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New Paths to Understanding Brahms's Music: Recent Analytic Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2011

Heather Platt
Heather Platt
Affiliation:
Ball State University
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Review Article
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Nineteenth-Century Music Review , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , November 2009 , pp. 111 - 123
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

1 Robert Schumann, ‘Neue Bahnen’, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 39/18 (1853): 185–6. A number of studies track the influence of Schumann's article, including: Norbert Meurs, Neue Bahnen? Aspekte der Brahms-Rezeption 1853–1868 (Köln: Studio, 1996) and Ingrid Fuchs, ‘Der Versuch musikhistorischer Einordnung Brahms’ und Bruckners in den Wiener Nachrufen’, in Bruckner-Symposion: Bruckner – Vorbilder und Traditionen im Rahmen des Internationalen Brucknerfestes Linz 1997 24–28 September 1997: Bericht, ed. Uwe Harten, Elisabeth Maier, Andrea Harrandt and Erich Wolfgang Partsch (Linz: Anton Bruckner Institut, 1999): 221–31.

2 Performing Brahms: Early Evidence of Performing Style, ed. Musgrave, Michael and Sherman, Bernard D., CD prod. Eric Wen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).Google Scholar

3 Daniel Beller-McKenna chaired this session. The participants included Paul Berry, Jacquelyn Sholes, Ryan Minor, Marcia Citron, Roger Moseley, Brent Auerbach and Daniel Stevens. J. Peter Burkholder served as respondent.

4 See, for example, Notley, Margaret, ‘Brahms as Liberal: Genre, Style, and Politics in Late Nineteenth-Century Vienna’, Nineteenth-Century Music 17/2 (1993): 107–23.Google Scholar Notley’s most recent work on this topic is Lateness and Brahms: Music and Culture in the Twilight of Viennese Liberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

5 Forte, Allen, ‘Motivic Design and Structural Levels in the First Movement of Brahms's String Quartet in C Minor’, The Musical Quarterly 69/4 (1983): 471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Frisch, Walter, Brahms and the Principle of Developing Variation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).Google Scholar

7 Schoenberg, Arnold, ‘Brahms the Progressive’ (originally given as a radio address in 1933) in Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg, ed. Stein, Leonard, trans. Black, Leo (1975; reprint: Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984): 398–441.Google ScholarMetzger, Heinz-Klaus and Rainer Riehn collected a number of analyses of Brahms's music under the title Aimez-vous Brahms ‘the Progressive’? Musik-Konzepte 65 (München: text+kritik, 1989)Google Scholar.

8 See, for example, Wilke, Rainer, Brahms, Reger, Schönberg, Streichquartette: Motivischthematische Prozesse und formale Gestalt (Hamburg: Wagner, 1980)Google Scholar; Boestfleisch, Rainer, ‘Innovative Techniken in der Klarinettensonate op. 120 nr. 1 von Johannes Brahms’, Ostinato rigore: Revue internationale d'études musicales 13 (1999): 169–92; andGoogle ScholarSchmidt, Christian Martin, Verfahren der motivisch-thematischen Vermittlung in der Musik von Johannes Brahms, dargestellt an der Klarinettensonate f-Moll op. 120, 1 (München: Emil Katzbichler, 1971).Google Scholar Hellmut Federhofer is just one of Schmidt's critics, see ‘Johannes Brahms – Arnold Schönberg und der Fortschritt’, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 34 (1983): 111–30Google Scholar.

9 See, for example, Reiter, Elisabeth, Der Sonatensatz in der späten Kammermusik von Brahms: Einheit und Zusammenhang in variativen Verfahren (Tutzing: Schneider, 2000).Google Scholar

10 Schachter, Carl, ‘The First Movement of Brahms's Second Symphony: The Opening Theme and Its Consequences’, Music Analysis 2/1 (Mar. 1983): 55–68. This article appeared in Spanish, along with ones by well-known Brahms scholars Walter Frisch and Siegfried Kross, in Quodlibet: Revista de especialización musical 20 (Jun. 2001). The entire issue was devoted to Brahms’s symphonies.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Cadwallader, Allen, ‘Foreground Motivic Ambiguity: Its Clarification at the Middleground Levels in Selected Late Piano Pieces of Johannes Brahms’, Music Analysis 7/1 (1988): 59–91.Google Scholar Translations of other related articles by Cadwallader appear in Ostinato rigore: Revue internationale d'études musicales 10 (1997)Google Scholar and 13 (1999). Both of these issues provide French editions of analyses of Brahms's music that had already been published in other languages. They include articles by such scholars as Michael Musgrave, John Rink, Rainer Boestfleisch and Walter Frisch. In addition there are original articles that analyse Brahms's music from a variety of perspectives. For example, Jean-Claude Teboul views Brahms's ambiguous harmonies (in issue 13), Mark Delaere considers the function of his codas (in issue 13) and Françoise Escande uses a Schoenbergian approach to discuss the Alto Rhapsody (in issue 10).

12 Gieseler, Walter, Die Harmonik bei Johannes Brahms (Essen: Die Blaue Eule, 1997).Google ScholarWintle, Christopher, ‘The “Sceptred Pall”: Brahms's Progressive Harmony’, in Brahms 2: Biographical, Documentary and Analytical Studies, ed. Musgrave, Michael (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987): 197–222.Google ScholarAzzaroni, Loris, ‘Elusività dei processi cadenzali in Brahms: Il ruolo della sottodominante’, Rivista italiana di musicologia 24/1 (1989): 74–94Google Scholar.

13 Robert Pascall was one of the first to outline the types of difficulties these blended movements pose for analysts. ‘Some Special Uses of Sonata Form by Brahms’, Soundings 4 (1974): 58–63.Google Scholar

14 Webster, James, ‘Schubert's Sonata Form and Brahms's First Maturity’ [Part 2], Nineteenth-Century Music 3/1 (1979): 52–71.Google ScholarSmith, Peter H., ‘Liquidation, Augmentation, and Brahms's Recapitulatory Overlaps’, Nineteenth-Century Music 17/3 (1994): 237–61Google Scholar.

15 Sisman, Elaine R., ‘Brahms and the Variation Canon’, Nineteenth-Century Music 14/2 (1990): 132–53.Google ScholarPacun, David E., ‘Large-Scale Form in Selected Variation Sets of Johannes Brahms’ (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1998).Google Scholar

16 François de Médicis, ‘L’Adaptation d’une Forme à une Style: Les Thgèmes à Retour dans la Musique Instrumentale de Brahms’, Canadian University Music Review/Revue de Musique des Universités Canadiennes 20/2 (2000): 43–79Google Scholar.

17 See, for example, Starobinski, Georges, ‘Brahms et la nostalgie de l'enfance: VolksKinderlieder, berceuses et Klaus-Groth-Lieder’, Acta musicologica 74/2 (2002): 141–94;Google ScholarBrahms als Liedkomponist: Studien zum Verhältnis von Text und Vertonung, ed. Jost, Peter (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1992)Google Scholar; I lieder di Johannes Brahms, ed. Salvetti, Guido (Milano: Unicopli, 1986)Google Scholar; Platt, Heather, ‘Text–Music Relationships in the Lieder of Johannes Brahms’ (PhD diss., Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 1992).Google Scholar

18 The lied ‘Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer’ (op. 105, no. 2) is one of the pieces that Riemann analysed, and Matthias Schmidt recently assessed his comments on this piece. Riemann, Hugo, ‘Die Taktfreiheiten in Brahms' Liedern’, Die Musik 12/1 (1912): 10–21.Google ScholarSchmidt, Matthias, ‘Syntax und System: Brahms’ Taktbehandlung in der Kritik Hugo Riemanns’, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 48 (2002): 413–38Google Scholar.

19 Constantin Floros addresses the issue of Brahms and absolute music as well as the composer's relation to the writings of Hoffmann, E.T.A. in Brahms und Bruckner: Studien zur musikalischen Exegetik (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1980). See also the essays inGoogle ScholarJohannes Brahms, oder, die Relativierung der ‘absoluten’ Musik, ed. Heister, Hanns-Werner (Hamburg: Bockel, 1997).Google Scholar For examples of the connection between intertextual relations and meaning see: Parmer, Dillon, ‘Brahms and the Poetic Motto: A Hermeneutic Aid?’ The Journal of Musicology 15/3 (1997): 353–89; andGoogle ScholarBerry, Paul, ‘Old Love: Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, and the Poetics of Musical Memory’, The Journal of Musicology 24/1 (2007): 72–111.Google Scholar New Musicologists have also probed the descriptor of Brahms's music as ‘absolute’, see, for example, McClary, Susan, ‘Narrative Agendas in “Absolute” Music: Identity and Difference in Brahms's Third Symphony’, in Musicology and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship, ed. Solie, Ruth A. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993): 326–44Google Scholar.

20 Brent Auerbach, ‘The Analytical Grundgestalt: A New Model and Methodology Based on the Music of Johannes Brahms’ (PhD diss., University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 2005).

21 Brodbeck, David, Brahms: Symphony No. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).Google Scholar

22 Ng, Samuel, ‘A Grundgestalt Interpretation of Metric Dissonance in the Music of Johannes Brahms’ (PhD diss., University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 2005)Google Scholar; ‘The Hemiolic Cycle and Metric Dissonance in the First Movement of Brahms's Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 99’, Theory and Practice 31 (2006): 65–96.Google Scholar

23 Krebs, Harald, Fantasy Pieces: Metrical Dissonance in the Music of Robert Schumann (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). Reviewed byGoogle ScholarCohn, Richard in ‘Harald Krebs on Metrical Dissonance in the Music of Schumann and Brahms’, The American Brahms Society Newsletter 20/2 (2002): 5–7.Google Scholar

24 Ng was particularly influenced by Lewin's Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987).Google ScholarLewin, David, ‘On Harmony and Meter in Brahms's Opus 76 No. 8’, Nineteenth-Century Music 4 (1981): 261–5.Google ScholarCohn, Richard, ‘Complex Hemiolas, Ski-Hill Graphs and Metric Spaces’, Music Analysis 20/3 (2001): 295–326. These seminal publications by Lewin and Cohn have influenced numerous theorists, including most recently Scott Murphy inGoogle Scholar‘On Metre in the Rondo of Brahms's Op. 25’, Music Analysis 26/3 (2007): 323–53Google Scholar.

25 Loges, Natasha, ‘The Notion of Personae in Brahms's “Bitteres zu sagen denkst du” op. 32, no. 7: A Literary Key to Musical Performance?’ in Music and Literature in German Romanticism, ed. Donovan, Siobhán and Elliott, Robin (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Camden House, 2004): 183–99.Google Scholar

26 The connection between Brahms's own experiences and the emotions portrayed in his lieder is most clearly documented by the songs from op. 14 that he sent with letters to Agathe von Siebold while their love was still in bloom. For research that extends thistype of biographical connection to other songs, see, for example, the article cited above by Loges; MacAuslan, John, ‘“The artist in love” in Brahms's Life and in his German Folksongs’, Music & Letters 88/1 (2007): 78–106; and my paperGoogle Scholar‘Brahms and the Burden of his Muses’, Conference of the International Musicological Society, Zurich, July 2007Google Scholar.

27 Malin, Yonatan, ‘Metric Dissonance and Music-Text Relations in the German Lied’ (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2003)Google Scholar; ‘Metric Displacement Dissonance and Romantic Longing in the German Lied’, Music Analysis 25/3 (2006): 251–88.Google Scholar

28 Dunsby, Jonathan, Structural Ambiguity in Brahms: Analytical Approaches to Four Works (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 1981).Google Scholar

29 Agawu, Kofi, ‘Ambiguity in Tonal Music: A Preliminary Study’, in Theory, Analysis, and Meaning in Music, ed. Pople, Anthony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994): 86–107.Google ScholarSmith, Peter H., ‘You Reap What You Sow: Some Instances of Rhythmic and Harmonic Ambiguity in Brahms’, Music Theory Spectrum 28/1 (2006): 57–97.Google Scholar

30 McClelland, Ryan, ‘Tonal Structure, Rhythm, Meter, and Motive in the Scherzo-type Movements of Brahms's Chamber Music with Piano’ (PhD diss., Indiana University, 2004)Google Scholar; ‘Discontinuity and Performance: The Allegro appassionato from Brahms's Sonata op. 120, no. 2’, Dutch Journal of Music Theory/Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie 12/2 (2007): 200–14;Google Scholar‘Tonal and Rhythmic-Metric Process in Brahms's Early C-Minor Scherzos’, Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music 26/1 (2005): 123–47;Google Scholar‘Metric Dissonance in Brahms's Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 101’, Intégral 20 (2006): 1–42;Google Scholar‘Form and Hypermeter in Brahms's “Tiny” Scherzo for the Piano Concerto Op. 83’, The American Brahms Society Newsletter 26/1 (2008): 1–5Google Scholar.

31 Davies, a piano student of Clara Schumann, heard Brahms playing during 1884 to 1896. In her recollections, she offers general comments on Brahms's dynamics and rhythm, before concentrating on performing issues of op. 101, which she heard Brahms play with Hausmann and Joachim. Davies, Fanny, ‘Some Personal Recollections of Brahms as Pianist and Interpreter’, Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, vol. 1, compiled and ed. Walter Willson Cobbett (Oxford: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1929): 182–4Google Scholar.

32 Hoag, Melissa, ‘Multiply-Directed Moments in the Music of Brahms’ (PhD diss., Indiana University, 2008).Google Scholar Hoag's view that the main melodic line of a piece may depart from a conventional prolongation of the Urlinie is somewhat akin to Frank Samarotto's concept of contra-structural melodic impulses, which he promulgated in his paper ‘“Plays of Opposing Motion”: Contra-Structural Melodic Impulses in Voice-leading Analysis’, presented at the 2008 AMS/SMT conference, 6–9 November, Nashville, TN. This paper, which will appear in a 2009 issue of Music Theory Online, includes an analysis of Brahms's ‘Meine Lieder’ (op. 106, no. 4).

33 Brahms's songs describing continued yearning often have unusual structures, and I analyse three such pieces in which the expected concluding structural dominant is omitted and the Urlinie does not descend to the tonic. ‘Unrequited Love and Unrealized Dominants’, Intégral 7 (1993): 119–48Google Scholar.

34 Letters between Brahms and Herzogenberg, April 1882. Johannes Brahms: The Herzogenberg Correspondence, ed. Kalbeck, Max, trans., Bryant, Hannah, new intro. by Walter Frisch (New York: Da Capo, 1987): 157–8Google Scholar.

35 Samarotto, Frank, ‘Determinism, Prediction, and Inevitability in Brahms's Rhapsody in E-flat Major op. 119, no. 4’, Theory and Practice 32 (2007): 85.Google ScholarSamarotto, Frank, ‘Against Nature: Interval Cycles and Prolongational Conflict in Brahms's Rhapsody, Op. 79, No. 1,’ in A Composition as a Problem III: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Music Theory, Tallinn, March 9–10, 2001, ed. Humal, Mart (Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Music, 2003): 93–108Google Scholar.

36 For one of the more recent articles on this topic see Beller-McKenna, Daniel, ‘Reminiscence in Brahms's Late Intermezzi’, The American Brahms Society Newsletter 22/2 (2004): 6–9. The type of study that I am suggesting would expand upon the article byGoogle ScholarKross, Siegfried, ‘Die Terzenkette bei Brahms und ihre Konnotationen’, in Die Sprache der Musik: Festschrift Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller zum 60. Geburtstag am 21. Juli 1989, ed. Fricke, Jobst Peter (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1989): 335–46. John Daverio suggests that Schumann may have influenced Brahms's use of third cycles. Although he offers a few comparisons between the two composer's techniques, his idea needs much more study, especially as he concentrates only on cycles at the ends of movements. SeeGoogle ScholarDaverio, John, Crossing Paths: Schubert, Schumann, & Brahms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 158–9Google Scholar.

37 Smith, Peter H., Expressive Forms in Brahms's Instrumental Music: Structure and Meaning in his ‘Werther’ Quartet (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).Google ScholarI provide a more detailed review of this monograph in the Journal of Music Theory 48/2 (2004 and 2007): 337–54.Google Scholar Smith's analysis of the first movement of op. 60 led to a series of exchanges in Music Theory Online (2008), with contributions by Samuel Ng, Eric Wen, and Olli Väisälä.

38 Hatten, Robert S., Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994).Google Scholar

39 Forte, ‘Motivic Design and Structural Levels in the First Movement of Brahms's String Quartet in C minor’, 471.

40 Brahms Studies: Analytical and Historical Perspectives, ed. Bozarth, George S. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).Google Scholar

41 In this review article I have concentrated on the work of theorists, but my call for greater interaction between theorists and musicologists is addressed to both disciplines. Roger Moseley, for example, notes the shortcomings of some of the analysis in Daniel Beller-McKenna's fascinating exploration of the intersection of politics and religion in Brahms's music. See: Beller-McKenna, Daniel, Brahms and the German Spirit (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Moseley, Roger, ‘Is There Only Juan Brahms?’ Journal of the Royal Musical Association 131/1 (2006): 160–75.Google Scholar (Moseley's article also reviews Peter Smith's Expressive Forms in Brahms's Instrumental Music.)

42 Of course, I am not the only person to call for more interaction between analysts and historians, and this issue does not just pertain to Brahms scholarship. Moreover, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that there are topics that do not lend themselves to such interactions. For a somewhat similar assessment of the field in general, see Agawu, Kofi, ‘Does Music Theory Need Musicology’, Current Musicology 53 (1993): 89–98Google Scholar.

43 Notley draws on the work of Hugo Riemann, Robert Hatten, Daniel Harrison and John Daverio to explore the passages in Brahms's music in which plagal harmonies (and their association with the Phrygian and Aeolian modes) markedly contrast with authentic harmonies and create a sense of otherness, otherworldliness or timelessness. Notley, Margaret, ‘Plagal Harmony as Other: Asymmetrical Dualism and Instrumental Music by Brahms’, The Journal of Musicology 22/1 (2005): 90–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar.