Piano Quintet (Brahms)
Encyclopedia
The Piano Quintet in F minor
, opus
34, by Johannes Brahms
was completed during the summer of 1864. It was dedicated to Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Hesse. Like most piano quintet
s, it is written for piano
and string quartet
(two violin
s, viola
and cello
).
The piece is in four movements:
The work began life as a string quintet
(completed in 1862 and scored for two violins, viola and two cellos). Brahms transcribed the quintet into a sonata for two pianos (in which form Brahms and Carl Tausig
performed it) before taking its final form. Brahms destroyed the original version for string quintet, but published the Sonata as opus 34 bis. The outer movements are more adventurous than usual in terms of harmony and are unsettling in effect. The introduction to the finale, with its rising figure in semitones, is especially remarkable. Both piano and strings play an equally important role throughout this work.
(A-B-A) with A being a scherzo
and B being a trio
.
:
Theme A (bars 1-12) is a pp (pianissimo
) rising melody in C minor and in compound (6/8) time; it is mainly characterised by its syncopated
rhythms. At bar 9 the theme is played in octave
s by violin and viola, and imitated by piano.
Theme B (bars 13-21) is a quick, jerky theme in C minor in simple time which revolves around the dominant key
(G).
Theme C (bars 22-37) is a loud march-like theme with accented second beats, this time in C major. A particularly striking motif
within this theme is the imitation of the string melody in the piano left hand.
The scherzo also contains a fugue
starting at bar 67 and revolving around the first 4 bars of theme B as a subject. This is then answered by the piano in bar 71, before more entries of the subject by the violin (bar 76) and viola (bar 84), which are combined with countersubject
s in the left hand piano part (bar 67, and another at bar 71).
After this the melodies and motifs are truncated into tiny melodic cells in a complex 5-part texture. The original motif is stated in a shorter version at bar 91 and is shortened again at bar 96; these fragments are then heard in close imitation in a texture known as stretto
.
The structure of the scherzo is A - B - C - A - B - Fugue - B - C - A - B.
A - b1-12 - C minor.
B - b13-21 - C minor.
C - b22-37 - C major.
A1 - b38-56 - C minor. An A arpeggio
, returning to the dominant, modulates
to the dominant of G minor.
B1 - b57-67 - G minor, B minor. The B theme modulates through B minor.
Fugue - b67-100 - Modulates through a variety of keys ending on the dominant of E minor.
B2 - b100-109 - E minor.
C1 - b110-124 - E major.
A1 - b125-157 - E minor. An arpeggio returns to the dominant (B) and modulates to C minor.
B3 - b158-193 - C minor. A varied A motif seen in the piano part.
The final B section is extended into a coda
and ends on a C major chord (a tierce de Picardie
).
Section A is a 16-bar melody in C major, modulating to B major in the last 5 bars. It contrasts with the contrapuntal
nature of the scherzo.
Section B begins at bar 225 and consists of a legato
melody over a staccato
bass. Chromatic harmony is used but tonality
is retained by the use of a dominant (G) pedal note
.
After this, section A is repeated; this is a repeat of the first 11 bars of melody (before the modulation to B) in a dark texture
where all the instruments play in a low tessitura
(lower notes). This leads to a plagal (IV-I) cadence
in C major and a tonic pedal
in bars 254 to 261.
This is followed by a repeat of the Scherzo up to bar 193.
on the dominant C, the cello introduces the first theme of the sonata-allegro, which owes its simplicity to Brahms's interest in Hungarian folk music
. A vociferous, stormy bridge connects the first theme to the second theme, which is in C minor. Although the form of this movement is sonata form
, the development section (in C minor) is strikingly short. The end of the recapitulation leads into a grave, quiet section in the initial tempo of the introduction, but it is arguably a simple reworking of the development section (albeit in F minor). This short section modulates to C sharp minor, which, if it pertains to D flat major of the first movement (as it is the parallel minor
), may symbolize the musical odyssey of the entire piece. The tempo is presto for this greatly extended coda, which develops a new theme as well as the second theme of the sonata-allegro section, and ultimately culminates in an unrelenting outburst of fiery passion, providing an intense conclusion for the entire piece.
F minor
F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. The harmonic minor raises the E to E. Its key signature has four flats ....
, opus
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
34, by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
was completed during the summer of 1864. It was dedicated to Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Hesse. Like most piano quintet
Piano quintet
In European classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly piano, two violins, viola, and cello . Among the most frequently performed piano quintets are those by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák...
s, it is written for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
(two violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
and cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
).
The piece is in four movements:
- Allegro non troppo (F Minor)
- Andante, un poco adagio (A Major)
- ScherzoScherzoA scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
: Allegro (C Minor - C Major) - Finale: Poco sostenuto - Allegro non troppo - Presto, non troppo (F Minor)
The work began life as a string quintet
String quintet
A string quintet is a musical composition for a standard string quartet supplemented by a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola or a second cello , but occasionally a double bass. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who favoured addition of a viola, is considered a pioneer of the form...
(completed in 1862 and scored for two violins, viola and two cellos). Brahms transcribed the quintet into a sonata for two pianos (in which form Brahms and Carl Tausig
Carl Tausig
Carl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer.-Life:Tausig was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents and received his first piano lessons from his father, pianist and composer Aloys Tausig, a student of Sigismond Thalberg. His father introduced him to Franz Liszt in Weimar at the...
performed it) before taking its final form. Brahms destroyed the original version for string quintet, but published the Sonata as opus 34 bis. The outer movements are more adventurous than usual in terms of harmony and are unsettling in effect. The introduction to the finale, with its rising figure in semitones, is especially remarkable. Both piano and strings play an equally important role throughout this work.
First movement
This movement begins with a unison theme in all instruments. It is in sonata form with the exposition repeated, and the second subject is a major third down (F minor moving to C sharp minor).Second movement
This calm movement is in A flat major, with a second theme in E major—enharmonically a major third lower, as in the first movement.Third movement
This movement is in ternary formTernary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...
(A-B-A) with A being a scherzo
Scherzo
A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
and B being a trio
Ternary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...
.
Scherzo
The scherzo has 3 main themesTheme (music)
In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.-Characteristics:A theme may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found . In contrast to an idea or motif, a theme is...
:
Theme A (bars 1-12) is a pp (pianissimo
Pianissimo
Pianissimo is an Italian word, meaning "very soft". It can mean:*Pianissimo, refers to the volume of a soft sound or soft note.*Pianissimo Peche, a brand of Japanese cigarettes made by Japan Tobacco....
) rising melody in C minor and in compound (6/8) time; it is mainly characterised by its syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
rhythms. At bar 9 the theme is played in octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
s by violin and viola, and imitated by piano.
Theme B (bars 13-21) is a quick, jerky theme in C minor in simple time which revolves around the dominant key
Dominant key
The dominant key in a given musical composition is the key whose tonic is a perfect fifth above the tonic of the main key of the piece. Put another way, the key whose tonic is the dominant scale degree in the main key....
(G).
Theme C (bars 22-37) is a loud march-like theme with accented second beats, this time in C major. A particularly striking motif
Motif (music)
In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....
within this theme is the imitation of the string melody in the piano left hand.
The scherzo also contains a fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
starting at bar 67 and revolving around the first 4 bars of theme B as a subject. This is then answered by the piano in bar 71, before more entries of the subject by the violin (bar 76) and viola (bar 84), which are combined with countersubject
Countersubject
In music, a countersubject is a melodic or thematic idea which is played against a primary subject of a fugue, ricercar, invention, sinfonia, or other contrapuntal piece of music...
s in the left hand piano part (bar 67, and another at bar 71).
After this the melodies and motifs are truncated into tiny melodic cells in a complex 5-part texture. The original motif is stated in a shorter version at bar 91 and is shortened again at bar 96; these fragments are then heard in close imitation in a texture known as stretto
Stretto
The term stretto comes from the Italian past participle of stringere, and means "narrow", "tight", or "close".In music the Italian term stretto has two distinct meanings:...
.
The structure of the scherzo is A - B - C - A - B - Fugue - B - C - A - B.
A - b1-12 - C minor.
B - b13-21 - C minor.
C - b22-37 - C major.
A1 - b38-56 - C minor. An A arpeggio
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
, returning to the dominant, modulates
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
to the dominant of G minor.
B1 - b57-67 - G minor, B minor. The B theme modulates through B minor.
Fugue - b67-100 - Modulates through a variety of keys ending on the dominant of E minor.
B2 - b100-109 - E minor.
C1 - b110-124 - E major.
A1 - b125-157 - E minor. An arpeggio returns to the dominant (B) and modulates to C minor.
B3 - b158-193 - C minor. A varied A motif seen in the piano part.
The final B section is extended into a coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
and ends on a C major chord (a tierce de Picardie
Picardy third
A Picardy third is a harmonic device used in European classical music.It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section which is either modal or in a minor key...
).
Trio
The trio section begins at bar 193 and is in ternary (A-B-A) form.Section A is a 16-bar melody in C major, modulating to B major in the last 5 bars. It contrasts with the contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
nature of the scherzo.
Section B begins at bar 225 and consists of a legato
Legato
In musical notation the Italian word legato indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence...
melody over a staccato
Staccato
Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...
bass. Chromatic harmony is used but tonality
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
is retained by the use of a dominant (G) pedal note
Pedal point
In tonal music, a pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign, i.e., dissonant harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes functions as a "non-chord tone", placing it in the categories alongside suspensions, retardations, and passing...
.
After this, section A is repeated; this is a repeat of the first 11 bars of melody (before the modulation to B) in a dark texture
Texture (music)
In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...
where all the instruments play in a low tessitura
Tessitura
In music, the term tessitura generally describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer or, less frequently, musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding texture or timbre...
(lower notes). This leads to a plagal (IV-I) cadence
Cadence (music)
In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...
in C major and a tonic pedal
Pedal point
In tonal music, a pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign, i.e., dissonant harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes functions as a "non-chord tone", placing it in the categories alongside suspensions, retardations, and passing...
in bars 254 to 261.
This is followed by a repeat of the Scherzo up to bar 193.
Fourth movement
The last movement "begins slowly and gropingly," with "the most melancholy moments in the entire work." An introduction begins this movement, which is harmonically reminiscent of Beethoven's late string quartets. After a cadenceCadence (music)
In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...
on the dominant C, the cello introduces the first theme of the sonata-allegro, which owes its simplicity to Brahms's interest in Hungarian folk music
Hungarian folk music
Hungarian folk music includes a broad array of styles, including the recruitment dance verbunkos, the csárdás and nóta.During the 20th century, Hungarian composers were influenced by the traditional music of their nation which may be considered as a repeat of the early "nationalist" movement of the...
. A vociferous, stormy bridge connects the first theme to the second theme, which is in C minor. Although the form of this movement is sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
, the development section (in C minor) is strikingly short. The end of the recapitulation leads into a grave, quiet section in the initial tempo of the introduction, but it is arguably a simple reworking of the development section (albeit in F minor). This short section modulates to C sharp minor, which, if it pertains to D flat major of the first movement (as it is the parallel minor
Parallel key
In music, parallel keys are the major and minor scales that have the same tonic. A major and minor scale sharing the same tonic are said to be in a parallel relationship...
), may symbolize the musical odyssey of the entire piece. The tempo is presto for this greatly extended coda, which develops a new theme as well as the second theme of the sonata-allegro section, and ultimately culminates in an unrelenting outburst of fiery passion, providing an intense conclusion for the entire piece.
External links
- Performance of Piano Quintet by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is an American organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. Its website states that it is "the nation’s premier repertory company for chamber music."...
from the Isabella Stewart Gardner MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner MuseumThe Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...
in MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format