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Brahms and the Poetic Motto: A Hermeneutic Aid?
Author(s): Dillon Parmer

Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Summer, 1997), pp. 353-389
Published by: University of California Press
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Brahms and the Poetic
Motto: A Hermeneutic
Aid?
DILLON PARMER
According to Franz Liszt, a program is a

ace added to a piece of instrumental music, by means of
composer intends to guard against a wrong poetical in
and to direct his attention to the poetical idea of the w
particular part of it."' Even if his terms are problemati
instance, distinguishes a "poetical" from other kinds of
tions, or to which aspects of a composition does 353"poetic
Liszt's contention regarding the function of a program r
Rather than serve as the signified content of a compositi
guides listeners to a correct, and presumably fuller, und
the music in question.2 All of this seems quite far from
history represents as the champion of absolute music.s
and Berlioz, Brahms wrote neither symphonic poems
symphonies, while his two surviving overtures are witho
Volume XV * Number 3 * Summer 1997

The Journal of Musicology ? 1997 by the Regents of the University
' Cited and discussed in Robert Scruton, The Aesthetic Understandin

Philosophy of Art and Culture (Manchester, 1983), 41. Programs gene
literary works, but they can include paintings as well. In "Sposalizio"
pilerinage, deuxibme annie, Italie (1858), for example, Liszt instructed
Raphael's "The Marriage of the Virgin" be included with the edition t
misinterpretation. For discussion, see Joan Backus, "Liszt's Sposalizio:
sical Perspective," 19th-Century Music XII/2 (Fall 1988), 173-83.
2 In a future article, I will argue that a hermeneutic definition for
is preferable to ones grounded on representation or genesis. More tra
tions can be found in The New Harvard Dictionary of Music and The New
of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Program music" by Ralph P. Locke an
respectively.
3 Current definitions of absolute music can be found in The New Harvard Dictio-
nary of Music and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Absolute music"
by Ralph P. Locke and Roger Scruton respectively. For a fuller account, see Carl
Dahlhaus, The Idea of Absolute Music, trans. Roger Lustig (Chicago, 1989).
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
connections to literature characterizing Mendelssohn's.4 If his or

tral music eschews the literary adjuncts generally associated wit
gram music, the same cannot be said of his works for piano, ho
The first Andante from the Third Piano Sonata in F minor
and the Intermezzo in E-flat Major (op. 117 no. 1), for example
carry a poetic motto atop the published score. Similarly, the A
from the First Sonata (op. 1), a theme and variations on the fo
"Verstohlen geht der Mond auf," includes the opening strop
derneath the notes of the main theme. Although no literary t
given in the "Edward" Ballade (op. to no. 1), Brahms specifi
above the expression mark, while documentary evidence suggest
the remaining Andantes from the second and third sonatas
and 5), as well as the other two Intermezzos of op. 117, hav
pressed literary sources.5
Could these textual adjuncts, particularly the mottos, serve
same function that Liszt identifies for a full-length programm
preface? Not according to the received view of Brahms, which c
the implicit ideal that his instrumental music should not requi
erary texts for its explication. Critics, therefore, have general
354 nored his textual inclusions on the basis of this ideal, but Brah
himself attests, on at least two documented occasions, to their h
neutic importance. Although the autograph of the Third
transmits no motto for its second movement, Brahms's letter o
cember 26, 1853 instructs his publisher, Senff, to add the foll
verses to the published edition in order to facilitate understan
Der Abend daimmert, das Mondlicht scheint,
Da sind zwei Herzen in Liebe vereint
Und halten sich selig umfangen.7
4 According to Kalbeck, the Tragic Overture (op. 81) may have originated in con
junction with a proposed staging by Franz Dingelstedt of Goethe's Faust. See Kalbeck
Johannes Brahms, III, 257-58. He also reports that the composer even characterized th
Academic Festival Overture (Op. 8o) as "ein sehr lustiges Potpourri von Studentenliede
a la Suppe." Ibid., 252 n. 1. Indeed, in a letter to Fritz Simrock (September 6, 188
Brahms admits that the opus contains "Gaudeamus igitur" and other student songs an
hence refers indirectly to their texts. See Brahms Briefwechsel, X, 155-
5 The Andantes from the three piano sonatas are discussed, and summarily di
missed as immature, in George Bozarth, "Brahms's Lieder ohne Worte: The 'Poet
Andantes of the Piano Sonatas," in Brahms Studies: Analytical and Historical Perspectives
ed. George Bozarth (Oxford, 1990), 345-78.
6 "Ich habe die 'Sonate' schon zugesiegelt und mag mich nicht mehr aufhalten; s
bitte ich Sie folgenden kleinen Vers fiber das erste Andante in Parenthese klein setze
zu lassen. Es ist zum Verstindnis des Andante vielleicht ntitig oder angenehm." Brahm
Briefwechsel, XIV, 5-.
7 "Twilight is falling, the moonlight is shining, there two hearts are united in lo
and keep themselves wrapped in bliss." Ibid. The verses are excerpted from the poem
"Junge Liebe" by C. O. Sternau, the literary pseudonym of Otto Inkermann. Th
translation is my own.
PARMER
The belated inclusion of these lines indicates either that Brahms did
not write the verses on the Autograph because he forgot to and did
not want to open the already sealed package the delivery of which he
wanted to expedite, or that he initially did not wish them included,
but changed his mind after sealing the package. Regardless of what
motivated the delay, however, Brahms clearly stipulates a herme-
neutic function even though he leaves open the manner in which the
verses are to assist understanding.
The other documented case involves the Third Piano Quartet in
C Minor (op. 6o). Unlike the op. 5 Andante, the quartet carries no
explicit literary association, but Brahms instructs at least three corre-
spondents to read Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers to grasp
something of the opus. The prescription is usually expressed indi-
rectly, as when a letter to his friend, Theodor Billroth, identifies the
quartet as an illustration of "the man in the blue coat and yellow vest"
(October 23, 1874).8 A series of letters to his friend Professor The-
odor Wilhelm Engelmann, however, is much less indirect. Confused
about Brahms's oblique reference to such brightly colored clothes
(November 15, 1875),9 Engelmann asks for clarification.lo Brahms
355 clear
explains only a month later (December 17, 1875), when it was
that Engelmann was on the wrong path:
Your other question, however, tells me that you have been con-
cerned with the second part of Goethe's Faust-otherwise you should
8 The coat and vest are Werther's burial clothes. The entire passage reads as
follows: "Das Quartett wird bloB als Kuriosum mitgeteilt! Etwa eine Illustration zum
letzten Kapitel vom Mann im blauen Frack und gelber Weste." Otto Gottlieb-Billroth,
ed., Billroth und Brahms im Briefwechsel (Berlin, 1935), 21 1. Another letter, this time to
his publisher, Simrock, conveys similar allusions, with an additional autobiographical
element: "Es taugt also der ganze Kerl nichts! AuBerdem diirfen Sie auf dem Titelblatt
ein Bild anbringen. Namlich einen Kopf-mit der Pistole davor. Nun k6nnen sie sich
einen Begriff von der Musik machen! Ich werde Ihnen zu dem Zweck meine Photo-
graphie schicken! Blauen Frack, gelbe Hosen und Stulpstifeln k6nnen Sie auch an-
wenden, da Sie den Farbendruck zu lieben scheinen." (The whole composition is good
for nothing! You can put on the title page a picture, namely that of somebody with a
pistol held to his head. Now you can get an idea of the music. I will send you my
photograph for those purposes. You can also use a blue coat, yellow trousers and boots
with it, since you like to print colors.) Brahms Briefwechsel, IX, 201.
9 Brahms Briefwechsel, XIII, 22.
10 "Jetzt sind wir natiirlich auf das neue Pistolenquartett aufs AuBerste gespannt.
Leider schrieben Sie nicht ob es bald kommt? Ihre Warnungen werden nichts fruchten!
Wir werden das Liebliche darin schon zu finden wissen. Warum muB aber der Mann,
den der Verleger auf dem Titelblatte vergessen hat, einen blauen Frack [und] eine
gelbe Weste haben? Da werden Sie uns schon zu Hilfe kommen miissen." (Now we are
naturally tense in the extreme about the new pistol quartet. Unfortunately, you have
not written of whether it will come soon! Your warnings are of no use! We already
know how to appreciate the loveliness of the work. But why must the man, whom the
publisher forgot to put on the title page, be dressed in a blue coat and yellow vest? You
must come to our help on this matter!) Ibid., XIII, 23.
have been thinking about Werther! Now, read the last chapter alou
to your little wife so that you might understand this quartet.,1
To be sure, these remarks may not be meant seriously, but

mann's response from the next day suggests that both he and h
accepted them as genuine.2 The evidence, therefore, suggest
Brahms's recurring allusion to Werther's clothing can be taken
instruction-for those who grasp the reference, of course-to
pret op. 60 in light of the last chapter of Goethe's book.l3
Taken together, these two cases point to a general principle
respect to Brahms: the very presence of a motto, or other lite
adjunct, demands that it be taken into consideration. And y
reception of works with such textual inclusions has generally fo
the mandate of the received view. Of course, there have been some
notable exceptions. As early as 1862, the critic Adolf Schubring ana-
lyzed the op. 5. Andante with respect to its literary source,14 and
Frederick Niecks's history of program music includes a discussion of
Brahms's contribution!'5 But for the most part, critics and historians
alike ignore, disregard, or dismiss the significance of such associa-
356 tions. In his Lives of the Great Composers, for instance, Harold C. Schon-
berg encourages overlooking a potential hermeneutic function when
he asserts point blank that Brahms composed not a note of program
. "Ihre andere Frage aber sagt mir daB Sie in Goethe von Faust II anfangen-
sonst hitten Sie [notwendig] an Werther denken mtissen! Nun lesen Sie Ihrer kleinen
Frau die letzten Capitel damit VerstindniB ftir das [Quartett] komme!" Ibid., 24-25.
12 "Meine Frau, die erst vor wenigen Monaten beim ersten Lesen des Romans ihre
[Tranen] nicht bemeistern konnte, ist nun so schn6de Ihnen sien zu lassen, blauer
Frack und gelbe Weste paBten ja auch auf Onkel Brisig, und das wire ihre Entschul-
digung daB sie den wahren Sinn Ihrer Zeilen nicht gefunden." (My wife, who could not
hold back her tears only a few months ago after first reading the novel, is now so
disgusted as to sew you a blue coat and yellow vest fit even for uncle Brisig as an
apology that she had not discovered the true meaning of your lines.) Ibid., 27.
13 Because the novella adopts an epistolary format, the "last chapter" presumably
refers to the last segment of the book, which recounts the hours before the suicide, the
suicide itself, and the covert burial.
14 Adolf Schubring, "Schumanniana Nr. 8: Die Schumann'sche Schule: IV. Jo-
hannes Brahms," Neue Zeitschriftfiir Musik LVI (1862), 109-12; reprinted as "Five Early
Works by Brahms," trans. Walter Frisch, in Brahms and His World, ed. Walter Frisch
(Princeton, 1990), 112-16. For a general discussion of Brahms in Schubring's series,
see Walter Frisch, "Brahms and Schubring: Musical Criticism and Politics at Mid-
Century," 19th-Century Music VII/3 (Spring 1984), 271-81.
15 Frederick Niecks, Programme Music in the Last Four Centuries: A Contribution to the
History of Musical Expression (London, 19o6), 446-47. Niecks's assessment stems from a
conception that identifies any music expressive of feeling as programmatic. By this
account, his study surveys instrumental and vocal music from the fifteenth to the be-
ginning of the twentieth century, a monumental undertaking indeed.
PARMER
music,'6 while Walter Frisch's recent overview of Bra

sic cites textual inclusions as evidence of folk influen
explore their potential for analysis.17 Although the W
tion has been widely known, no one has, to my know
looked beyond its obvious biographical ramifications.
The reasons for this neglect run deep. In her b
Brahms, Florence May dismisses literary adjuncts by
purity of musical meaning and expression. 8 The a
claims, expresses not verbal or visual images, but mu
ideas, which "act upon the nerves, emotions, [and
rectly through the sense of sound, ... are not depe
effect upon intermediate mental translation into ima
to the mind's eye, the vision of imagination" (285
acknowledges the role a literary work can play in the
cess,19 she fears that the presence of a poetic motto o
will encourage listeners to trivialize musical ideas. In
Instrumental music necessarily becomes either [imitativ

trative] the moment that material outside the domain o
accepted as of its essence, and it is thereby debased
357 from
the fine art of sound (287).
Just as music transcends the defined object of sight,

a typically Romantic vein, so too is it "capable of reac
limited impressions of which words are the symbols, a
the infinite" (290). Such discourse about the superiorit
the visual and verbal arts, though obsolete today, exp
that Brahms's literary adjuncts continue to be dismis
represents him as the champion of a music that surpa
language and representation, then accepting a work o
visual art as a valid hermeneutic aid jeopardizes his po
My aim in this essay can be put simply. Rather tha
special role Brahms's music has been made to serve
reception history, I intend to take his comments rega
neutic function of textual inclusions at face value. Do
imply that foreknowledge of literary adjuncts is a nec
16 Harold C. Schonberg, Lives of the Great Composers (New Yo

17 Walter Frisch, "From Classical to Modern," in Nineteenth-Ce
ed. R. Larry Todd (New York, 1990), 321.
18 Florence May, The Life of Johannes Brahms, Ist ed. (London
Curiously, this appendix is omitted in the 2nd edition.
19 "A composer of Absolute music may indeed, and often d
imagination by recalling a poem, a legend, a scene of nature or life
may leave a more or less definite impress on his music." Ibid., 285
for a "truer" understanding of the music in question. None

readings I develop aspire to the definitive or the complete and,
sequently, are subject to revision and refutation. But the v
taking these adjuncts seriously lies precisely in the potential the
for fresh insight, not only into well-known and frequently di
compositions, but also into aspects of Brahms's style, broadly de
But if we are to accept textual inclusions as an aid to under
ing a composition, how precisely are we to use them? The answ
believe, depends on what constitutes a "poetic idea." Accord
Carl Dahlhaus, the concept refers not to some literary imag
composer intends to express in music, but to the specifically m
thought conveyed in a particular configuration of tones, topoi,
thematic material, i.e., in the music itself.2o The implicit formal
this definition might seem unduly excessive, even regressive, b
think it is designed to avoid the commonly held misconception
musical work signifies the program, that the content of the mus
textual adjunct.21 Similarly, but to a lesser degree, Dahlhaus's f
lation, with its implicit emphasis on "sounding form in motion,"
us away from trivial "imitation" and "illustration," what I will re
358
collectively as the pictorial approach. The need for avoiding
pitfalls when taking literary adjuncts into consideration is evid
in two recent analyses of the second movement from the Third
Sonata.
Even though both studies are to be commended in their en-
deavor, they remain problematic in their over emphasis on only loca
correspondence between text and music. Detlef Kraus, for instance,
confines his discussion of the Sternau motto to only certain details
of the musical imagery (see Table 1).22 In his account of the move-
ment, George Bozarth moves beyond Kraus in two ways. From doc-
umentary evidence, he proposes that the motto refers to the poem in
20 For a fuller account of "poetic idea," see Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century

Music, trans. Bradford Robinson (Berkeley, 1989), 81-83.
21 In this respect, I agree with May: "A title or a motto placed above a short
pianoforte piece, an orchestral overture, or, in a very few cases, a symphony, may
sometimes stimulate the hearer's appreciation; but the music is not in such a case to be
taken as 'meaning' this or that in detail." May, The Life of Johannes Brahms, 285.
22 Detlef Kraus, "Das Andante aus der Sonate op. 5-Versuch einer Interpreta-
tion," in Johannes Brahms als Klavierkomponist: Wege und Hinweise zu seiner Klaviermusik
(Wilhelmshaven, 1986), 29-34. Adopting the pictorial approach, he hears falling twi
light in the descending arpeggios of mm. 1-lo, moonlight in the reiterated sixteenth
notes of mm. 11-24, the two lovers in the soprano-tenor dialogue of mm. 37-67, and
their blissful union in the conflation of the two melodies across mm. 68-76. Although
compositional events may portray these images, Kraus's account fails to consider 1) the
recurrence of these passages throughout the movement, 2) their transfigured appear-
ance in the coda, and 3) the progressive tonality, the most striking feature of this
movement. Bozarth offers similar criticisms in "Brahms's Lieder ohne Worte," 362 n. 26
PARMER
TABLE 1
Piano Sonata in E Minor, II, comparative formal

Thematic Measure Verses as Laid Out Tonal Strophes as Out Overall
Scheme Numbers by Kraus Scheme Laid by Bozarth Design
a 1-10 Der Abend dimmert I Strophe 1 A
b 11-24 das Mondlicht scheint
a 25-36
c 37-52 Da sind zwei Herzen IV Strophe 2 B
d 53-67 in Liebe vereint
ci 68-76 Und halten sich selig
d 77-91
ci 92-104
a 105-15 I Strophe 3 A
b 116-29
a 130-43
C2 144-56 IV - Coda/B'
e 157-63
c2 164-78
c2 179-86 Adagio
a 187-91
359
its entirety.23 Adopting a genetic model, he

movement derives its form, mood, and imag
poem, and consequently yields a wealth of an
theless, his account runs into similar problems.
details of imagery, he neglects accounting fo
expressive whole.25
Even though the Andante may depict or deri
"Junge Liebe," the hermeneutic approach I
returns these isolated events back into their larg
times textual, context. The methodology under
23 A document in Brahms's own hand, which is said to h

tion of Antonia Speyer-Kufferath and Edward Speyer, cont
the entire text. Although Bozarth reports that the where
unknown, he offers another one, preserved with Brahms
(August 21, 1855), which transcribes the entire poem her
As dur." Discussed in Ibid., 353 n. 20.
24 Ibid., 360. In contrast to Kraus's interpretation, Bozar
incipit to mm. 1-io. He derives the descending-third phr
ascending phrase (mm. 3-4) from the descent of twilight
tively. The shift to C-flat major equals the realm of the
rolling arpeggios (mm. 8-1 o) parallels their bliss. Coincidin
the B section of the ternary plan constructs its tender duet
the love scene itself, while the full intensity of passion ex
from the implied consummation. Like the third strophe, t
initial A section in varied form. The details of the analysis
25 He does, however, given an account of the sonata a
be schematized as follows. (1) Develop independent readings of

and text, a seemingly impossible task when one aims to show c
spondences, but one that must logically precede any compa
reading. (2) Search for points of contact between music and text
Lawrence Kramer has termed "convergences."26 These poin
extend from local to global levels, from particular words and i
to larger spans of narrative. (3) Finally, channel pertinent t
elements through these points of contact to produce an en
reading of the musical work. Sometimes, the resulting reading
allels the literary narrative exactly; at other times, the musical
tory seems to chart an independent expressive path. Regardless
extent to which music maps onto the text, however, the goal o
approach is to stimulate appreciation of the musical work in lig
its literary adjunct. As such, structural and expressive divergenc
still clarify poetic ideas, for the text can serve as a foil.27
In the context of the entire poem, the Sternau motto partici
in a movement from detached to involved utterance, for the pr
sion from third-person observation in the first strophe, to first
statements in the others reveals an observer obsessed with hol
360 fleeting image before his eyes:
Der Abend dimmert, das Mondlicht Twilight is falling, the moon

scheint, shining,
Da sind zwei Herzen in Liebe vereint there two hearts are united in love
Und halten sich selig umfangen. And keep themselves wrapped in
bliss.
Es weht und rauschet durch die Luft, Through the air, there is wafting and
rustling,
Als brachten die Rosen all ihren as if the roses brought forth all their
Duft, fragrance,
Als kimen die Englein gegange
Ich ktisse Dich zum ersten Ma
Ich ktisse Dich viel tausend M
Ich kiisse Dich immer wieder; I kiss you again and again;
Auf Deinen Wangen lange Zeit On your cheeks, for a long time,
Rollt manche Trane der Seligkeit roll many a blissful tear
Wie eine Perle nieder. like a pearl, downwards.
26 Lawrence Kramer, Music and Poetry: the Nineteenth Century and After (Ber
1984), 8-11.
27 For an application of this methodology elsewhere in Brahms, see my "Br
Song Quotation, and Secret Programs," 19th-Century Music XIX/2 (Fall 1995), 16
PARMER
Die Stunde verrauscht, der Morgen The hours linger on

scheint, appears,
Wir sind noch immer in Liebe ve- we are still united in love
reint
Und halten uns selig umfangen. and keep ourselves wrapped in bliss.
Es weht und rauschet durch die Luft, Through the air, there is wafting and
rustling,
Als brichten die Rosen all ihren as if the roses brought forth all their
Duft, fragrance,
Als kaimen die Englein gegangen.
Encoded in this encounter of you

cesses, one that fixes experienc
structural repetition in the secon
excessive preoccupation with the
while the third strophe notes th
even as morning breaks. If the
passes, the intensity of passion m
environment and, presumably, t
This antagonism can encourage
nary design of the Andante361as un
static and a developmental them
embodies the epitome of stasis
exemplifies this state quite litera
mm. 25-34 and in the reprise (m
On the other hand, the middle p
matic transformation and develo
curs when the opening soprano-t
into a single melody (Ex. 2b) an
blossoms into full-fledged song
process is heightened when the c
157-63) develops the song's head
164-78) further elaborates and
attempts to stabilize the musica
unaffected after a coda of this e
its grandiose unfolding at the re
28 The poem is notated by Brahms in

ment shortly after his death. See Geor
1859-60 and other Documents of his Li
(July-September 1983), 1 o. The transla
29 Both Kraus and Bozarth identify th
folksong "Steh' ich in finstrer Mitternac
verbal content to "Junge Liebe." I discuss
textual association in "Brahms, Song Qu
EXAMPLE 1. a. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 1-io.

Der Abend diimmert, das Mondlicht scheint
Da sind zwei Herzen in Liebe vereint
Und halten sich selig umfangen.
Sternau
Andante espressivo
V Ii
legato
4 tr
362
b. Piano Sonata in
b. Pia
Andante molto
A i ., - , __ __, _ . ,t .t I
PARMER
EXAMPLE 2. a. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 3

Poco piti lento Auflerst leise und zart
Low*- " - - = " I - --
b. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 67-74.
3 3 3
363
dim.
c. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 144-48.

Andante molto
144 espressivo
sempre les
deux Pedales
174-75), the A theme reappears in a concluding Adagio (mm

91), now transfigured into D-flat major, complete with a transc
tal plagal cadence (Ex. 3a). Although, in Bozarth's account, t
seems without parallel in its literary adjunct, the expressive tra
of the whole movement-the alternation of the contrasting the
their eventual juxtaposition and climactic expansion--parall
experience of the young lovers. Surprisingly, the three-lin
which Brahms provides turns out to exemplify in words th
process enacted across the Andante.3o
In the aforementioned Senff letter, Brahms asks that the mo
be placed above the first Andante for there are two in the son
The hermeneutic impact of the Sternau text would affect c
hension of only the first, if the second, entitled "Intermezzo:
blick," did not hark back to its earlier counterpart in several w
Within its clearly articulated ternary design with coda (mm. 1-1
23, 25-37, and 38-53, respectively), the movement transforms
features of the first Andante through a technique Kramer ident
"expressive doubling."32 The first thing to strike the listener
tonality: the Intermezzo flips the previous D-flat major into its
364
minor, B-flat minor, a veritable diffusal of the apotheosis signa
the progressive tonality. This reversal continues right down to
level of theme and motif. The delicate descending-third fig
opening the first Andante, for example, is reduced to only ess
(Ex. ib),33 while the pulsing accompaniment from the origi
comes fateful triplets (mm. 1-4) and, eventually, ominous trem
(mm. 25-29). Parallel doublings occur when the D-flat pedals
the first coda become a ponderous B-flat pedal, now tainte
fateful triplets, in the second. Not surprisingly, this expressive
tion extends to the domain of narrative plot. As in the first An
an accumulation of intensity across mm. 25-33 (via the crescen
registral expansion, and increased textural density) makes the
at, and prolongation of, the tonic major in mm. 33-37 prom
victorious conclusion. Whereas the first Andante culminates in an
30 A similar analysis is developed in Ann Besser Scott, "Thematic Transform

in the Music of Brahms: A Matter of Musical Alchemy," The Journal of Musico
Research XV/3 (1995), 193-200.
31 Brahms Briefwechsel, XIV, 5.
32 Lawrence Kramer, Music as Cultural Practice: 1800-1900 (Berkeley, 199
25.
33 Moreover, the manuscript shows that mm. 1-12 were to have been repea
the same fashion as in the first Andante. It is fitting that they are linked, for both
probably completed together before being incorporated into the larger sonata
may have been conceived of as a set of two pieces, or as part of a larger set of ly
character pieces.
PARMER
EXAMPLE 3. a. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 1

179
Adagio
P PP legato -.
"II
186
-p:A" -1 v ,I I , I 31-PC
pp
'
se
365
b.
37 > 8va
>accel. >
ilq fS i rJ >A i
ff> > > >
a temL-
41
> dim > rit. pp

F97, O',- [!9,O'1, F791 I I
fi,!
pp
46 r
,- ------
999M , ,to is .
A 46 ~> >
ecstatic climax, the second embodies a failed apotheosis, for

fateful triplets are pounded out in the bass voice, the majo
collapses back into the minor, and the A material returns
44-49 to reassert the original tonic. As if to emphasize this exp
gulf, Brahms leaves the most striking instance of doubling fo
end (cf. Exs. 3a and 3b). Both movements conclude with stat
of the main themes and a final plagal cadence, but the Inte
thoroughly distorts the B theme,34 strips the A theme to the b
textures, and reduces the transcendental plagal cadence (mm
91) to a resigned reiteration of the fateful triplet motif (mm. 5
This reading gains support from circumstantial documentar
dence. Kalbeck suggests that the "Rtickblick" Andante may hav
inspired by another Sternau poem, "Bitte," found with "Junge
in Brahms's apartment after his death, and a cursory glance at t
reveals its affinity with the poetic idea sketched above:35
O wuiBtest du, wie bald, wie bald Oh, if you only knew how soo
soon
Die Baume welk und kahl der Wald, trees wither and
ren,
366
Du warst so kalt und lieblos nicht you would not be so cold and love
less,
Und sahst mir freundlich ins Ge- you would look me in the face in a
sicht! friendly manner!
Ein Jahr ist kurz und kurz die Zeit, O
time
Wo Liebeslust und Gliick gedeiht, whe
Wie bald kommt dann der triibe how
Tag,
An dem verstummt des Herzens when the heart's beat is silenced.
Schlag.
O schau mich nicht so lieblos an, Oh, do not look at me so lovelessly,

Kurz ist die Zeit und kurz der Wahn! time is short and short is the delu-
sion!
Der Liebe Seligkeit und Gluick Love's blessedness and joy

Bringt keine Trane dir zuriick! bring back no tears to you!36
Just as the "Rfickblick" Andante transforms its counterpart into a

movement expressive of somber isolation, so too does "Bitte" turn the
images of "Junge Liebe" for the worse: summer love becomes wintry
desolation, wafting fragrances are replaced by withered trees and
34 This relationship is also noted in Kraus, "Das Andante aus der Sonate op. 5," 34;
and Bozarth, "Brahms's Lieder ohne Worte," 368.
35 Kalbeck, Johannes Brahms, I, 121. See also, Bozarth, "Brahms's Lieder Inven-
tory," 1lo.
36 Printed in Kalbeck. lohannes Brahms. I. 121. The translation is my own.
PARMER
barren woods, passionate heart beats are silenced, and

have dried up. The evidence clearly suggests that
within the musical and literary complex of op. 5, and
of "Bitte" certainly enhances the desolation of the "R
dante. "Bitte," however, cannot be deemed a stipul
junct. There can be no doubt that Brahms wanted his
foreknowledge of "Junge Liebe"--he published the fi
a motto, and he distributed copies of the poem to Cl
a few friends. No such evidence indicates that "Bitte" was to be re-
ceived in the same way. There is no poetic motto, and no evidence has
been uncovered to suggest it circulated amongst friends and acquain-
tances. As such, "Bitte" can be used only to corroborate the reading.
If, on musical grounds alone, the two Andantes clearly belong
together, then should not the hermeneutic impact of "Junge Liebe"
also extend to the Intermezzo? Although neither Kraus nor Bozarth
consider this possibility, it is clear, even without foreknowledge of
"Bitte," that the lover's embrace has been disengaged. Whereas the
first Andante culminated with an apparent union-the tonal and ex-
pressive joining of the themes at the Adagio, the second Andante not
367
only warps both themes, it also cuts that union asunder. In terms of
the antagonism between static and transformational themes, the
"Rtickblick" Andante can be read as the tragic culmination of the
transformational second theme from the first Andante and, as such,
exposes the first theme's attempts to enforce stability as futile. If
taking account of the whole poem, rather than just the motto, has
allowed the analysis to focus the developmental dialectic between the
two themes, extending its impact over to the Intermezzo not only
heightens the expressive gulf between the two movements, but it also
exposes "Junge Liebe" as a futile attempt to secure the fleeting expe-
rience of romantic love.
Even if Brahms does not specify, in the earlier quoted letter to
Senff, what precisely he means by "understanding," when used in the
manner outlined above, a literary adjunct clearly leads to a fresh
reading. Brahms has stipulated similar adjuncts for two other com-
positions, an early and a late character piece. No documentary evi-
dence exists to specify a hermeneutic function as in op. 5, but we can,
on the basis of that case, assert that these adjuncts have been included
for the same reason. Unlike the A-flat major Andante, Brahms seems
to have been less uncomfortable with including a literary adjunct in
the E-flat Major Intermezzo of 1892 (op. 117, no. 1), for its Auto-
graph transmits a poetic motto, a two-line refrain from a Scottish
ballad included in Herder's Stimmen der Volker, a German translation
of "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament" from Thomas Percey's Reliques of
Ancient English Poetry:
Schlaf sanft, mein Kind, schlaf Sleep softly my child, sleep sof
sanft und schbn! and beautifully!
Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me to see
sehn.
Together with this motto, Brahms's well-known characterization of

the opus as a collection of three lullabies37 has encouraged critics to
hear especially this first number as a cradle song.38 Indeed, the sub-
dued dynamics, regular periodicity, lilting six-eight time, harmonic
stasis, pedal-like notes, and a firmly established and unwavering E-flat
major tonality all contribute to a sense of stability and relaxation in the
A section (Ex. 4). This Stimmung extends into the contrasting middle
section (mm. 21-37) where its slowly rising arpeggios, metrical am-
biguity, and subdued presentation evoke a dream-like state (Ex. 5).39
Following Kalbeck's lead, Edwin Evans even proposes that these two
sections actually set the first two strophes of the ballad.4o
Evans is on the right track when he asserts that the Intermezzo
should be understood in terms of its motto, but, given that the Ster-
nau motto refers to "Junge Liebe" in its entirety, it seems likely that
the lullaby refrain should point us to not just the opening strophes,
368 but to the complete text as well. Some circumstantial documentary
evidence strengthens this hypothesis, for the source text, entitled
"Schottisches Wiegenlied einer Verlassenen," appears in the same
collection as "Bitte."4 4Within this broader literary context, Brahms's
motto, by itself an innocent lullaby, is given an ironic twist by being
embedded within an abandoned mother's lament:
Schlaf sanft, mein Kind, schlaf Sleep softly my child, sleep softly
sanft und schbn! beautifully!
Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me so to
sehn,
Und schlaifst du sanft, bin ich so If you slept softly I would be so
froh, happy,
Und wimmerst du-das sc
mich so!
37 See Rudolf von der Leyen, Johannes Brahms als Mensch und Freund: nach person-
lichen Erinnerungen von Rudolf von der Leven (Diisseldorf, 19o5), 82-83; and Kalbeck,
Johannes Brahms, IV, 278.
38 See, for example, Edwin Evans, Handbook to the Pianoforte Works of Johannes
Brahms (London, 1912; reprint, New York, 1970), 231.
39 According to Eric Sams, the slow, upwards arpeggiation that often appears in
connection with the idea of "Dreaming," as in "An eine Aeolsharfe," "Es triumte mir,"
"Es hing ein Reif," or "Der Tod, das ist die kuihle Nacht," could be an emblem of
dreaming. Eric Sams, Brahms Lieder (London, BBC, 1973), 9-
40 Evans, Handbook to the Pianoforte Works, 229-30; and Kalbeck, Johannes Brahms,
IV, 279-
41 See Bozarth, "Brahms's Lieder Inventory," i i 1.
PARMER
EXAMPLE 4. Intermezzo in E-flat major, mm. 1-2o.

Schlaf sanft mein Kind, schlaf sanft und schon!
Mich dauert's sehr, dich weinen sehn.
(Schottisch. Aus Herders Volksliedern)
Andante moderato
p dolce
1 r
369
I4~ g r- 0 :;I I I i mII

d F F i:dolce
., . .. poo
I It I I N k "
EXAMPLE 5. Intermezzo in E-flat major, mm. 21-37.

Piti adagio
21
pp sempre ma molto espressivo
24
LA 01 0 L " q .. . ' ,, : -
370
SP ----'- .
"
30 IIL
ii
lipl
PARMER
EXAMPLE 5. (continued)
33
Schlaf sanft, du kleines Mutterherz, Sleep softly, mother's little sweet-

Dein Vater macht mir bittern heart, 371
Schmerz. your father has hurt me bitterly.

Schlaf sanft, mein Kind, schlaf Sleep softly my child, slee
sanft und schin! and beautifully!
sehn.
Dein Vater, als er zu mir trat, When your father stepped towards
me
Und schlaf, so sanf, um Liebe bat, and begged so sweetly, oh

for my love,
Da kannt ich noch sein Trugge- I neither saw his deceitf
sicht,
Noch seine sule Falschheit nicht. nor his sweet falsehood.
Nun, leider! seh ich, seh ichs ein, Now, unfortunately, I see it, and
understand:
Wie nichts wir ihm nun beide sein. how both of us mean nothing to him.
sanft und schtan! and beautifully!
Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me so to see y
sehn.
Ruh sanft, mein S um ier, schlafe noch! Rest softly, my sweet, stay asleep!
Und wenn du aufwachst, Truggchle and if you wake up, then smile;
doch,
Doch nicht, wie einst dein Vater But not as your father once did,
that,
Der Michelnd mich so trogen hat. he who laughingly deceived me so.
May God preserve you! -though it

Behait dich Gott!--doch machts mir
Schmerz, hurts me
DaB du auch trigst sein G'sicht und
that you also carry his face and heart.
Herz.
sanft und sch6n! and beautifully!
Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me so to see you cry.
sehn.
Was kann ich thun? Eins kann ich What can I do? I can do one thing
noch, still:
Ihn lieben will ich immer doch! I want to love him forever more!
Wo er geh und stehe nah und Wherever he goes, both near and
fern, far,
Mein Herz soll folgen ihm so my heart shall gladly follow him.
gern.
In Wohl und Weh, wie's um ihn sei, In happiness and pain, whichever
seems his fate,
Mein Herz ihm immer, ihm wohne my heart will live in him forever.
bei.
372 Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me so to see you cry.
sehn.
Nein, schbner Kleiner, thu es nie; No, beautiful one, may it never be,
Dein Herz zur Falschheit neige nie; May your heart never be false.
Sei treuer Liebe immer treu, Be true in love, always true,
VerlaB sie nicht, zu wahlen neu; do not abandon it for something
new.
Dir gut und hold, verlaB sie nie- never abandon love which is
and pure,-
Angstseufzer, schrecklich driicken sighs of fear are terribly depre
sie!
Schlaf sanft, mein Kind, schlaf Sleep softly my child, sleep s
sanft und schan! and beautifully!
Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me so to see you c
sehn.
Kind, seit dein Vater von mir wich, My child, now that your fath
left me,
Lieb ich statt deines Vaters dich! I love you instead of him!
Mein Kind und ich, wir wollen My child and I, we want to live;
leben;
In Truibsal wird es Trost mir it will give me comfort in sorrow--
geben-
My child and I, full of bliss,
Mein Kind und ich, voll Seligkeit,
Vergessen Mannergrausamkeit- will forget the cruelty of men-
Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me so to see you cry.
sehn.
PARMER
Farewell,
Leb wohl denn, falscher therefore, false young
Jiingling,
wohl! man!
And may soll!

Der je kein Miidchen tdiuschen he deceive maidens never-
more!
Alas,
Ach jede, wiinsch ich, I wishauf
seh' that each maiden will
mich, learn from me
Trau keinem Mann und hute sich! that no man is true and protect
herself!
Wenn erst sie haben unser Herz, Once they capture our heart,
Forthin machts ihnen keinen they feel no pain--
Schmerz -
Mich dauerts sehr, dich weinen It troubles me so to see you cry.42
sehn.
Hardly intended for children, the poem adapts the lullaby to expose
a complex psychological situation in which the speaker is entangled.
Given her emotional state, it is possible to read the child's oscillation
between sleeping and waking as a symbol of the mother's now denied,
now felt, pain. As lines 3-4 of the first strophe suggest, the child's
whimpering underscores the mother's feelings such that her efforts 373to
lull the baby to sleep represent an attempt to quiet her own turmoil.
But, as the third strophe reveals, what troubles the mother is not so
much the crying child as it is that the child "carries the face and heart"
of the husband himself. Thus, by the end of the third strophe, the
dilemma is revealed. On the one hand, the mother must give in to the
instinct to care for her child. On the other, the child (as the offspring
of the father) serves to remind the mother of the pain from which she
seeks escape. The remainder of the poem attempts a futile resolution
of this conflict.43
An analytic approach that seeks to open the musical work to in-
terpretation in light of the text will be at pains to find any formal
convergence between the Intermezzo's ternary design and the poem's
strophic form. Parallels do occur, nevertheless, particularly in the
domains of harmonic scheme and continuity. Just as the refrain text
42 Johann Gottlieb von Herder, Sdmtliche Werke (Berlin, 1885; reprint ed.
Hildesheim, 1968), XXV, 164-66. The translation is my own.
43 In strophe four, asserting an unwavering love for the husband in spite of what
he has done allows the mother to care for the child. But her hope, expressed in the fifth
strophe, that the child will always be true in love, gives way to sighs of anxiety: her
desire to continue loving the husband cannot succeed. In strophe six, she transfers her
love for the husband onto the child and hopes that together they will forget his cruelty.
But her wish in the seventh strophe, that from her predicament other young women
will learn to distrust in young men, contradicts her desire to purge her memory, for
only memory of her bereavement in love can serve to caution others.
is embedded within an emotional quandary, so the seemingly

cent lullaby music participates in a dialectic of expressive oppo
The first disturbance comes in the transition, when the tonali
denly shifts to A-flat minor. This shift relies for its effect on b
conflict between minor and major, and the recognition that thi
sitional melody--presented first in bare octaves (m. 17), then i
left hand (m. 18), and finally in the right hand (mm. 19-20
lullaby theme itself! We could diminish the expressive signific
the transition by appealing to issues of form and harmony: a t
tion, merely an intermediary passage linking structurally mor
portant sections, need not concern a critical reading, while its m
ity simply prepares, via modal mixture, for the tonality of the
section, E-flat minor. But the sudden change of texture, dy
level, mode, and key, as well as the harmonic disjunction from
surrounding music, set this passage in relief. Taking note o
disruptions brings us to the critical convergence between musi
text: just as the mother sees the father's features in her child,
she recognizes her husband's true nature, so the sweet lullab
opens the Intermezzo is revealed to have a darker side. Wha
374 knowledge of the entire poem makes explicit is precisely what
mentators have generally ignored: a conflict between the seem
innocent lullaby style on the one hand, and its potentially n
transposition to A-flat-minor on the other.
Given this conflict, the middle section absorbs A-flat minor
the context of E-flat minor by linking the modality of the tran
with the pitch-center of the A section (Ex. 5). The ensuing
which divides into two similar phrases, each with cadential exte
follows a course of almost consistently descending-fifth progre
a veritable elaboration of the fifth relation established when E-flat
major moved down to A-flat minor. But the synthesis is undermi
when the consequent phrase turns E-flat into a secondary dominan
m. 37, a misfiring that implies A-flat minor as the local tonal goal
the middle section opened with a reconciliation of opposites, it cl
with one of the elements winning out over the other.
Just as the middle section abruptly countered the disruptive eff
of the transition, so the reprise dodges this tonal, and hence expr
sive, implication by simply reinstating the original tonic, E-flat
jor.42 Pertinent to the dialectic between E-flat and A-flat is the dela
the tonic, when, in m. 53, the chord of the subdominant interrupts
42 This section recapitulates a shortened version of the first section with

minor change: the canon at the octave in mm. 50-51 is the culmination of the text
implications of transferring the melody to the bass voice in the A section and transit
PARMER
EXAMPLE 6. Intermezzo in E-flat major, mm. 49-
49
Sdolce
espress.
51
54 rt
375
- dim. I di
I- I
fina
flow
abso
E-fla
clari
tion
and
A-fl
Alth
Inte
pany
43 Bo
crede
Inter
first
princ
attempts a resolution of the conflict established across the first

strophes. But the final strophe implies that the desire to forg
husband conflicts with the mother's self-imposed obligation to
sent for other women an example of male infidelity. The resolu
futile. In a musical context, the second Intermezzo can be heard as
renegotiating the progression of descending fifths explored in the
first, for A-flat-which figured so prominently as the goal of a
descending-fifth progression in the first Intermezzo-is, in m. 17,
made to function as the dominant of D-flat in mm. 22-23. Thus, just
as the mother continues to reconcile herself to her situation, so does
the music continue its reckoning with A-flat.44
Given such music-text relations, it should come as no surprise that
the third Intermezzo, in C-sharp minor, is, according to Kalbeck,
bound up with another text from Herder's anthology of Scottish folk-
songs.45 Known as "Wehgeschrei der Liebe" or "Herzweh," this poem
follows "Schlaf sanft, mein Kind" in Brahms's personal collection and
can be read as the culmination of the abandoned mother's grief:46
O weh! o weh, hinab ins Thal, Oh woe, oh woe! down into the
376 valley,
Und weh, und weh den Berg and woe, and woe, up the moun-
hinan! tain!
Und weh, weh, jen
there,
Wo er und ich zusammen kam! where he and I met!
Ich lehnt' mich an ein'n Eichen- I leant on a trunk of an oak,
stamm,
Und glaubt', ein treuer Baum es and believing it to be a trusty tree,
sei,
B-flat minor (mm. 1-22), introduces the main thematic material, arpeggiated figura-
tion with an implied melody in the top-most voice. The second, in D-flat major (mm.
23-38), employs this implied melody as its main theme. After an intervening retran-
sition based on the A material (mm. 39-51), the third section recapitulates the first in
B-flat minor (mm. 57-72). Finally, the coda, which begins in B-flat major (mm. 73-85),
replays the music of the middle section, first in the tonic major, then in the tonic minor.
Other convergences of detail further strengthen Bozarth's proposal. The melodic ma-
terial in the B section of the second piece (mm. 27-30o) bears a tenuous resemblance to
the material in the B section of the first (mm. 23-24). In addition, the expressive
doubling that occurs when the lullaby is transposed to A-flat minor is explored on a
larger-scale, albeit in reversed form, when the second Intermezzo replays the opening
B-flat minor theme in D-flat major, its relative major.
44 The other pertinent event occurs in the coda. Here, the musical process adopts
both the theme and local modality of the middle section to turn the overall modality of
the composition from the minor to the parallel major. But this optimistic resolution is
quickly side-stepped in mm. 80-82, when B-flat minor reenters to close the piece with
a full cadence in the original mode. Thus, just as the mother fails to resolve her
emotional predicament, so the music's attempt to end in the major mode is undermined
by the reappearance of the tonic minor.
45 Kalbeck, Johannes Brahms, IV, 280.
46 See Bozarth, "Brahms's Lieder Inventory of 1859-60," 1 11.
PARMER
the trunk
Der Stamm gab nach, der Ast,gave
derway, the branch
brach; broke,
So mein Treulieb' ist ohne Treu! thus is my true love, untrustwor-
thy!
O weh, weh, wenn die Lieb ist won- Oh woe, woe, for love is happy
nig
Ein' Weile nur, weil sie ist neu! only a while, while it is new!
Wird sie erst alt, so wird sie kalt, Once it becomes old, then it becomes
cold,
Und ist wie Morgentau vorbei! and passes away like morning dew!
O wofor kimm' ich nun mein Haar? Oh, why do I comb my hair?
Od'r, wofor schmock' ich nun Oh, why do I now adorn my head?
mein Haupt?
Mein Lieb hat mich verlassen, My love has left me,
Hat mir mein Herz geraubt! he has stolen my heart!
Nun Arthurs-Sitz soll sein mein Bett, Now Arthur's chair should be my
bed,
Kein Kissen mehr mir Ruhe sein! no cushion will ever give me rest!
Sanct Antons-Brunn soll sein mein St. Anton's well should be my drink,
Trank,
Seit mein Treulieb ist nicht mehr since my true love is no longer 377
mein! mine!
MartinmeBwind, wann willt du Oh wind of St. Martin's Day, when
wehn, will you
Und wehen's Laub von Biumen blow, blowing the leaves off the
her? trees?
Und, lieber Tod, wann willt du and beloved death, when will you
komm'n? come?
Denn ach, mein Leben ist mir for my life, alas, weighs heavily
schwer! upon me!
's ist nicht der Frost, der grausam It is not the frost, which pricks
sticht, cruelly,
Noch wehn den Schnees Unfreund- nor the blowing snow's unfriendli-
lichkeit, ness,
's ist nicht die Kilt', die macht mich it is not the chilliness that makes me
schrei'n, scream,
's ist seine kalte Hirtigkeit. it is his cold callousness.

Ach, als wir kam'n in Glasgostadt, Alas, when we approached Glasgow
city,
Wie wurden wir da angeschaut! how we were admired there!
Mein Briutigam gekleid't in Blau, My bridegroom dressed in blue,

Und ich in Rosenroth, die Braut. and I the bride in rose red!
Hitt' ich gewuBt, bevor ich kiBt', Had I known before I kissed,
DaB Liebe bringet den Gewinn, that love brings such a result,
H~tt' eingeschloss'n in Golden- I would have enclosed my heart in a
schrein golden
shrine and locked it proudly

Mein Herz, und's fest versiegelt
drin! therein!
O! o, war nur mein Kniblein da, Oh! oh! if only my little lad were
there,
Und siB auf seiner Amme Knie, if only he were sitting on his
nurse's knee,
Und ich war todt, und war hinweg, if only I were dead and on the way
Denn was ich war, werd' ich doch out:
nie! for what I was, I never will be!47
Like its precursor, "Herzweh" contains two contradictor

one in which the mother acknowledges her grief, the othe
she denies her situation. In strophe one, she likens her
an apparently reliable branch that breaks under the first w
strophe two, she attempts to allay her anxiety by admittin
transience of love, but in strophe three she nevertheless ho
manner of discomfort and longs for escape through dea
knowledgment of his coldness in the fourth strophe leads
fifth, to propose that foreknowledge of his nature could h
vented her loss. In contrast, she also engages in activities th
378
deny such acknowledgments. In strophe two, she continues
herself even though she knows that her love has left, while
four she recalls how they would have looked on their wedd
That the opening lines can be sung to the tune of the In
suggests, as in the E-flat Major Intermezzo, that Brahms d
melody from the metrical structure of the poem, and a rea
music in terms of its putative poetic source reveals that it
the dialectic set out in the first Intermezzo.48 Indeed, not o
expressive doubling of the opening lullaby, but also the tr
nation of the underlying progression of descending fifths
between E-flat and A-flat in the first Intermezzo, is extende
in the second, which in turn becomes C-sharp minor in th
abandoned mother finally concedes defeat.49 As with "Bitte
47 Herder, Sdmtlicher Werke (Hildesheim, 1968), XXV, 202-04. The tr

my own.
48 This, the most formally regular of the opus, consists of three relatively self-
contained sections. The gloomy first section, in C-sharp minor, contains only two dis-
tinct phrases laid out as "a a b b a a b b a." The warmer middle section, in A major, is
cast in a rounded binary form, "c c d c d c." A retransition (mm. 77-81) leads to a
truncated reprise, "a a bb a."
49 Kalbeck goes so far as to link the A-major section with the last four lines of the
fourth strophe, as well as the reprise with the last line of the poem. Kalbeck, Johannes
Brahms, IV, 280-81. These claims are not without foundation. The fourth strophe
contains the only hopeful lines of the poem, albeit expressed with some sense of irony
PARMER
stantial evidence can justify using the last portion

Bothewell's Lament," as well as "Herzweh" in its entir
orate a reading of the other two intermezzos. But mor
foregoing analysis, in conjunction with Brahms's rem
that this opus is not a collection of similar character
expressively unified whole.5o
A similar case can be built up for the op. io ball
Kalbeck suggests that, unlike the three lullabies of o
"Ballade" merely offered a way of grouping four sim
single opus,51 one can be convinced to hear in mm
of no. 3 echoes of mm. 49-50 and 1-3 from no. 2 resp
connections abound. Homophonic textures link nos. 1
all but the last are cast in ternary form. As well, mu
appear in nos. 1 and 3: open fifths in no. 1 (mm.
cadences in no. 3, and chordal writing with root-posi
both (mm. 9ff and 9off respectively). The strongest e
the tonal realm. The opus spans only two closely relat
and B minor (for nos. 2 and 3 respectively), as wel
opposites, D minor and B major (for nos. 1 and 4 r
379
contrasting section in no. 2 itself oscillates between B
jor. In fact, the emphasis on B as a tonal center for n
be viewed as expansions of the brief tonicization of B
(mm. 35-37). The section in D-sharp minor in no. 3 co
viewed as the amplification of the even briefer tippin
in no. I (mm. 32-43), the enharmonic dominant of
Kalbeck speculates that there may have been poem
of these numbers,52 but, unfortunately, Brahms stip
text above the expressive mark, the well-known "Edw
only the first: "Nach der schottischen Ballade: 'Edu
'Stimmen der V lker' " (after the Scottish Ballade: "E
er's "Voices of the People"). Nevertheless, just as the
and i17 can refer to their complete source texts, so t
invites listeners to locate and read this grim tale of
or nostalgia. And the very last musical phrase (mm. 103-o08), a slo
statement of the main theme, made all the more tragic by bein
parallels the desolation expressed in the last line of text.
50 Jonathan Dunsby makes a similar claim for the op. 116 Fa
Multi-Piece in Brahms: Fantasien op. 116," in Brahms: Biographica
Analytical Studies, ed. Robert Pascall (Cambridge, 1983), 167-90.
51 Kalbeck, Johannes Brahms, I, 19o.
52 Ibid.
Dein Schwert, wie ist's von Blut so Your sword, why is it so red with
rot? blood?
Edward, Edward! Edward, Edward!
Dein Schwert, wie ist's von Blut so Your sword, why is it so red with
rot?-Oh! blood?-Oh!
O ich hab geschlagen meinen Oh
Geier
I have struck my falcon dead,
tot,
Mutter, Mutter! Mother, mother!
O ich hab geschlagen meinen Geier Oh I have struck my falcon dead,
tot,
Und keinen hab ich wie er-Oh! and I have no other like him-Oh!
Deins Geiers Blut ist nicht so rot, Your falcon's blood is not so red,
Deins Geiers Blut ist nicht so rot, Your falcon's blood is not so red,
Mein Sohn, bekenn mir frei-Oh! My son, confess it to me freely-Oh!
O ich hab geschlagen mein RotroB Oh I have struck my chestnut dead,
tot,
O ich hab geschlagen mein RotroB Oh I have struck my chestnut dead,
tot,
Und's war so stolz und treu-Oh! and he was so proud and faithful-
380 Oh!
Dein RoB war alt und hast's nichtYour not, horse was old and you've no
need of him,
Dein RoB war alt und hast's nicht not, Your horse was old and you've no
need of him,
Dich driickt ein andrer Schmerz- another affliction oppresses-Oh!
Oh!
O ich hab geschlagen mein' Vater tot, Oh I have struck my father dead,
O ich hab geschlagen mein' Vater tot, Oh I have struck my father dead,
Und weh, weh ist mein Herz-Oh! and my heart is in anguish, anguish
-Oh!
Und was fuir BuBe willt du nun tun? And what atonement will you ma
now?
Und was fur BuBe willt du nun tun? And what atonement will you make
now?
Mein Sohn, bekenn mir mehr-Oh! My son, tell me more-Oh!
Auf Erden soll mein FuB nicht ruhn, My foot shall never rest on earth,
Mutter, Mutter! Mother, Mother!
Auf Erden soll mein FuB nicht ruhn, My foot shall never rest on earth,
Will gehn fern iibers Meer-Oh! I want to go far over the sea-Oh!
Und was soll werden dein Hof und And what shall become of your
Hall? house and home?
PARMER
Und was soll werden dein Hof und And what shall become of your
Hall? house and home?
So herrlich sonst und sch6n-Oh! So lordly and beautiful otherwise-

Oh!
Ich laB es stehn, bis es sink und fall,I will let it stand until it sinks and
falls,
Ich laB es stehn, bis es sink und fall,I will let it stand until it sinks and
falls,
Mag nie es wiedersehn-Oh! I never want to see it again-Oh!
Und was soll werden dein Weib und And what shall become of your wife
Kind? and child?
Und was soll werden dein Weib und And what shall become of your wife
Kind, and child,
Wenn du gehst tibers Meer?-Oh! When you go over the sea?-Oh!
Die Welt ist gro8, laB sie betteln drin, The world is large, let them beg
therein,
Die Welt ist groB, laB sie betteln drin, The world is large, let them beg
therein,
Ich seh sie nimmermehr-Oh! Nevermore will I see them-Oh! 381
Und was willt du lassen deiner Mut- And what will you leave your dear
ter teur? mother?
Und was willt du lassen deiner Mut- And what will you leave your dear
ter teur? mother?
Mein Sohn, sag mir-Oh! My son, tell me-Oh!
A curse I will leave you and hell's
Fluch will ich euch lassen und h6l-
lisch Feuer, fire,
A curse I will leave you and hell's
Fluch will ich euch lassen und h6l-
lisch Feuer, fire,
Denn Ihr, Ihr rietet's mir!-Oh! because you, you counselled me to do
it-Oh!53
Discussion of the ballade in relation to its poetic source generally

focuses on genesis. Kalbeck, for instance, points out that the words fit
underneath the "tune," an observation suggesting that, as in the outer
53 Printed in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder (New

York, 1980), 197-98. The translation is my own. Brahms probably came to know this
poem through his acquaintance with Julius Allgeyer, a student of copper-plate engrav-
ing. Although no evidence directly links Allgeyer with opus. lo, he is the dedicatee for
the op. 75 duets of which the first is a setting of the "Edward" ballade. May, The Life of
Johannes Brahms, I, 173.
Intermezzos of op. 1 17, the melody is a setting of the text.54 Pa

takes this supposition one step further when he asserts that th
lade began as a song before being reconceived for the piano.
frequent are examples of the pictorial approach. Robert Schauf
for instance, characterizes the music as a vivid depiction of the
but undermines this when he asserts that the musical tragedy
unspecific that it could relate to any tragedy.56 James Para
think, is on a better track when he points to those musical trai
relate to the generic characteristics of the literary ballade.57 A
critics, however, ignore the hermeneutic approach, a striking
sion, since, pace Schauffler, the music converges with the speci
this poem on several levels.
Although the ternary design of the ballade does not fit the
strophe structure of the poem, the question-and-answer schem
courages listeners to hear the alternation between two cont
themes as a musical dialogue. The alternation is most appar
the A section (mm. 1-26), where differences in tempo, contour
texture bear out the disparity between the two themes (Ex. 7).5
some changes, the opposition is borne out in the next insta
382
of the dialogue (mm. 14-26).59 Rather than continue this pa
Brahms constructs a contrasting middle part (mm. 27-43) b
veloping elements from the A section. Here, the musical f
cumulates intensity through crescendos, sequential repeti
heavier articulations, thicker sonorities, and registral expan
54 Kalbeck,Johannes Brahms, I, 19o. The observation, however, applies to o

opening phrases; thereafter, the underlay is achieved with difficulty. For a
discussion of the Scottish influence on Brahms's music, see Roger Fiske, "Brah
Scotland," Musical Times CIX (December 1968), 1106-07 and 11o09-11.
55 Paul Mies, "Herders Edward-Ballade bei Joh. Brahms," Zeitschriftfiir Mu
senschaft II (1919-20), 225-32.
56 Robert Haven Schauffler, The Unknown Brahms: His Life, Character and
Based on New Material (New York, 1933; reprint, Westport, CT, 1972), 365-
57 James Parakilas, Ballades Without Words: Chopin and the Tradition of the
mental Ballade (Portland, 1992), 139-43. Frisch does not even consider th
asserting that "it is probably a mistake for a listener or critic to attach too much
to Brahms's titles beyond a general indication of Stimmung or mood." See h
Classical to Modern," in Nineteenth-Century Piano Music, 336.
58 The first theme, marked Andante, is distinctive for its open fifths an
octaves, its disjunct motion, and homophonic texture (mm. 1-8), while the
theme, marked Poco piui moto, uses fuller sonorities, is almost entirely conju
features contrary motion between the outer voices (mm. 9-13).
59 Measures 14-21 present the questioning theme unchanged, save for t
chord, a dominant of B-flat which steers the tonality toward the submedia
outer voices exchanged, the responding theme (mm. 22-26) answers in B-f
returns the tonality to the dominant of G minor.
PARMER
EXAMPLE 7. "Edward" Ballade, mm. 1-26.

Nach der schottoschen Ballade: "Edward" in Herders "Stimmen der V61ker"
Andante
SP P dimin.
PP
5 Poco piU moto
* P
Temposostenuto
383
11
piW' moto
22
I - 11
sostenuto s
both directions, all of which reach an apex at mm. 42-43.6

dialogue continues with an eruptive presentation of the se
theme, now fortissimo, and transposed up an octave (mm. 44-4
energy dissipates across the subsequent measures as sequential r
tition of the second theme, underscored by ominous triplet pe
moves the tonality through C minor and E-flat major before a
at the global dominant, A major, in mm. 58-59. All of thi
devastating effect on the reprise (mm. 60-71). So forceful is th
vious statement of the second theme, that the return presents
single statement of the first theme, now distorted through sy
tion, appoggiaturas, and a staccato triplet pulse (Ex. 8).61 Rathe
restate the second theme, a concluding phrase (mm. 65-71), rea
expansion of mm. 6-8, brings the piece to a close.62
In addition to dialogic alternation, another feature of th
resonates with the music in deeper ways. Though strophic in f
the poem divides into two unequal parts. Strophes 1-3 culmi
criminal confession, while the remaining four outline modes o
ance.63 The movement toward full disclosure charted in pa
proceeds incrementally. The first line presents the initial evide
384
a crime--the son wields a blood-stained sword--which spur
mother's questions. To her first two queries, he substitutes his
and horse for the real owner of the blood, but to her third he r
the true victim, his father.64 In strophes 4-6, the mother's na
questions reveal various punishments the son chooses for hi
voluntary exile, abandonment of house, wife, and child. The co
the'dtre comes in the final strophe, however, when the mothe
6o Even the harmonic motion contributes to this process. After a rising ste
sequence across mm. 31-34 leads the local tonic, D major, to its mediant,
minor, the musical process reaches a temporary tonal plateau on B major (mm
Thereafter, wedge-like motion in upper and lower voices brings the tonality b
triumphant D major. Here the music remains for two measures, before an F-na
m. 47 tilts the modality from the major to the parallel minor to allow the emer
B-flat major triads in mm. 48-49, the registral highpoint of the entire compo
6' The dislocating effect is made all the more palpable by the direction to p
phrase sotto voce and piano.
62 The recapitulation of the questioning theme strays so from the pattern
in music and poetry, that it encouraged Michael Musgrave to assert that the
represents the father as victim! See his The Music of Brahms (Oxford, 1983), 24
63 As such, this ballad exemplifies what James Parakilas identifies as "the
process," the provocation and meting out of justice. Parakilas, Ballades without
34-39-
64 Although this substitution of the father with the animals initially conceals
true victim, the exchange actually exposes the son's emotional state. His heart is in
anguish, not only because he has killed his father, but also because like the falcon
son has no other like his father, and like the horse, his father was so proud and faith
Accordingly, the first three stanzas reveal not only murder, but also, surprisingly, a
of motive.
PARMER
EXAMPLE 8. "Edward" Ballade, mm. 57-71.
dim ma sempre in temTempoIpo
P sottO voce
PP P
385
what will become of he

sibility for the crime onto her: she
sibility forbade him to the
do it. 65 This revelation
crime o
65 Of course, the son might be so overwhelmed by his deed that to allay his anxiety
he transfers responsibility to the mother. The poem, however, seems designed in such
a way as to make this reading much less dramatic than the one which puts the onus on
the mother, whose true guilt and responsibility, so repressed throughout the entire
ballade, has been now completely revealed. Ironically, the mother's questions are her
own undoing, for it is their persistence that reveal her complicity. Thus, the entire
ballad process, at first directed at the son, eventually reflects back onto the mother, the
real perpetrator of the crime.
effectively reverses their relationship. Whereas throughout the

the mother retains power by asking questions, at the end of th
she loses it in the wake of her son's charge at the same time as
extent is revealed.
The reversal can induce listeners to hear the climax of the middle
section and reprise similarly. Whereas in the A section, the first them
always preceded the second, at the end of the middle section, th
second precedes the reprise of the first. Other reversals occur locally
The first two sections of music reverse mode: D minor becomes D
major. Measures 22-26 exchange the bass and soprano voices
mm. 9-13. Across the middle section, the ascending bass figu
cedes into an accompanimental texture, while the triplet figure a
primary melodic interest by m. 35. Finally, the closing melody
65-91) is an inverse mirror image of itself, the axis of symmetry
the perfect fifth between D and A.
The most telling musical reversal occurs with respect to
perfect fifth, however. Despite the differences between the
themes, they have in common, as Giinther Wagner has obser
descending-fifth motif, and are thus occupied with the same m
386
subject matter, but, I would add, in different ways.66 Whereas the
theme introduces the motif in its "pure" form, as an open fifth
second prolongs it by filling it in. This difference would be a d
ence without significance if it were not for the last phrase o
reprise (mm. 65-71). Here, the melody traces a stepwise descent
A-via its upper neighbor, B-flat-down to the tonic, D-via its
ing tone, C-sharp. When considered in light of the text, this re
takes on more concrete expressive significance. Throughou
poem, the mother has urged the son to reveal the truth, bu
persistence has self-defeating results when her son uncover
mother's implication in patricide. The fact that the mother offe
response implies her guilt: her silence can be used against her. In
musical work, the various reversals force the first theme to conce
the second by filling in its previously open fifth. Although a b
reference to the tonic major in m. 67 promises more optimistic
sure, the subsequent F-naturals pull the tonality back into the d
66 See Gtinther Wagner, Die Klavierballade um die Mitte dies 19. Jahrhun
(Munchen, 1976), 78. Most obvious in mm. 2-3, the interval can be heard structu
the melodic contour of m. 1 and the transposition of that contour down a fifth i
The interval also appears in mm. 6-8, where the descent form G to C-sharp in t
voice, and the descents from E-flat to B-flat and B-flat to F in the lower middle
serve as attenuated versions of the motif. The response theme also utilizes the de
ing fifth. Its initial gesture (m. 9) consists of a filled in fifth, a similar fifth can be
in the bass voice in m. 10o, and, as was pointed out before, the transposition of the
from G to C minor is by perfect fifth as well.
PARMER
minor mode, solidifying the concession. If, in the poe

given as evidence for complicity, in the music the fin
interval forces the first theme to accept the implicati
theme in full.67
Clearly, poetic mottos, as well as their complete sources, can serve
the same hermeneutic function that Liszt asserts for a full-length
programmatic preface, and as such, they seem to run counter to the
received view of Brahms. Using them as interpretive aids reveals how
Brahms uses peculiar formal and harmonic devices to express hidden,
or perhaps generally overlooked, narrative plots. In addition to the-
matic development and its sonata-based dialectic, the "Edward" Bal-
lade deploys what Leonard B. Meyer might call a gap-fill structure to
articulate its peculiar expressive trajectory--Brahms's analogue for
the ballade process embodied in the source text.68 The form might
follow a ternary plan, or more precisely an arch form, but the expres-
sive trajectory of the music is to be found in elements that cut across
the boundaries of the design.
While this device, and the narrative implications it possesses, co-
exist with the formal outline in this particular case, the expressive
387
doubling in the "Ruckblick" Andante encourages a full revision of
form in the "Junge Liebe" Andante. Generally, critics identify the
A-flat Andante as ternary with extended coda, a classification that
seems problematic on several counts. Not only does it make for a
rather long coda, it also obscures the tonal and thematic balance be-
tween the four main sections: two A sections in A-flat major, two
contrasting sections in D-flat major, with a concluding Adagio that
sums up the two themes. Rather than fit the movement into some a
priori ternary plan, we should, as Claudio Spies attempts in his dis-
cussion of the Tragic Overture,69 construct a plan that fits the music. In
light of the proportional relation between each of the four main sec-
tions, I propose that this movement follows not a ternary form, but a
double binary form, A B A B' with coda. To be sure, the resulting
structure would diminish Bozarth's derivation of the movement's
form from that of the poem, but it would, within the context of the
67 Given the obvious biographical connection to Schumann's attempted suicide

and eventual demise, it is interesting to note that the closing phrase contains what Sams
would call a Clara cipher, in the notes F-E-D-C-sharp-D! See his "Brahms and his
Musical Love Letters," The Musical Times CXII (1971), 329-30; and "Brahms and his
Clara Themes," The Musical Times CXII (1971), 432-34.
68 Leonard B. Meyer, Explaining Music: Essays and Explorations (Chicago, 1973),
145-57-
69 Claudio Spies, "'Form' and the Tragic Overture: an Adjuration," in Brahms
Studies: Analytical and Historical Perspectives, ed. George Bozarth (Oxford, 1990), 391-98.
narrative plot I have developed for the movement, better reflec

the thematic dialectic and the transformation of the B theme into
passionate song in B'.
Just as the entire literary text opens up an apparently more co
prehensive perspective on the A-flat Andante, so too does the co
plete poetic source for the E-flat major Intermezzo reveal disturb
harmonic disjunctions underlying its innocent lullaby melody. Th
disjunctions in turn point to a dialectic between a stabilizing E
major and the tendency of its subdominant to become, on th
hand, minor, and, on the other, a dominant in itself. Although t
Intermezzo seems to reconcile this conflict, the dialectic is taken u
the subsequent numbers, first with a modulation to D-flat in th
ond Intermezzo and, finally, a turn to its expressive opposite, C-sh
minor. In all three cases, the findings could have been reached w
out recourse to their respective literary adjuncts: having forekn
edge of them is not a necessary condition for understanding.
But it certainly helps. Indeed, using them as hermeneutic
leads to analytical findings that in turn open questions about Brah
style in general and how it is approached. Recent scholarship t
388 to be guided by a desire to extract a thread of continuity from
vicissitudes of his music, both within movements and across multi-
movement compositions and collections. Frisch's account of the im-
portance of developing variation, for example, seeks to uncover
thematic cohesion throughout the oeuvre at the expense of disconti-
nuity.7o I am not debunking this endeavor; developing variation is
certainly an integral feature of Brahms's style. I am merely pointing
out its inherent danger. While critics seek strategies for asserting
continuity, they all too often explain away formal irregularities, the-
matic discontinuities, and harmonic disjunctions, the very stuff that
invites interpretation.
Even in cases where no literary adjuncts exist, taking such anom-
alies, for lack of a better term, into account can open fresh perspec-
tives onto the poetry of Brahms's music. As such, they can return
Brahms to his rightful place in the history of "poetic music."71 Indeed,
70 See his Brahms and the Principle of Developing Variation (Berkeley, 1984). Robert
Bailey builds a strong case for structural and expressive unity for the Third Symphony
in his "Musical Language and Structure in the Third Symphony," in Brahms Studies:
Analytical and Historical Perspectives, ed. George Bozarth (Oxford, 1990), 405-21.
71 According to Dahlhaus, the idea of poetic music dominated early-nineteenth-
century aesthetics, particularly in piano music. For a general discussion with respect to
Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt, see his Nineteenth-Century Music, 142-52. Poetic music
refers not so much to works based on or influenced by poetry, but to a quality that
transcends the pictorial, affective, or virtuosic. It is this quality, I think, that May is at
pains to protect from the trivializing tendencies of pictorialism and verbal translations.
PARMER
his contribution not only suggests that the genre con

degree well into the second half of the century, but a
integral paradox all the more, and in precisely the sam
Ann"es de pelerinage, that "music, by liberating itself fro
becomes poetry."72 If music becomes poetic by libera
literature, it is not through dissociation. Music becom
cause its poetry, the arrangement of its musical ideas
stands on its own even when a poetic adjunct helps us
more clearly. Taking seriously Brahms's poetic mottos
only makes us aware of aspects of his music that requir
it also reveals a poetry that has gone unheard for too
University of Ottawa
72 Ibid., 142-43. of course, "poetry" has two different meani

locution: the former refers to a type of literature, the latter to an
389

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Brahms and the Poetic Motto: A Hermeneutic Aid?

Author(s): Dillon Parmer

According to Franz Liszt, a program is a

Volume XV * Number 3 * Summer 1997

' Cited and discussed in Robert Scruton, The Aesthetic Understandin

connections to literature characterizing Mendelssohn's.4 If his or

To be sure, these remarks may not be meant seriously, but

music,'6 while Walter Frisch's recent overview of Bra

Instrumental music necessarily becomes either [imitativ

Just as music transcends the defined object of sight,

16 Harold C. Schonberg, Lives of the Great Composers (New Yo

for a "truer" understanding of the music in question. None

20 For a fuller account of "poetic idea," see Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century

Piano Sonata in E Minor, II, comparative formal

its entirety.23 Adopting a genetic model, he

23 A document in Brahms's own hand, which is said to h

be schematized as follows. (1) Develop independent readings of

Der Abend dimmert, das Mondlicht Twilight is falling, the moon

Die Stunde verrauscht, der Morgen The hours linger on

Encoded in this encounter of you

28 The poem is notated by Brahms in

EXAMPLE 1. a. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 1-io.

EXAMPLE 2. a. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 3

Low*- " - - = " I - --

b. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 67-74.

c. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 144-48.

174-75), the A theme reappears in a concluding Adagio (mm

30 A similar analysis is developed in Ann Besser Scott, "Thematic Transform

EXAMPLE 3. a. Piano Sonata in F minor, II, mm. 1

> dim > rit. pp

ecstatic climax, the second embodies a failed apotheosis, for

O schau mich nicht so lieblos an, Oh, do not look at me so lovelessly,

Der Liebe Seligkeit und Gluick Love's blessedness and joy

Just as the "Rfickblick" Andante transforms its counterpart into a

barren woods, passionate heart beats are silenced, and

Together with this motto, Brahms's well-known characterization of

EXAMPLE 4. Intermezzo in E-flat major, mm. 1-2o.

I4~ g r- 0 :;I I I i mII

EXAMPLE 5. Intermezzo in E-flat major, mm. 21-37.

pp sempre ma molto espressivo

Schlaf sanft, du kleines Mutterherz, Sleep softly, mother's little sweet-

Schmerz. your father has hurt me bitterly.

Und schlaf, so sanf, um Liebe bat, and begged so sweetly, oh

May God preserve you! -though it

And may soll!

is embedded within an emotional quandary, so the seemingly

42 This section recapitulates a shortened version of the first section with

EXAMPLE 6. Intermezzo in E-flat major, mm. 49-

attempts a resolution of the conflict established across the first

's ist seine kalte Hirtigkeit. it is his cold callousness.

Mein Briutigam gekleid't in Blau, My bridegroom dressed in blue,

shrine and locked it proudly

nie! for what I was, I never will be!47

Like its precursor, "Herzweh" contains two contradictor

47 Herder, Sdmtlicher Werke (Hildesheim, 1968), XXV, 202-04. The tr

stantial evidence can justify using the last portion

So herrlich sonst und sch6n-Oh! So lordly and beautiful otherwise-

Discussion of the ballade in relation to its poetic source generally

53 Printed in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder (New

Intermezzos of op. 1 17, the melody is a setting of the text.54 Pa

54 Kalbeck,Johannes Brahms, I, 19o. The observation, however, applies to o

EXAMPLE 7. "Edward" Ballade, mm. 1-26.

5 Poco piU moto