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David FhimaTheory and Analysis IVSubmitted to: Jon Wild

Analytical Interpretation of Johannes Brahms’ Symphony no. 2 in D Major, Op. 73

The first movement of Johannes Brahms’ 2nd symphony (1877) is perhaps known for the

easily recognizable “lullaby theme”, but more importantly, it is the striking use of simplistic

motives and a shift from expected key relationships that makes it so appealing from a theoretical

standpoint. This essay will illuminate the insistence of these motives and how the different

sections of the piece relate to each other tonally and structurally through a formal and harmonic

analysis.

To begin, let’s look at the exposition of the movement. It begins in the key of D major

with the opening statement of the main theme beginning in the low strings and immediately

followed by the French horns. The significance of the motives that are presented here in the first

few bars will be elaborated on further in this essay. The main theme type appears to be

something closely related to a compound period. The theme is divided in two sections: the first is

eight measures long, with the horns and woodwinds exchanging ideas every four bars; the

second is a close repetition of this; however, it is sequenced up a step in E minor and is extended

as the strings introduce a juxtaposed intervallic motif.

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Figure 1 - mm. 17-24: Extension of Main Theme

This motif largely outlines A major, the dominant of D major, potentially suggesting that this is

now a transition section. This is all rather ambiguous moving forward; however, a big hint as to

where Brahms is actually heading comes up shortly. Following this intervallic idea, a short and

sombre trombone chorale is interpolated. This ultimately leads to rehearsal letter A where a new

theme is presented in the dominant key of A major. The instability of the last section and the

arrival of a new melody in this key all points to this now being a subordinate theme. As it can be

observed in Figure 2, this theme begins to unravel and destabilize, rhythmically and

harmonically.

Figure 2 - mm. 54-57

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It breaks off into short 1 bar question-response type phrases between the oboes, horns and

strings. It further breaks down as the key shifts and begins to emphasize C# major in rehearsal

letter B. When the music finally arrives at letter C, we are now in F# minor and the real new

theme has arrived in the strings, otherwise known as the subordinate theme. We can now

retrospectively understand that the material at letter A is actually the beginning of the transition.

Since the subordinate theme’s key is the relative minor of A major, Brahms had to emphasize A

as a tonal center so that he could fluidly transition into the desired key of the subordinate theme.

Furthermore, the true goal of the transition, which is often the dominant of the subordinate key,

is achieved when the music begins to sit on C# in rehearsal B.

The subordinate theme is repeated at rehearsal D, this time in the woodwinds. At

rehearsal E, the entire orchestra becomes involved with fanfare-like music largely emphasizing

the key of E. Leading into measure 135, there appears to be a prolongation of E, that will soon

serve as an indication that the exposition is heading towards A major, the expected secondary

key. This section lasts for quite a while, with a stepwise idea circulating throughout the orchestra

while a syncopated pattern persists throughout.

Figure 3 - ex. Syncopated pattern with stepwise motif

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This leads into rehearsal letter F where the subordinate theme is repeated again, this time

in A major. This is very interesting because we typically expect a subordinate key to be directly

related to the main theme’s key, and while F# minor is technically the mediant key of D major,

the music is in A major for quite a long time leading up to it, clearly suggesting that the tonal

relationship lies with that key, and not with D directly. Now that the subordinate theme is in A

major, it finally feels like the true tonal goal of the subordinate theme is attained. Furthermore, if

we look back at the music before F, it can almost be seen as transitory in nature, setting up the

arrival of A major with a prolongation of its own dominant.

This finally leads into the closing section of the exposition. There are two endings. What

is rather particular here is that the second ending nearly feels like a repeat of the exposition, with

the horn taking up the main theme again for a few measures. This is a neat device because if the

repeat of the exposition is not taken, this will play with the audience’s expectations seeing as this

is actually the beginning of the development section and the theme will soon depart elsewhere. If

the repeat is taken, this will achieve a very similar effect, yet the impact could be even greater

because it could fool the listener into thinking that they are about to hear the same music for the

third time. This is just speculation, yet it does seem like Brahms may have had a trick or two up

his sleeve.

The development section of this movement is rather interesting. This is where Brahms’

use of simple motives becomes particularly important.

Figure 4 - Motif 1 - Neighbouring motion

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The first motif is simply a lower neighbour motion, whilst the second one appears as a half note

leaping upwards to a quarter note. As previously mentioned, the development section begins

very much like the exposition. However, the mood changes fairly rapidly, with a transformation

of the first motif at measure 195. The quarter notes are all articulated and are now sequenced

with upper neighbours instead of lower neighbours. At measure 204, Brahms combines and

transforms both motives to create a new phrase, beginning in the violins.

Figure 6 - Combination of both motives

The 3 quarter note pattern becomes a stepwise figure; the second motif is altered by reversing the

direction of the second instance of a half note followed by a quarter note. Furthermore, the

character of these motives are entirely changed from solemn and quiet, to frantic and aggressive.

This continues into letter G, where the trombones reprise their interpolated chorale, except this

time, they present the first motive in a pseudo-fugue and it sounds unlike anything we’ve heard

so far. Shortly after, at measure 236, Brahms integrates 6/8 passages alternating with 3/4

passages that mimic part of the transition from the exposition. This briefly turns into main

theme-like material. More transition material ensues and this time it is more developed.

Figure 5 - Motif 2

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Figure 7 - Juxtaposition of the Main theme and Transition

At measure 258, as shown in fig. 7, Brahms juxtaposes the main theme in the winds with the 6/8

music from the transition. Note that the eighth notes still portray the lower neighbour motif, and

the dotted quarters are reminiscent of the main theme because of the upward 3 rd motions. He then

returns to the transition theme and further elaborates it, and alternates between that and main

theme material a couple more times until the recapitulation is finally reached at rehearsal letter I.

The recapitulation has several interesting features. The differences between itself and the

exposition are most noteworthy for discussion. First of all, the first motif doesn’t appear before

the main theme. Also, the main theme is reprised by the oboes instead of the horns, which is a

subtle touch because given the fact that the main theme appears so many times in the

development, it isn’t obvious immediately that this is the recapitulation. Here is another instance

where it seems as if Brahms is using clever devices to play with the listener’s expectations.

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Another interesting feature is the transition. Typically, a recapitulation stays around the

home key, and since the exposition went relatively far away from D major, the transition ended

up being quite long in order to achieve F# minor. In the recapitulation, Brahms extends the

intervallic idea (as seen in fig. 1) and the trombone chorale follows as before. In this case, the

chorale leads directly into the subordinate theme because the subordinate key (B minor) is

already attained at this point. The tonal relationship here is very interesting because this is clearly

the relative minor of D major. This mirrors the relationship between the transition key (A major)

and the first presentation of the subordinate theme in the exposition. It seems that Brahms still

wanted to keep things interesting, so rather than stay in D for the subordinate theme, he simply

shifts to B minor. As before, the theme is eventually repeated in the local home key of D major,

the same as before where the theme was eventually presented in A major, the local home key in

that part of the exposition.

The rest of the recapitulation leading up to rehearsal letter M is virtually the same as the

exposition. M is where the coda begins. It opens with a powerful and evocative presentation of

the main theme. The solo horn tails out of this with a solo that has harmonic significance in the

overall scheme of this movement. It has been outlined throughout this essay that there are several

sections emphasizing dominants through extensive prolongations. A closer look at this French

horn solo (see attached reduction) will show that it is in fact a dominant prolongation, eventually

leading to an authentic cadence on the downbeat of measure 477. What is even more interesting

about this is that in this prolongation, there are several tonicizations that, whether they are

supposed to or not, end up on a mediant chord. The real dominant chord comes at the very end

and brings back the tonic. This organization of dominant and mediant functions emulates the

overall structure of the entire exposition in a mere 24 measures. Brahms achieves all this while

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still making use of his motives, with the stepwise motion juxtaposed against the neighbouring

motion.

Finally, the movement offers one last surprise at measure 497. The mood shifts

completely into something rather jovial. In this section, Brahms uses the transition material from

rehearsal letter B that was not used in the recapitulation’s transition. The sudden change of

character is rather jarring. One last contracted instance of the main theme occurs in the horn and

trumpet before ending with a final D major chord.

To conclude, the first movement of Brahms’ 2nd symphony is a discretely brilliant piece

of writing, masked with the seemingly simplistic use of a couple short motives. The composer

found a very elegant way to handle the formal structure of the movement and all the tonal

relationships within it, without sacrificing the beauty of the music itself.

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Figure 8 - French horn solo (Coda)