Brahms and the Passing of the Romantic Era
Course Description: Brahms’s traditional approach to harmony, rhythm, and melody
John Gibbons
concealed an acutely progressive and enduring reconciliation of classic and modernist
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perspectives—no surprise for a figure who lived in both Napoleonic and Freudian
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times. Our musical studies will include the haunting and comforting Requiem, the
celebrated ungainliness of the piano works, the attenuated grandeur of the symphonies,
and the autumnal melancholia of the chamber works. We will also discuss the lively
Viennese atmosphere, including Brahms’s celebrated feuds with more futuristic musical peers, and the 19th-century revolutions in the
fields of visual arts, science, psychology, and philosophy. Music literacy is not required.
Recommended Readings
Author
Title
Reinhold Brinkmann
Late Idyll: The Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms
Walter Frisch
Brahms: The Four Symphonies
Hans Gal
Johannes Brahms: His Work and Personality
Karl Geiringer
Brahms: His Life and Work
Malcolm MacDonald
Brahms
Arnold Schoenberg
Style and Idea: Selected Writings
(“Brahms the Progressive”)
Robert Haven Schauffler
The unknown Brahms: His life, character and works
Schedule
Week 1
As the clouds yearn for the sun (Hoffmann von Fallersleben)
 Piano sonatas op. 1, 2, 5; Scherzo op. 4, Songs op. 3, 6, 7; Trio op. 8; 4 Ballades op. 10
Week 2
My queen, how rapturous you are when you are gentle and kind (from Hafiz)
 Variations on a theme by Schumann, op. 9; Serenades op. 11 & 16; Piano Concerto in d Minor , op. 15
Week 3
You think you are saying bitter things, but you can never give pain… (Hafiz)
 Piano Quartet No. 1, op. 25; Piano Quintet, op. 34
Week 4
Lord, make me to know the measure of my days (Bible)
 Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45
Week 5
Twilight has lowered from above; all that is near is distant, but the evening star has been raised aloft.(Goethe)
 String quartets, op. 51; Symphony No. 1, op. 68
Week 6
I seem to find once more, my old sorrow in love. (Candidus)
 Symphony No. 2, op. 73; Violin Concerto, op. 77; Symphony No. 3, op. 90
Week 7
Who comes to count all the beautiful blossoming things? (Groth)
 Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 83; Symphony No. 4, op. 98
Week 8
For now, we see through a glass darkly (St. Paul)
Late piano pieces; Vier ernste Gesänge ("Four Serious Songs") , op. 121