Musicologica Austriaca vol. 24 (2005), pp. 119-123
When Hugo Wolf commented that Brahms’s work was ‘one great variation’ on the music of past composers, he meant it, of course, in disparagement: a belittling of a modern composer’s engagement with existing forms and materials, rather than the exploration of an ‘original’ and ‘poetic’ imagination. Yet, in the sphere of formal variations, Brahms found an ideal world, its restricted means offering him the opportunity for unlimited imaginative play of many kinds, and in which he achieved unparalleled freedom of expression that revitalized this tradition.
Despite its importance, no one book in English has so far been devoted to this subject. Littlewood’s is a major and indispensable contribution. It is eminently well set out and expressed, a singular achievement in such a concentrated field, to which its flexible as well as lavish provision of music examples and copious footnoted references add immeasurably. In pursuing the aim of ‘enhancing the listener’s and performer’s appreciation of the music’, it seeks not to repeat information already familiar in the literature, but rather to re-contextualize it and add new perspectives; not to ‘forever compare variations with the theme’, but rather celebrate Brahms’s skills by placing his methods in broader contexts to show their many sides - for example, in the mixture of genres, in presenting rhetorical and narrative characters, in dynamic and kinetic qualities, and in social, cultural, political and personal dimensions: a host of categories, but always presented with an initial historical background which is valuable in itself.
The basic structural considerations are also approached through varied means and illustrated with voice-leading graphs as well as examples of Brahms’s subtle motivic working. There is, in general, a deep vein of sympathy with Schoenbergian thought ‘(partly via the influence of Hans Keller), and emphasized (in the preface) by Alexander Goehr’s unique recollections of his father’s studies of Brahms with Schoenberg. Two emphases are particularly prominent: the many-sided contextualization of the theme itself, and (consistent with the series of which this is the first volume) the role of poetic association and extra-musical stimulus.
Thematic considerations are given exceptional initial consideration, with focus on the ‘implications, constraints and opportunities of different thematic types’. The author poses a very challenging question: why does a theme need to serve for variations? The numerous answers to this question really form the substance of this book. Judged by this severe standard, even Brahms is seen to fail in one work: the theme of the Schumann Variations op. 23 for piano duet (based on Schumann’s so called “Last Thought’) is seen as chosen for biographical not musical reasons, and the variations seeming somewhat redundant as a result.
Indeed, the status of a theme – whether borrowed or invented – attracts particular attention. That there is an ‘otherness’ about a borrowed theme’s relationship to its variations and their composer which is quite different from an invented theme: ‘to borrow another’s music is to establish [...] an agendum’ (p. 9); that an original theme presents the ‘self’ and makes the whole ‘self-contained’ (p. 49). Quite apart from purely musical factors, a composer’s choice may reveal many considerations and unsuspected dimensions. Implicit in this approach is interest in the extra-musical, and the book shows a constant integrating of the referential with the formal. It is a measure of Brahms’s success in the handling of form that his poetical side – so apparent in his great output of solo songs and choral works (and even some instrumental works) – is still often so little related to it: this book offers an important corrective.
With so many fundamental issues explored early on, the central part of the book is able to reflect more freely and allusively on the distinctive characters of each set. Shape is given to the whole section (and the book) by selection and grouping into distinctive functions. Four contexts are established: independent variation sets (opp. 9, 21 nos. 1 and 2, opp. 23, 24, 35, 56); slow movements – of the two piano sonatas (opp. 1, 2), of the two sextets (opp. 18, 36), second piano trio (op. 87) and second string quintet (op. 111); and variation finales (opp. 67, 98, 115, op. 120 no. 2). The final section of the book offers a lengthy return to the Variations on a Theme of Schumann for solo piano (op. 9), here as a single ‘case study.’ Among such an abundance of content, this reviewer found the author’s attempt throughout to view formal factors in poetic and dramatic terms especially thought-provoking.
The poetic and musical basis of the slow movement of the op. 1 sonata in the folk melody (‘Verstohlen geht der Mond auf’) is immediately apparent in the score, and Brahms’s use of it as the last of his 49 German Folksongs, published in 1894, has long been familiar. Yet the author points out how striking it is that Brahms provides the textual underlay of the theme, and that he also extends its inner development (by comparison with the later version). He draws the proper conclusion that ‘we consider [the variations] to be inspired by and perhaps loosely organized around the text’ (p. 119), and elaborates this relationship musically. In complete contrast, knowledge of the folksong origin of the theme of the slow movement of Op. 2 (‘Mir ist leide das der Winter beide’) was restricted to Brahms’s private circle. But, as earlier scholars have shown, it can be clearly related to the main theme, and Littlewood goes further in exploring the implication that the movement reflects the complete three-stanza text of the poem. Unlike the opus 1 movement (composed separately), this movement was part of its sonata, and is organically connected to the scherzo which follows. This interpretation adds much to the sense of a meaning to music one has already found manifestly highly-charged.
If the deeper poetic aspects of these works of Brahms the young Romantic pianist are to be anticipated, a poetic perspective on the two sextet movements is less so. The variation movement of the B Flat Sextet op. 18 is, at first, a Baroque-like movement on a theme reminiscent of La folia, rigorously elaborated by rhythmic diminution: that of the G major Sextet op. 36, though comparatively elusive in its dreamy harmonic model, still seemingly cerebral in its intimate working of a motivically-based theme. Yet what interests the author is the character of the strong minor/major contrast in each movement. Nor is this just a matter of tradition in this genre. He sees the quality as emerging directly from modal transformation in Brahms’s contemporary and later lieder, and shows parallels in formal design and tone of utterance: in the op. 18 movement with ‘Scheiden und Meiden’ and ‘In der Ferne’, op.19 (nos. 2 and 3) and ‘Das Madchen’, op. 95/1; and in op. 36 with ‘Todessehnen’ op. 86/6. As in op. 2, there is in op. 36 also a poetic association with another movement through thematic connection, here with the first, thus bringing its known personal link to Brahms’s early love Agathe von Siebold through his motto for her (from bar 162) into association.
In larger structural terms, the use of variation as a finale poses a bigger challenge to the composer. The four movements in which Brahms responded are each in a different genre: Littlewood chooses only to contextualize three of these. The finale of the Fourth Symphony has been often discussed in thematic/motivic relation to its first movement; but here the focus is on the special character of the movement in relation to its function: its sense of inevitability is approached through the historical association of its form, and through philosophical ideas of the ‘sublime’. Even briefer commentaries concern the finale of the Clarinet Quintet, with the focus on unity through harmonic relations across the whole work, so that the listener at the close is ‘invited to review internally the musical experience’ (p. 218). The variations of the Clarinet Sonata op. 120 no. 2 are seen as providing an especially intimate type of finale appropriate to its instrumentation, unique in its form, in which the principal development occurs in the last variation.
The analytical weight in this section is on the finale of the B flat String Quartet op. 67, a movement that foreshadows the Clarinet Quintet in finally recalling the very opening of the work. Attention has traditionally been attached to how Brahms achieves this, especially through the necessary metrical retransition from the 2/4 of the variations to the 6/8 of the opening. But Littlewood sees it also as a drama: ‘as the variations unfold, different combinations of “characters” are presented’. His characterization is, to my knowledge, unique, and compelling. In variations 1-3 (Act I ‘in which the action begins’) we hear ‘a buffoon’s solo’, an ‘ensemble riposte’ and ‘a star’s solo’; in variations 4-6 (Act II ‘in which we discover intimacy and introspection’) we experience ‘an uncanny dream’, ‘some buried forebodings’, a ‘sweet calm’; in variations 7-8 (Act III ‘long lost friends return - and cause mayhem’), ends with an extended final variation of celebration and reflection: a vivid evocation that must help players chararacterize the many contrasting moods of this mockingly ‘classical’ finale.
Performance considerations also emerge prominently through this book. Discussion of the variations of the Piano Trio op. 87 in the central section connects issues of characterization to instruments and performance. The reversal of roles in variation 3 (‘impersonation; mistaken identity’, p. 181) is created by the antithesis between piano and strings. And this balance is central to both this movement and to the whole genre in Brahms (and with what intimacy Brahms’s instruments speak to each other in this movement). This discussion is preceded by valuable background on the history of the genre in relation to the rapid technical development of the piano – and this book makes many such references to medium as it does to issues of touch and articulation. A valuable conclusion to this section is provided by an overview of the proportional relationship of lengths of themes and sets presented in tabular form with timings taken from recordings from different eras (as throughout the book).
Of all Brahms’s variation movements, that on a Theme of Schumann op. 9 (for Littlewood, the ‘real Schumann variations’) stands apart. Brahms never revealed as much about his personal stimuli and influences in one work ever again. His subtitle ‘Little variations on a theme of His dedicated to Her’ masks an intimate and fraught story of love and loyalty to Clara and Robert both. Brahms had composed them for Clara and showed them to the declining Schumann in his clinic at Endenich. The emotional aspect begins with the theme itself: not merely as a borrowed theme – that would have been enough in significance – but as a miniature drama: through its statement, sequential development and decline evoked by harmonic means. So much could be drawn from the emotion of this little piece, on which Clara had already written her own variations.
The author sees the variations themselves as a personal story, continuing drama. It is, again, easy to enter his visual world as Brahms reflects on his theme and allows it to take him in different directions. The author sees a series of grouped scenes. The first depicts Brahms himself: ‘Brahms’s Theme’ shows him appropriating the chosen theme in variations 1-3; by placing it in different settings, textural and metrical, with sequential development. In variations 4-7, it enters into a new world of generic conflict, appearing as a folksong, in various forms of instrumental virtuosity and with ‘choral commentary’, Variations 8-11 present three personal voices: in variation 8, Johannes speaks; in variation 9, Robert; in variation 10, Clara; in variation 11, Johannes whispers to Clara. Further allusion to Schumann’s imaginative characters follow. A valuable addition to this analysis is the modern publication of another variation in this theme that Brahms wrote for Marie Wieck, previously published in a German source in 1902.
This analysis provides the complete musical text with parallel voice-leading graphs to show the structure of each variation and relation to the theme. It is the most extended illustration in a book the effectiveness of which is only made possible by its very flexible handling of examples: and one notes the helpful captions, clarifying the meaning of each: indeed, technological skill in the presentation of this book is a major feature. Additionally, internet reference provides access to analytically prepared scores for more detailed study. This is well in advance of what publishers of analytical books have generally provided in the past and it is to the credit of this new publishing venture, directed by Christopher Wintle (who adds a preface on the series), that it so effectively serves its author.
My only reservation of substance concerns the relationship between the book and its likely readership. Its origin in a PhD dissertation explains the commitment to original ideas; but for the very wide readership that this book will certainly attract, it would have been helpful at the outset rather than towards the end (p. 305) to establish the basis of Brahms’s attitude to the treatment of the theme and its harmony, which changed the much later constraints which we associate with him after the early sonata movements and the Variations op. 9. Of small points, I would have appreciated bar numbers with the music examples. They are present but very small. This is the kind of book that has stimulus and value beyond the confines of its immediate subject. It will provide an essential point of reference for students of the timeless musical art and principle of variation in general.
Michael Musgrave
