Symphony No. 3 (Brahms)

The Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op 90 by Johannes Brahms was born in 1883 in the fiftieth year of their composers.

  • 4.1 documents
  • 4.2 Further Reading

Formation

Brahms wrote his third symphony in the summer of 1883 during his Wiesbaden- stay. Maybe the work is based on sketches from previous years. However, in relation to the third symphony neither sketches and early versions have not yet received communication by letter of the composer; the only person who learned about the process of composition, was the composer and conductor Franz Wüllner, Brahms presented some passages of the symphony to view.

The symphony was founded six years after Brahms ' Symphony No. 2 in D major and closely followed by the 1884/85 composed Symphony No. 4 in E minor. It thus falls within the period of the so-called " music controversy " between representatives of the New German School, who saw the future of music in symphonic poem and music program and advocates of absolute music, which also belonged to Brahms. They took the view that music should not be judged by programmatic statements, but only in the intra- musical artistic standards, as was customary in the Viennese Classicism.

Set names

Occupation

Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, a contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings.

First movement: Allegro con brio (F Major )

As was already the case in Brahms ' Second Symphony, the Third Symphony is also determined by a basic motif at the beginning of the first sentence. For this technique to set before the actual beginning of a music consisting of a few notes motif - such as Ludwig van Beethoven had it at the beginning of his Symphony No. 3, the "Eroica", done on the basis of two Tutti - beats - led music theorist Hugo Riemann the term curtain ' a. In the case of Brahms ' third symphony is a f' -as "-f " motif in the winds; it is heard in the course of the first sentence several times and marks the change from one form to the next section of the movement. With the principle that a compacted to a minimum design holds together the structure of a whole sentence, Brahms assumes a model of classical and especially Beethoven and the Symphony No. 5

Even with the third tone of the subject uses the cascading main theme of the movement. The main theme for example, change of F minor in the second bar to D flat major for the third stroke and lies relatively late to the home key of D major firm. Also the beginning here change between major and minor keys is characteristic of the entire symphony.

The theorem essentially follows the sonata form. Notwithstanding this, the implementation is first determined by a processing of the second subject and then only from the first section of the main theme. The main theme as a whole only sounds in the coda. Furthermore, can be found also in deviation from traditional sonata scheme, a similarity in the outline of development and coda. Both the implementation and the coda consist of two sections; in both cases a dynamic section is followed by a quieter part.

Second movement: Andante ( C major )

The Andante is like the third movement of the symphony compared to the outer movements of lower weight.

The argument advanced by the clarinets main theme undergoes in the coda by accompanying chromaticism a change in mood.

The Andante is divided into three parts (a- b- a '). The transitions between the three parts are held by variation and intensification of the main theme as well as (in the case of the transition from part b- a'- part) by strain and a change in the phrasing imperceptibly.

Third movement: Poco allegretto ( C minor )

Just like the Andante is the third set of lighter weight than the outer movements. He also is in ABA ' form structured (main part - Repeated main part ) before it is closed by a coda. In a ' part of the wind plays the string passages of the a- part; in this sense take over the strings of a ' part of the wind passages of a part.

The main theme is created as melancholic valse triste in the style of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and reached only for a brief moment in the middle part of the character of a song.

Fourth movement: Allegro ( F minor / F major )

The movement begins with a mysterious accreting, but energetic go-ahead subject. Through the development of a set with respect to the development of the dynamics at least coequal counterpoint to the first movement of the symphony. The theme consists of several element sections: the mysterious but energetic block start, a chorale-like melody and a postscript with rugged jagged note figures.

At the same time he can by quotations from the previous sentences prior history of the symphony reminisce: While leave the reconciliation theme derived from the second set and the secondary theme of the third set, you will hear at the end of the finale, the main theme of the first movement.

At least on the outside also follows the fourth movement of the sonata -allegro form, but also differs in the finals in several aspects from the usual scheme: Thus the recapitulation is already at the point where the implementation should actually process the third element section of the main theme; the actual main theme is, however, not taken up.

The coda takes with her 60 out of 309 bars about one fifth of the entire set. Since the first two element portions of the main theme of the finale here be repeated, with variations, the coda has the character of a second implementation.

Compared to the previous energy development of the final movement of these ends behave unexpectedly. Within this final nine bars unexpectedly quiet sounds the main theme of the first movement, but not accompanied with the same energy as in his first appearance but by tremolos in the strings.

Brahms ' longtime friend Joseph Joachim wrote in a letter to the composer through the fourth sentence:

" The last sentence of your symphony becomes even more powerful by: I found him just as deeply as in the original design, which I do not want to say that the other sets were unworthy of his: only he touches me the most. And strangely, as little as I love the quibble on poetry in music usually, so I'm going but when the piece ( and only a minority in the whole field of music I feel the same) a certain poetic image can not shake: Hero and Leander! Unintentionally seems to me, at the thought of the 2nd theme in C major [T. 52 ff ], the bold, brave swimmers, lifted the breast of the waves and the powerful passion in his eye, vigorous, heroic great circle, goal, goal, in spite of the elements, the storm again and again! Poor mortals - but how beautiful and reconciling the apotheosis, the redemption in destruction ".

Effect

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played the composition on 2 December of the same year under Hans Richter at the first time. The Brahms 's biographer Max Kalbeck reported that the Bruckner and Wagner followers began to hiss after each sentence. In the contemporary audience, the symphony came due to the " music controversy " in total to shared response: While the " new Germans " such as Hugo Wolf said they were old-fashioned and einfallsarm, it was celebrated by the "conservatives" and enthusiastically received by large sections of the audience, so that both the first performance in Vienna and the following performances were soon successful in other cities.

In the following years Brahms was portrayed as conservative. One of the first admirers of the symphony was Antonín Dvořák, opposite the " beautiful melodies " praised his publisher Simrock and raved that a rising in the heart of love in the work; Hans Richter compared Brahms ' Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven's Eroica even with Symphony.

Clara Schumann commented on the Symphony in a letter to Brahms as follows:

" What a work which poetry, most harmonious mood through the whole thing, all the sentences as if from a cast iron, a heart beat, every sentence a gem! - How to be from beginning to end embraced by the mysterious magic of the forest life! I could not tell which set me the dearest? In the first charmed me already equal to the splendor of the awakened day, as the sun's rays glisten through the trees, everything is alive, everything is breathing serenity that is delightful! In the second pure idyll, I eavesdrop on people praying to the little forest chapel, the gutters of the brook, playing the beetles and mosquitoes - this is a swarm and whisper around you that you look just like cocooned feel in all the bliss of nature. The third sentence seems to me a pearl, but there is a gray, bordered by a melancholy tear; at the end of the modulation is quite wonderful. Wonderfully then follows the last sentence with its passionate recovery: the agitated heart but will soon gesänftigt again, most recently the Transfiguration, which occurs even in the implementation motif in a beauty for which I find no answer. "

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