Sounding Within: Structural Inner Voices in Brahms’s Piano Works

Diego Cubero University of North Texas Diego.Cubero@unt.edu

Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting St. Louis, Missouri October 29, 2015

EXAMPLE 1. Brahms, Intermezzo in E-flat major, Op. 117 no. 1

a. Opening phrase

b. Ending

EXAMPLE 2. Brahms, Rhapsody in B minor, Op. 79 no. 1

a. Melody, mm. 30–39

b. Measures 88–96

c. Coda, mm. 222–38

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EXAMPLE 3. Brahms, Waltz in D minor, Op. 39 no. 9 a. Score, two-hand version

b. Voice-leading sketch

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EXAMPLE 4. Brahms, Intermezzo in E minor, Op. 116 no. 5, voice-leading sketch

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EXAMPLE 5. Brahms, Ballade in G minor, Op. 118 no. 3, mm. 32–56

Inner voice ⇒ New theme

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EXAMPLE 6. Brahms, Piano Sonata no. 1 in C major, Op. 1, exposition a. Voice-leading sketch of the exposition

b. Composing out of the cadential figure, mm. 34–51

"""⇒

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EXAMPLE 7. Brahms, Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 76 no. 7

cf. Chopin, Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 no. 1

( )

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EXAMPLE 8. List of Brahms’s piano works employing one or more types of structural inner melodies

1. Enfolded melody2. Compound melody with structural inner strand and covering outer one3. Melody that emerges as a transformation of an inner voice

Work Type(s) of Structural Inner Voice(s)

Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 1, I 1. Enfolded melody (Second theme)3. Melody emerging from an inner voice (Second theme)

Ballade in D major, Op. 10 no. 2 1. Enfolded melody (coda)Ballade in B major, Op. 10 no. 4 1. Enfolded melody (middle section)

Waltz in D minor, Op. 39 no. 9 2. Compound melody with structural inner part (whole)Capriccio in F-sharp minor, Op. 76 no. 1 1. Enfolded melody (coda)

Capriccio in B minor, Op. 76 no. 2 1. Enfolded melody (coda)Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 76 no. 7 1. Enfolded melody (end of B section)

2. Compound melody with structural inner part (B section)3. Melody emerging from an inner voice (B section)

Rhapsody in B minor, Op. 79 no. 1 1. Enfolded melody (B section)3. Melody emerging from an inner voice (A [digression])

Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 116 no. 2 3. Melody emerging from an inner voice (return of A)

Intermezzo in E major, Op. 116 no. 4 2. Compound melody with structural inner part (A section)

Intermezzo in E minor, Op. 116 no. 5 1. Enfolded melody (ending)2. Compound melody with structural inner part (A section)

Intermezzo in E major, Op. 116 no. 6 1. Enfolded melody (A section)

Capriccio in D minor, Op. 116 no. 7 1. Enfolded melody (B section)Intermezzo in E-flat major, Op. 117 no. 1 1. Enfolded melody (A section)

Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118 no. 2 1. Enfolded melody (end of A section)Ballade in G minor, Op. 118 no. 2 3. Melody emerging from an inner voice (B section)

Romanze in F major, Op. 118 no. 5 1. Enfolded melody (A section)3. Melody emerging from an inner voice (B section)

RECORDINGS PLAYED

Rhapsody Op. 79 no. 1: Murray Perahia. Brahms: Handel Variations, Op. 24; Rhapsodies, Op. 79; Piano Pieces, Opp. 118 and 119. Sony Masterworks, 2010. CD.

Waltz Op. 39 no. 9: Leon Fleisher. Brahms: Handel Variations, 16 Waltzes, Op. 39. Sony Classical, 2013. CD.

Intermezzo Op. 116 no. 5: Emil Gilels. Brahms: The Piano Concertos, Fantasias Op. 116. Deutsche Grammophon, 1996. CD.

Ballade Op. 118 no. 3: Murray Perahia. Brahms: Handel Variations, Op. 24; Rhapsodies, Op. 79; Piano Pieces, Opp. 118 and 119. Sony Masterworks, 2010. CD.

Piano Sonata Op. 1: İdil Biret. Brahms: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2. Naxos, 1991. CD.

Intermezzo Op. 76 no. 7: Richard Goode Plays Brahms. Nonesuch, 2011. CD.

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WORKS CITED Paul, Jean. Horn of Oberon: Jean Paul Richter’s School for Aesthetics. Translated by Margaret R. Hale. Detroit:

Wayne State University Press, 1973. Rings, Steven. “The Learned Self: Artifice in Brahms’s Late Intermezzi.” In Expressive Intersections in

Brahms: Essays in Analysis and Meaning, edited by Heather Platt and Peter H. Smith, 19–51. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.

Rzewski, Frederic. “Inner Voices.” Perspectives of New Music 33, no. 1–2 (1995): 404–417. Schmalfeldt, Janet. In the Process of Becoming: Analytic and Philosophical Perspectives on Form in Early

Nineteenth-Century Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. OTHER WORKS CONSULTED Adorno, Theodor. “Brahms Aktuell.” In Gesammelte Schriften Band 18: Musikalische Schriften V. Frankfurt:

Suhrkamp Verlag, 1984. Burkhart, Charles. “Schenker's ‘Motivic Parallelisms.’” Journal of Music Theory 22, no. 2 (Fall 1978): 145–

175. Hanslick, Edward. “Discovering Brahms.” In Brahms and His World, edited by Walter Frisch and Kevin C.

Karnes, 217–232. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. Hatten, Robert S. Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 1994. McClelland, Ryan. “Sequence as Culmination in the Chamber Music of Brahms.” In Expressive Intersections in

Brahms: Essays in Analysis and Meaning, edited by Heather Platt and Peter H. Smith, 147–185. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2012.

Morgan, Robert P. “6 Piano Pieces, Opus 118.” In The Compleat Brahms: A Guide to the Musical Works of Johannes Brahms, edited by Leon Botstein, 193–195. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Niemann, Walter. Brahms. Translated by Catherine Alison Phillips. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1969.

Notley, Margaret. Lateness and Brahms: Music and Culture in the Twilight of Viennese Liberalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Novalis: Philosophical Writings. Translated and edited by Margaret Mahony Stoljar. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Samarotto, Frank. “Sublimating Sharp ^4: An Exercise in Schenkerian Energetics.” Music Theory Online 10, no. 3 (September 2004).

Smith, Peter H. “New Perspectives on Brahms’s Linkage Technique.” Intégral 21 (2007): 109–54. The Brahms Notebooks: The Little Treasure Chest of the Young Kreisler. Translated by Agnes Eisenberger.

Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2003. Watkins, Holly. Metaphors of Depth in German Musical Thought: From E. T. A. Hoffmann to Arnold

Schoenberg. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Zbikowski, Lawrence M. Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis. New York: Oxford

University Press, 2002.

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