Brahms' Rhapsody in G Minor Op. 79 No. 2

This beautiful Brahms Rhapsody is one of the pieces I'm playing this semester for my juries. It is quite intriguing, especially from a theoretical view. I have not looked at any analyses of this piece...but I am going to point out some of the interesting parts of this piece.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr2q8-Sr__A

Score

The clear motive of this piece is an upper neighbor motive...however, it is commonly characterized as a half-step motion upwards in the melody. This can be heard in the first measure with the D stepping up to the Eb and then repeating in m.2 with the E stepping up to the F. This motion continues through the first phrase...moving up F# to G...G# to A. I find interesting that during this entire time, Brahms is trying to establish the tonic of G minor, however, his melody outlines the perfect fifth owned by the dominant with this half-step motion. Something to think about.

The melody however does move towards B natural. Wait...B NATURAL?! Isn't this piece in G Minor? There is no B natural in G minor. Ah, but the brilliant Brahms is just about to establish the importance of the upper neighbor...because B natural happens to be the upper neighbor of Bb, the ever important note that defines G minor.

The pickup to measure 14 gives us our first strong upper neighbor motion in the melody with the A-Bb-A eventually leading to G#. At first, it may seem odd that Brahms is starting the bass on D, creating a 4/3 inversion of a Ger+6...but it allows for a mirror effect of the mirror motion (D-C#-D). The mirror neighbor motion in the bass continues in measure 17 (A-G-A) while the melody is embellished by the upper neighbor motion. I think Brahms was trying to make this rather obvious.

While I'm not going to go into a full analysis of the piece, I think it was important to set that groundwork for the part I do want to talk about...which is measures 110-111. This measures seem to be oddly placed, especially considering how they do not coincide with the exposition of the piece (I probably should have mentioned this piece is in strict sonata form). So why is this measure intriguing? May it have something to do with the upper neighbor motion?

Yes.

The second theme of the exposition has the upper neighbor motion as a perpetual motor in the background. Let's look at all of the times a similar idea comes up throughout the piece. The second theme of the exposition (measures 21-32) really drive home the A-Bb-A motion. The next time we see something similar is in measure 53 with the F#-G-F# motive. This does move down to E-F#-E for a slight moment, but since it does not qualify under my half step upper neighbor motion (not to mention it only occurs in one measure) and I'm going to pass it off as a passing gesture to the more important neighbor motion of D-Eb-D in measure 58 until the recapitulation. (It would be bad of me not to mention the fact that some of this neighbor motion is D-E-D...but this will be moot with my next point.)

Discounting the "passing" E-F#-E neighbor motion...let's look at the roots of each of these wonderful neighbor motions...A, F#, D. That looks like the outline of a D major triad to me! The greatest part about this discovery is that it is the dominant of G minor. Now, let's fast forward to those seemingly awkward measures (110-111). What happens to be the root of the neighbor motion Bb-C-Bb. Why...it's a Bb. Let's add that to our previously important neighbor roots, D, F#, and A. Bb is the upper neighbor to the A. When you look at all of these upper neighbor motions, they occurs mostly as a sol-le-sol neighbor. Brahms gave his outline it's own neighbor.

BRAHMS IS BRILLIANT!!!

I'm sorry...but this is pure genius. Once you realize the importance of those two measures formally in the piece...it makes the piece even that much better. Now, as I mentioned, I'm not sure if someone has written about this before, but it was a little discovery I made when I was practicing one day. One thing I have learned from my theory classes is that if something seems out of place (especially in Classical/Romantic music) it's probably there for a reason.

Brahms did have the most expansive library of music literature than any composer up to his time. I believe this is just him showing off his smarts. If I could go back in time, I would love to meet Brahms and his brilliance. Alas, he's dead. His music does live!

First week done, second week about to begin!

The first week of school is finished. I have survived the beginning of my 21 credit schedule. I also survived GREs. My math score was in the 700s and my verbal was unfortunately in the 500s. I cannot complain though. The scores are good enough for me. There is no reason for me to retake them.

I have stepped up my grad school research. I am visiting CUNY - Graduate Center and University Studies on October 27th. I plan on visiting the University of British Columbia during my fall break (the week of Thanksgiving.) Currently, I am trying to plan a visit to Yale. Hopefully I will hear back from them soon so I will be able to schedule a visit over to Eastman shortly thereafter. There are still many other schools that I'm looking at however. Some I won't be able to visit due to the distance and the lack of time to visit. That's what you get with a 21 credit schedule.

Luckily, on Monday, I have 5 classes and a lab, all which have been canceled due to Labor Day. Tuesday is just a day of work, composition, and preparation for Wednesday classes (which there are a lot of.)

By the way, my repertoire for this semester is Brahms' Rhapsody in G Minor Op. 79 No. 2, and the prelude from Debussy's Pour Le Piano.

Auf Wiedersehen!

D.