection with the Zigeunerlieder, but nonetheless were put together to form Brahms’s Op. 112. In Brahms’s total work the Zigeunerlieder can be seen – on the one hand – as a vocal counterpart of the Hungarian Dances and – on the other hand – as exotic counterpart to the more-referenced Liebesliederwalzer Opp. 52 and 65. The first public performance of the songs Op. 103 was on 31 October 1888 in Berlin, with great success, although the presentation of the opus in a concert hall presented some bad feelings to the composer, since Brahms had conceived his opus genuinely for soloist quartets, and had thought of performances at home. Nonetheless, the songs are also suited for (small) choirs, particularly in connection with the voluminous sound of modern pianos. As a consequence, performances by choirs in concert are now the rule. CD-representations are, instead, frequently performed by soloists.