Добірка наукової літератури з теми "Brahms violin sonatas"

Background. Johannes Brahms composed his two Clarinet Sonatas, op. 120, in 1894, and dedicated them to the outstanding clarinet player Richard Mühlfeld. These were the last chamber pieces he wrote before his death, when he became interested in the possibilities the clarinet offered. Nowadays they are considered to be masterpieces of the clarinet repertoire, legitimizing the combination of piano and clarinet in new composers’ works. Brahms lavished particular care and affection on these works, and he clearly wished them to have the widest possible circulation, for he adapted them – with a certain amount of recomposition in each case – in two parallel forms: as sonatas for viola and piano, and for violin and piano. The violin versions are rarely heard, but the viola sonatas have become cornerstones of this instrument’s repertoire, just as the original forms have for the repertoire of the clarinet. Brahms was effectively establishing a new genre, since before they appeared there were virtually no important duo sonatas for viola and piano. These sonatas embody his compositional technique in its ultimate taut, essentialized, yet marvelously flexible manner. The purpose of this article is to show the interaction of variable and invariant components of the musical text as a factor influencing performance decisions in the process of working on a piece of music. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of the musical text of clarinet and viola parts in the Sonatas of J. Brahms op 120, which are the material of this study. The article relevance is in the importance of comprehension the performing differences for pianists (especially, for those specialized on the sphere of chamber music) working J. Brahms’ Sonatas op. 120 with clarinetists or violists. Every piece could offer its own unique complex of special “challenges”, thus the need of analyzing specifics of performance in every such a piece of music appears. This uniqueness is the basis for the innovativeness of the results of the study of the performance specifics of J. Brahms’ Sonata op. 120 in a selected aspect. Results of the research. Clarinet and viola versions Sonatas by J. Brahms op. 120 occupy a prominent place in the performing repertoire, including training. Because the article provides a comparative analysis of the musical text of clarinet and viola parts with the same piano part; provides a comparative overview of the specifics of the artistic expression of the clarinet and viola to determine the performing strategy of the pianist in the ensemble. The differences found in the viola and clarinet parts are divided into the groups – octave transfers, addition of double notes and melismatics, changes in melodic lines, difference in the strokes (staccato, non legato, tenuto, portamento etc.). There is also a detailed description of clarinet and viola timbres. Due to the different possibilities of the instruments, it is quite obvious that the pianist faces certain creative tasks and in general they can be formulated as follows: when playing the viola, the dynamic range of the piano should be smaller than when performing with the clarinet. In addition, you need to pay attention to other details, such as pedal, texture quality, articulation. Yes, the viola sounds much more confident against the background of a “thick” pedal, while the clarinet in this case loses the volume of its sound. With regard to phrasing, it should be borne in mind that the clarinetist needs to take a breath, and the violist’s ability to lead a bow for a long time does not depend on his physiological characteristics. The question arises: which is more important – tempo or phrasing? In this situation, the specificity is that phrasing should be given more attention. The tempo when performing with the clarinet varies significantly than with the viola, and it is also chosen and changed for practical reasons that follow from the physical data of the performer. The pianist should also pay special attention to the differentiation of voices and the quality of articulation. In terms of sound balance, it is obvious that the clarinet needs more piano support than the viola, because it is dynamically brighter. Nevertheless, this does not mean that piano shades “p” should be avoided, because the contrast of dynamics expands the acoustic range of Sonatas and their expressive potential. Conclusion. The comparative-analytical description contributes to the awareness of the differences in the dynamic balance due to the change of the obligatory instrument. Accurate knowledge of where and how such changes occur not only focuses the musicians’ attention on the relevant details in the performance process, but also encourages them to make more informed decisions about the dynamic balance of performance in general.

Background. The name of Amanda Maier (married – Röntgen-Maier), the Swedish violinist, composer, pianist, organist, representative of the Leipzig school of composition, contemporary and good friend of С. Schumann, J. Brahms, E. Grieg, is virtually unknown in the post-Soviet space and little mentioned in the works of musicologists from other countries. The composer’s creativity has long been almost completely forgotten, possibly due to both her untimely death (at the age of 41) and thanks to lack of the research interest in the work of women composers over the past century. The latter, at least in domestic musicology, has significantly intensified in recent decades, which is due in part to the advancement in the second half of the XX and early XXI centuries of a constellation of the talanted women-composers in Ukraine – L. Dychko, H. Havrylets, A. Zagaikevych, I. Aleksiichuk, formerly – G. Ustvolska, S. Gubaydulina in Russia, etc. Today, it is obvious that the development of the world art is associated not only with the activities of male artists, but also with the creative achievements of women: writers, artists, musicians. During her life, A. Maier was the well-known artist in Europe and in the world and the same participant in the musical-historical process as more famous today the musicians of the Romantic era. Objectives and methodology. The proposed study should complement the idea of the work of women-composers of the 19th century and fill in one of the gap on the music map of Europe at that time. The purpose of this article is to characterize the genre-stylistic and compositional-dramaturgical features of selected chamber music works by A. Röntgen-Maier. In this research are used historical-stylistic, structural and functional, analytical, comparative, genre methods. Research results. Carolina Amanda Erika Maier-Röntgen was born in Landskrona, Sweden, where she received her first music lessons from her father. Then she studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she mastered playing on the several instruments at once – violin, cello, piano, organ, as well as studied the music theory. She became the first woman received the title of “Musik Direktor” after successfully graduating from college. She continued her studies at the Leipzig Conservatory – in the composition under Carl Reineke and Ernst Friedrich Richter direction, in the violin – with Engelbert Röntgen (concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the father of her future husband J. Röntgen). She toured Europe a lot, firstly as a violinist, performing her own works and her husband’s works, alongside with world classics. After the birth of her two sons, she withdrew from active concert activities due to the deterioration of her health, but often participated in music salons, which she and her husband organized at home, and whose guests were J. Brahms, C. Schumann, E. Grieg with his wife, and A. Rubinstein. It is known that Amanda Maier performed violin sonatas by J. Brahms together with Clara Schumann. The main part of the composer’s creative work consists of chamber and instrumental works. She wrote the Sonata in B minor (1878); Six Pieces for violin and piano (1879); “Dialogues” – 10 small pieces for piano, some of which were created by Julius Röntgen (1883); Swedish songs and dances for violin and piano; Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello E minor (1891), Romance for violin and piano; Trio for violin, cello and piano (1874); Concert for violin and orchestra (1875); Quartet for piano, violin, viola and clarinet E minor; “Nordiska Tonbilder” for violin and piano (1876); Intermezzo for piano; Two string quartets; March for piano, violin, viola and cello; Romances on the texts of David Wiersen; Trio for piano and two violins; 25 Preludes for piano. Sizable part of the works from this list is still unpublished. Some manuscripts are stored in the archives of the Stockholm State Library, scanned copies of some manuscripts and printed publications are freely available on the Petrucci music library website, but the location of the other musical scores by A. Maier is currently unknown to the author of this material; this is the question that requires a separate study. Due to the limited volume of the article, we will focus in detail on two opuses, which were published during the life of the composer, and which today have gained some popularity among performers around the world. These are the Sonata in B minor for Violin and Piano and the Six Pieces for Violin and Piano. Sonata in B minor is a classical three-part cycle. The first movement – lyricaldramatic sonata allegro (B minor), the second – Andantino – Allegretto, un poco vivace – Tempo I (G major) – combines lyrical and playful semantic functions, the third – Allegro molto vivace (B minor) is an active finale with a classical rondosonata structure. The Six Pieces for Violin and Piano rightly cannot be called the cycle, in the Schumann sense of this word, because there is no common literary program for all plays, intonation-thematic connections between this musical numbers, end-to-end thematic development that would permeate the entire opus. But this opus has the certain signs of cyclization and the common features to all plays, contributing to its unification: tonal plan, construction of the whole on the principle of contrast, genre, song and dance intonation, the leading role of the violin in the presentation of thematic material. Conclusions and research perspectives. Amanda Maier’s chamber work freely synthesizes the classical (Beethoven) and the romantic (Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann) traditions, which the composer, undoubtedly, learned through the Leipzig school. From there come the classical harmony, the orderliness of her thinking, clarity, conciseness, harmony of form, skill in ensemble writing, polyphonic ingenuity. There are also parallels with the music of J. Brahms. With the latter, A. Maier’s creativity correlates trough the ability to embody freely and effortlessly the subtle lyrical psychological content, being within the traditional forms, to feel natural within the tradition, without denying it and without trying to break it. The melodic outlines and rhythmic structures of some themes and certain techniques of textured presentation in the piano part also refer us to the works of the German composer. However, this is hardly a conscious reliance on the achievements of J. Brahms, because the creative process of the two musicians took place in parallel, and A. Maier’s Violin Sonata appeared even a little earlier than similar works by J. Brahms in this genre. Prospects for further research in this direction relate to the search for new information about A. Maier’s life and creativity and the detailed examination of her other works.

Background. The performance practice of recent decades demonstrates an obvious tendency to expand and update the repertoire due to the use of the works of those composers whose pieces had “lost” over time against to the pieces of their more famous contemporaries. At the same time, in sociology, psychology, culturology, gender issues are largely relevant. Musicology does not stand aside, applying the achievements of gender psychology in the study of composer creativity and musical performing (Tsurkanenko, I., 2011; Gigolaeva-Yurchenko, V., 2012, 2015; Fan, Liu, 2017). In general, the issue of gender equality is quite acute in contemporary public discourse. The indicated tendencies determine the interest of many musicians and listeners in the work of women-composers (for example, recently, the creativity by Clara Schumann attracts the attention of performers all over the world, in particular, in Ukraine the International Music Festival “Kharkiv Assemblies” – 2018 was dedicated to her works). The theme of the proposed work is also a response to the noted trends in performing practice and musicology discourse. For the first time in domestic musicology an attempt is made to give a brief overview of the life and career of another talented woman, whose name is little known in the post-Soviet space. This is a Swedish violinist, composer and pianist Amanda Röntgen-Maier (1853–1894), a graduate of the Stockholm Royal College of Music and the Leipzig Conservatory, a contemporary of Clara Schumann, J. Brahms, E. Grieg, with whom she and her husband – composer, pianist, conductor Julius Röntgen – were associated for enough long time by creative and friendly relationships. In the post-Soviet space, not a single work has been published that would be dedicated to the works of A. Maier. In European and American musicology, the composer’s personality and creative heritage is also not widely studied. Her name is only occasionally mentioned in works examining the musical culture and, in particular, the performing arts of Sweden at that time (Jönsson, Å., 1995, 151–156; Karlsson, Å., 1994, 38–43; Lundholm, L., 1992, 14–15; Löndahl, T., 1994; Öhrström, E., 1987, 1995). The aim of the proposed study is to characterize Amanda Meier’s creative heritage in the context of European romanticism. Research results. Based on the available sources, we summarized the basic information about the life and career of A. Maier. Carolina Amanda Erica Maier (married Röntgen-Maier ) was born on February 20, 1853 in Landskrona. She received the first music lessons from his father, Karl Edward Mayer, a native of Germany (from Württemberg), who worked as a confectioner in Landskrona, but also studied music, in particular, in 1852 he received a diploma of “music director” in Stockholm and had regular contracts. In 1869, Amanda entered to the Kungliga Musikaliska akademien (Royal College of Music) in Stockholm. There she learns to play several instruments at once: the violin, cello, piano, organ, and also studies history, music theory and musical aesthetics. A. Maier graduated from Royal College successfully and became the first woman who received the title of “Musik Direktor”. The final concert, which took place in April 1873, included the performance of the program on the violin and on the organ and also A. Maier’s own work – the Romance for Violin. In the spring of 1874, Amanda received the grant from the Royal College for further studies at the Leipzig Conservatory. Here, Engelbert Röntgen, the accompanist of the glorious orchestra Gewandhaus, becomes her teacher on the violin, and she studies harmony and composition under the guidance of Karl Heinrich Karsten Reinecke and Ernst Friedrich Richter. Education in Leipzig lasts from 1874 to 1876. In the summer and autumn of 1875, A. Maier returns to Landskron, where she writes the first major work – the Concerto for violin and orchestra in one-movement, D minor, which was performed twice: in December 1875 in Halle and in February 1876 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of K. Reinecke. The further career of A. Maier, both performing and composing, developed very successfully. She made several major concert trips between 1876 and 1880: to Sweden and Norway, to Finland and St. Petersburg; she also played to the Swedish king Oscar II (1876); concerts were held with constant success. While studying in Leipzig, A. Maier met her future husband (the son of her violin teacher) Julius Röntgen, composer and conductor. They married 1880 in Landskrona. Their personal relationships included active creative communication, both playing music together, and exchanging musical ideas, getting to know each other’s works. Part of his chamber opuses, for example, the cycle of Swedish folk dances, A. Maier created in collaboration with her husband. An analogy with life of Robert and Clara Schumann may take place here, although the Röntgen spouses did not have to endure such dramatic collisions that fell to the lot of the first. After the wedding, Röntgen family moved to Amsterdam, where Julius Röntgen soon occupies senior positions in several music organizations. On the contrary, the concert and composing activities of A. Maier go to the decline. This was due both, to the birth of two sons, and to a significant deterioration in her health. Nevertheless, she maintains her violin skills at the proper level and actively participates in performances in music salons, which the family arranges at home. The guests of these meetings were, in particular, J. Brahms, K. Schumann, E. Grieg with his wife and A. Rubinstein. The last years of A. Maier’s life were connected with Nice, Davos and Norway. In the fall of 1888 she was in Nice with the goal of treating the lungs, communicating there with her friends Heinrich and Elizabeth Herzogenberg. With the latter, they played Brahms violin sonatas, and the next (1889) year A. Maier played the same pieces with Clara Schumann. Amanda Maier spent the autumn of 1889 under the supervision of doctors in Davos, and the winter – in Nice. In 1890, she returned to Amsterdam. His last major work dates back to 1891 – the Piano Quartet in D minor. During the last three years of her life, she visited Denmark, Sweden and Norway, where she performed, among other, her husband’s works, for example, the suite “From Jotunheim”. In the summer of 1889, A. Maier took part in concerts at the Nirgaard Castle in Denmark. In 1894, she returned to Amsterdam again. Her health seems stable, a few hours before her death she was conducting classes with her sons. A. Maier died July 15, 1894. The works of A. Maier, published during the life of the composer, include the following: Sonata in H minor (1878); 6 Pieces for violin and piano (1879); “Dialogues” – 10 small pieces for piano, some of which were created by Julius Röntgen (1883); Swedish songs and dances for violin and piano; Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello E minor (1891). Still unprinted are the following works: Romance for violin and piano; Trio for violin, cello and piano (1874); Concert for violin and orchestra (1875); Quartet for piano, violin, viola and clarinet E minor; “Nordiska Tonbilder” for violin and piano (1876); Intermezzo for piano; Two string quartets; March for piano, violin, viola and cello; Romances on the texts of David Wiersen; Trio for piano and two violins; 25 Preludes for piano. The composer style of A. Mayer incorporates the characteristic features of the Romantic era, in particular, the Leipzig school. Lyric elements prevail in her works, although the composer is not alien to dramatic, heroic, epic images (the Piano Quartet E minor, some pieces from the Six Songs for Violin and Piano series). In the embodiment of such a circle of images, parallels with the musical style of the works of J. Brahms are quite clearly traced. In constructing thematic structures, A. Maier relies on the melody of the Schubert-Mendelssohn type. The compositional solutions are defined mainly by the classical principles of forming, which resembles the works of F. Mendelssohn, the late chamber compositions of R. Schumann, where the lyrical expression gets a clear, complete form. The harmonic language of the works of A. Maier gravitates toward classical functionality rather than the uncertainty, instability and colorfulness inherent in the harmony of F. Liszt, R. Wagner and their followers. The main instrument, for which most of the opuses by A. Maier was created, the violin, is interpreted in various ways: it appears both, in the lyrical and the virtuoso roles. The piano texture of chamber compositions by A. Maier is quite developed and rich; the composer clearly gravitates towards the equality of all parties in an ensemble. At the same time, piano techniques are reminiscent of texture formulas by F. Mendelssohn and J. Brahms. Finally, in A. Mayer’s works manifest themself such characteristic of European romanticism, as attraction to folklore, a reliance on folk song sources. Conclusions. Periods in the history of music seemed already well studied, hide many more composer names and works, which are worthy of the attention of performers, musicologists and listeners. A. Mayer’s creativity, despite the lack of pronounced innovation, has an independent artistic value and, at the same time, is one of such musical phenomena that help to compile a more complete picture of the development of musical art in the XIX century and gain a deeper understanding of the musical culture of this period. The prospect of further development of the topic of this essay should be a more detailed study of the creative heritage of A. Maier in the context of European musical Romanticism.

The scherzos Brahms composed for his Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 (1862; rev. 1864) and for the Dietrich-Schumann-Brahms F-A-E violin sonata (1853) are dramatic, C-minor pieces that allude to works of Beethoven's middle period. Both scherzos open with tonal and rhythmic-metric dissonance and end with tonal and rhythmic-metric consonance, yet there are significant refinements in Brahms's handling of these global progressions in the piano quintet scherzo. The piano quintet scherzo engages a smaller network of interrelated dissonances, intensifies these dissonances throughout the movement, and resolves them convincingly near the end of the scherzo.

Dentro de la música de cámara, el dúo de violín y piano es uno de los más socorridos. Existe un amplio y difundido repertorio escrito por los compositores más representativos de la tradición de la música académica para este conjunto (Corelli, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Franck, Prokofiev, etc.).

Исследуется творчество композитора-философа Пауля Наторпа, фигура которого в русскоязычном музыкознании практически не представлена. Отдавая себе отчет в том, что его творчество может вызывать интерес с самых разных точек зрения, мы фокусируем свой научный интерес на Сонате fis-moll для скрипки и фортепиано, созданной в период активного формирования новых художественных течений в музыке начала ХХ века. На примере произведений так называемого «второго ряда» Соната fis-moll может служить довольно ярким примером процессов обновления музыкального языка, в том числе на основе переосмысления классического наследия. Музыковедческий анализ Сонаты для скрипки и фортепиано fis-moll осуществляется в опоре на историко-стилевой метод и интертекстуальность. Доказано, что, будучи созданной в русле традиций Бетховена, Шумана и Брамса, Соната fis-moll для скрипки и фортепиано отмечена самобытностью и оригинальностью. Теоретическая значимость работы определяется заполнением лакуны в истории становления жанра скрипичной сонаты в немецкой композиторской школе. Практическая значимость связана с возможностью обогатить скрипичный репертуар за счет знакомства с камерным жанром, представленным в творчестве немецкого музыканта-философа. This work is dedicated to the work of the composer-philosopher Paul Natorp, whose figure is in practice not represented in Russian-language musicology. Realizing that P. Natorp's work can arouse interest from a variety of points of view, we focus our scientific interest on the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano, created during the active formation of new artistic trends in music at the beginning of the twentieth century. Using the works of the so-called “ second row” as an example, the fis-moll Sonata can serve as a vivid example of the processes of updating the musical language, including on the basis of rethinking the classical heritage. The musicological analysis of the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano is based on the historical-stylistic method and intertextuality. It is proved that, being created in line with the traditions of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano by P. Natorp is noted for its musical identity and originality. The theoretical significance of the work lies in filling a gap in the history of the formation of the violin sonata genre in the German school of composition. Practical significance is associated with the opportunity to enrich the violin repertoire through acquaintance with the chamber genre presented in the works of the German musician-philosopher.

"This paper aims to reveal the turning points in the life and work of German composer Johannes Brahms. These main events were influenced by certain figures of the epoch, whose encounters marked the artistic activity of Brahms. In explaining the reasons that lay behind the composition of a work, emotion is one of the most specific criteria. Personal experience becomes the indispensable condition of artistic creation and lays at the core of the creative impulse. The paper is structured according to the following four aspects: the first friends (together with Albert Dietrich and their mentor, Robert Schumann, Brahms contributed to the composition of the FAE Sonata for piano and violin, Julius Otto Grimm is the witness of Brahms’ love for Agathe von Siebold, while Julius Stockhausen emerges as the master of the Brahms lieder), the conductors who became the composer’s close friends and promoted his symphonies (Hermann Levi, Hans Richter, Hans von Bülow, the latter a genuine emissary of Brahms’s works, the author of the Three B syntagm – Bach, Beethoven, Brahms), the Viennese friends (the critic Eduard Hanslick, who characterized the works in Opp. 117-119 as genuine monologues and Joseph Hellmesberger, founder of the quartet name after him, with whom Brahms performed gems of the chamber music repertoire), and the confidants of Brahms, permanent figures in the life of the composer (the surgeon Theodor Billroth and Joseph Viktor Widmann, the author of the memoirs that revealed significant aspects of the composer’s life and works). Keywords: Johannes Brahms, works, life, significant personalities, friends "

Like several of his predecessors, Brahms reintroduces themes from one movement into a later one in several of his instrumental works. Historical circumstances and changing historical consciousness affected a composer's use of thematic recall. For Beethoven (per Elaine Sisman) recalling an earlier theme provided the creative stimulus to move forward to the end of a piece, in accordance with the linear concept of history that defined Beethoven's Enlightenment world view. Brahms's use of inter-movement thematic recall often expresses a more wistful and melancholy view of the past and focuses on the ability of recall to provide a dramatic narrative. In his earliest use of cyclical return, the Op. 5 Piano Sonata (1853), the Andante second movement is echoed and transformed by the ‘Ruckblick’ fourth movement, as Brahms plays on the poetic inscription of the former movement to raise the specter of lost love and mortality. In a more complex web of thematic recall, the op. 78 Violin Sonata (1878) combines allusions to a pre-existing pair of interrelated songs from his Op. 59 with a newly composed, recurring instrumental theme to create a multi-layered, somber character in the piece. Both of those works draw on an earlier, romantic sense of yearning for return. Near the end of his career, however, the quiet emergence and eventual dissipation of opening material at the close of the Op. 115 Clarinet Quintet (1891) reflects Brahms's awareness of his place at the end of an artistic tradition, and thereby conveys a post-Romantic conception of history.

This practice-led research investigates late nineteenth-century Romantic performing practice with special reference to the Brahms violin sonatas. It is conducted with the aim of understanding the composer’s expectations, which lie behind the notation on the score. In the nineteenth century, performers used to approach notation in a much more liberal and musically inspired way, whereas our current approach tends to be constrained by a reliance on literal accuracy (i.e. keeping note values, articulations, dynamics, and other performing instructions on the score very strictly) as representing ‘the composer’s intentions’. The nineteenth- and early twentieth-century treatises and early twentieth-century recordings confirm that portamento, vibrato, tempo rubato, tempo and rhythmic modifications, arpeggiation, and dislocation were expressive performing techniques often used by performers in the late nineteenth century. These interpretative elements are only partially notated or completely omitted from the score, which means performers consciously or unconsciously following a modern notion of ‘faithfulness to the score’ may not be able to discern the composer’s expectations as they exist behind the notation, especially in relation to Romantic repertoire. This research demonstrates how expressive performing techniques of the nineteenth century may be the subject of experiments and later internalised by a performer emerging from the modern tradition, and how this information may contribute to understanding hidden messages behind Brahms’s notation. The process behind this research involves exploring late nineteenth-century expressive resources more closely by imitating selected early twentieth-century recordings. Chapter One discusses the research context including research questions and methodology. Chapter Two contains extensive investigations into the nineteenth-century expressive resources such as portamento, vibrato, and tempo rubato based on early recordings. Chapter Three presents the application of the accumulated experiences and insights gained from practical experimentation with early recordings and other historical sources to Brahms’s Violin Sonatas, for which there are no relevant early recorded examples. This research is not intended to provide definite interpretative ideas in relation to the Brahms violin sonatas. It is ultimately conceived as an example of how modern performers might utilise historical knowledge, including ideas about how the composer’s expectations may be recognised, and also as an encouragement to engage with historical practices in a more varied, interesting, and creative modern context. This thesis includes two CDs containing my imitations of early recordings and independent interpretations of Brahms’s Violin Sonatas, which were produced as an indispensable part of this research.

Jag har valt att skriva om Brahms f-moll-sonat eftersom det är den sortens musik som berör mig mest inombords. Jag fastnade för musik för soloviola redan som liten. Detta verk är ett av de främsta och mest spelade verken för viola vilket gör att det blir en viktig del i violarepertoaren. Brahms levde mellan 1833 och 1897, förhållandena var annorlunda då jämfört med nu vilket medför att stycket lät annorlunda då mot vad det gör nu på moderna instrument och strängar. Jag har försökt efterforska hur nära man kan komma originaluppförandet och dåtidens klangideal och teknik. Detta verk skrevs först för klarinett men strax därefter gjorde Brahms en alternativ violaversion och jag har tittat på några skillnader mellan versionerna. Jag har också jämfört olika moderna utgåvor och provat att spela på sensträngar för att få en känsla av hur det egentligen kan ha känts och låtit med mer tidstroget material än moderna strängar.

Examination:

J.S Bach, prelude ur svit no. 3 i C-dur för solo violaJ. Brahms, Allegro Appassionata ur sonat i F-moll op. 120 no. 1W. Walton, andante comodo ur konsert för viola och orkesterVid flygeln, Erik Lanninger

I detta arbete utforskas interpretation av västerländsk konstmusik, och olika utgångspunkter och tankesätt kring detta. I studien undersöks Johannes Brahms sonat i Ess dur för klarinett och piano (Op. 120, No. 2). Syftet var att ta upp och gräva djupare i aspekter såsom tidstroget framförande, kompositörens intentioner och eget uttryck för att kunna utveckla och förstå sin egen tolkning så mycket som möjligt. Sonaten har undersökts på två sätt. Dels presenteras en analys av första satsen, med fokus på motiv och teman och hur dessa förhåller sig till bl.a. harmoniken, samt en diskussion om huruvida musiken är i sen stil, alltså stildrag som brukar vara gemensamma för konstnärers sista verk. Det andra sättet sonaten har undersökts på är genom intervjuer med musiker om hur de tänker när de tolkar det här stycket. Studiens resultat påvisar att den djupare förståelse som en musikalisk analys medför innebär att jag som musiker kan fatta snabbare och mer motiverade beslut i min interpretation. Genom att sätta mig in i kompositörens liv och mående utvecklades en djupare känsla för stycket och en vilja att uttrycka något som känns rätt.

Track Listing for CD 1: Track 1 Vivace ma non troppo -- Track 2 Adagio - Piu andante - Adagio -- Track 3 Allegro mo Ito moderato - Piu moderato -- Track 4 Allegro amabile -- Track 5 Andante tranquillo - Vivace - Andante -- Track 6 Allegretto grazioso ( quasi Andante) -- Track 7 Allegro -- Track 8 Adagio -- Track 9 Un poco presto e con sentimento -- Track 10 Presto agitato. Track Listing for CD 2: Track 1 Allegro -- Track 2 Allegro appassionato - Sostenuto ed espressivo -- Track 3 Andante un poco Adagio -- Track 4 Allegretto grazioso -- Track 5 Vivace -- Track 6 Allegro amabile -- Track 7 Allegro appassionato - Sostenuto - Tempo I -- Track 8 Andante con moto - Allegro - Piu tranquillo.
Performing Brahms: Rediscovering expressive devices in the sonatas for violin and piano This submission for the degree of Master of Philosophy in musical performance at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, consists ofa portfolio of two CDs containing recorded performances of the complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) accompanied by an explanatory exegesis. These works are some of the most performed and recorded in the repertoire, however modem performance practice has been influenced by over a century of changing styles and tastes in violin playing. This project is an investigation into how a modem-day performance can reflect Brahms' original intentions for these works, drawing from the recently published Barenreiter Edition (2015/16) by Clive Brown and Neal Peres Da Costa. Nineteenth-century expressive devices used by Brahms and his circle have been identified including tone and bowing, vibrato, portamento, rhythmic flexibility and tempo modification and these techniques have been attempted to be integrated into the recorded performances. Discussion outlining Brahms' musical notation and its performance implications has been included, as well as a commentary describing the challenges of assimilating these devices and the resulting effectiveness in performance. The recorded performances contain the three Sonatas for Violin and Piano, the Sonata Movement in C minor from the F.A.E. Sonata, and the two neglected Violin Sonatas op. 120 originally for clarinet/viola, rewritten by Brahms, which are seldom performed today.
Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2018

This thesis deals in particular with the pianist's approach to the Brahms Sonata for Piano and Violin in D Minor, Opus 108. There are two chapters, the first of which takes the form of a bibliography in which different theoretical aspects for consideration in the learning of the work are presented. One of the sections in the first chapter which is entitled The Pianist, should prove helpful to a prospective piano teacher, as well as a student of the Brahms Sonata in D Minor, Opus 10 8. In this section sources presenting different solutions to technical problems which the pianist is likely to encounter both generally, and specifically with regard to this Sonata, are listed. The other sections in this chapter include a discography and comments concerning recordings of the Sonata in D Minor, Opus 108, which a student of this work and its composer may consult. The second chapter of the thesis deals with specific issues involved in the interpretation based on my performance of the Sonata in D Minor, Opus 108, for the practical examination. Three other possible interpretations by well-known pianists are briefly evaluated. Attached to the thesis is a cassette tape on which recommendations for the practising of certain passages may be heard.
Thesis (M.Mus)-University of Natal, Durban, 1989.

Brahms’s Violin Sonatas: Style, Structure, and Performance is a companion volume to Joel Lester’s award-winning 1999 study Bach’s Works for Solo Violin: Style, Structure, and Performance. Using a minimum of technical language and with annotated musical examples illustrating almost every point, Brahms’s Violin Sonatas explores three masterpieces of the concert repertoire in a book designed for performers and music scholars alike. A major focus is how much can be learned by carefully reading Brahms’s artistically nuanced musical notation and by understanding Brahms’s style—especially his music’s deep connections to Classical-Era harmony, phrasing, and form while at the same time using late nineteenth-century harmonies, dissonances, and thematic evolutions, along with the contrapuntal textures that imbue all his works with a uniquely “Brahmsian” sound. The book also explores how these works relate to important events in Brahms’s life. Practical and concrete suggestions on performance arise from many of these discussions, calling performers’ and analysts’ attention to both technical and interpretive matters. The aim of the book is to inspire readers to explore their own individual approaches to Brahms’s music, balancing what they find in the music to how they balance today’s performance and interpretive styles with the ways that Brahms himself and his contemporaries might have played and experienced his creations.

Chapter 4 explores the different ways that Brahms organized each of his violin sonatas’ middle movement(s) so as to contribute to the overall narrative of that sonata as a whole. The G-major Sonata has a single middle movement. A letter that Brahms sent to Clara Schumann concerning that slow movement provides an opportunity to explore in more detail the relationship between this sonata and the death of Brahms’s godson at age 24. The A-major Sonata’s single middle movement combines a slow movement with a scherzo. The D-minor Sonata is the only one of Brahms’s violin sonatas to have two middle movements—a slow movement and an intermezzo.

Chapter 3 studies in detail the first movements of Brahms’s three violin sonatas. Each first movement is cast in sonata form—the most exalted structure of the Classical Era. But Brahms did not fill a “sonata-form mold” with formulaic music. Just like his great predecessors whose music he so dearly loved and esteemed, Brahms adapted the outer aspects of the form and the contents of each section to express that movement’s unique musical narrative. The discussions of each movement explore the traits they all share as well as their individual Romantic features. The A-major Sonata’s first movement also provides an opportunity to explore musical allusions to other pieces and how that might affect our interpretations—both as performers and analysts.

Chapter 1 discusses the balance of classicism and romanticism as artistic and expressive underpinnings of Brahms’s style. Brahms was in many ways a composer for whom the past—even the distant past—was still very much alive. Yet he was remarkably innovative. He often used Classical-Era forms, but he adapted them to his expressive ends. He used harmonic progressions identical to those used in similar circumstances by composers of the Classical Era, but also used harmonies as adventurously as Wagner or Liszt. In terms of texture and of rhythm and meter, he was, if anything, more adventurous than many of his contemporaries. The chapter offers a detailed analysis of harmony, dissonance, melody, melodic evolution, texture, rhythm and meter, counterpoint, and developing variation in a single Brahms phrase (from the second theme of the first movement of the A-major Violin Sonata, op. 100). Brahms’s phrase is compared to and differentiated from a similar phrase opening the second theme in Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in A, op. 30, no. 2.

How it is that Brahms, a consummate pianist, also wrote so imaginatively and extensively for violin? Chapter 6 explores various events that took place in 1853, the year that Brahms turned 20, when he left Hamburg to concertize with a violinist-colleague, met Joseph Joachim and began his lifelong friendship with him, and met Robert and Clara Schumann. Studying the sole movement for violin and piano that still exists from Brahms’s early works—the Scherzo that he contributed to the “F.A.E. Sonata”—we can assess the degree to which his mature compositional vision was already in place at such an early age.