Week 4 : Chamber Music

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Brahms' Chamber Music

Revived chamber music after the death of Schumann.

B major/minor Piano Trio op. 8 à was his attempt to synthesize Classical and Romantic traditions. The main theme of the first movement has a Schubert like style, the hymn like theme of the Adagio is inspired by Beethoven, and the Scherzo is in a Mendelssohn spirit. He adds in Baroque counterpoint à the second group of the first movement begins with a Bach like chromatic theme which becomes the subject of an elaborate fugato in the recapitulation. The second theme of the finale is similar to the last song of Beethoven's cycle An Die Ferne Geliebte à this cycle also was significant for Schumann. Brahm's slow movement includes a reference to Schubert's cycle Schwanengesang, Am Meer. Before publishing this work in 1889, he removed the fugato and the obvious references and tightened up the formal structures. He also wrote a new theme for the slow movement and a new second theme for the finale.

In contrast to the piano trio, his sextet, the piano quartets in g minor op. 25 and A op. 26 are innovative. They are massive in scale. The exposition of op. 25 first movement has five thematic groups. A striking tonal reversal (inspired by Schubert's G major string quartet D 887) the recapitulation begins in G major with the middle rather than the initial segment of the tripartite first theme.

In the intermezzo of op. 25 is the first time he substituted the standard scherzo or minuet with a gentler movement (this became a hallmark of his works!!!). The rondo finale shows the earliest appearance of the style hongrois ( a term applied to the evocation of romungro, (Hungarian gypsy) music making in the westin Brahms's chamber music. (vs. Verbunkos which is a Hungarian dance).

The first movement of the G major String Quintet op.111, a work with which Brahms initially thought to take leave of composition, seems to press against the limits of chamber music. The powerful opening tremolos announce a symphonic manner, and the main theme, introduced by the cello, is one of the most expansive in all Brahms, with an ambitious and harmonic scope that invites comparison with the athletic melodies of Richard Strauss.

Clarinet Trio op. 114, Clarinet quintet op. 115 and two Clarinet/viola sonatas op. 120 à Structural fluidity is especially evident in the first movements where conventional boundaries of the sonata are blurred à the expositions are not repeated (except in the clarinet quintet), and he built complex thematic groups where the opening ideas are harmonically and formally ambiguous and introductory in nature making theme salient to the exposition. In op. 120 no. 1 the first theme reappears at the end of the development and is harmonized in the remote key of F sharp minor. The recapitulation begins on the tonic with the contrasting part of the first group à these techniques are ways to achieve continuity and clarity in a unique way.

Mendelssohn's Chamber Music

Wrote 6 string quartets.

Master of counterpoint as he was educated in the Bach tradition by Carl Zelter and he also played chamber music.

His training emphasized clarity, polish and symmetry. He was not afraid to be an innovator and was deeply affected by Beethoven's innovations and the current trends of Romanticism. These traits are all shown in his seven string quartets which spanned his career. The most innovative are the following:

String Quartet in A minor Op. 13 1827

Much influence from Beethoven's late A minor quartet op. 132 à

Motivic connections between the two works and use the violin recitative to introduce their finales. The chromatic fugal section of the Adagio non lento recalls the allegretto from Beethoven's Op. 95 and at times he recalls Beethoven's sound with his fragmented part writing. Mendelssohn was impressed by Beethoven's organicism.

Aspects not relating to Beethoven à more inclined to write balanced antecedent-consequent phrases with repetitions. They are not as formally daring as Beethoven's op. 132. This quartet stems from his lyrical, symmetrical style of his song ‘Frage.' (Question) where he recalls thematic material of the song in his first and last movements, cross references in the finale to both the first and second movements and uses the overall feeling in all four à unifying device.

String Quartet in F minor op. 80 1847

Written after Fanny's death.

Loses his symmetrical phrases, agitated with shock, and grief.

It is a cycle unified by recurring motivic cell with the first violins playing its five pitches. There are numerous links between movements.

Three false starts.

The lyrical second theme is played with an underlying of agitation.

Unstable exposition. No double bar; the development suddenly starts and then collapses into the recapitulation.

The F minor Scherzo is like a Czech furiant with its hemiolas. The trio is odd like late Beethvoen.

The binary Adagio is unsettled à its second half expands into a climactic section that recalls chromaticism from earlier movements and fragments before the ‘cantabile' returns.

The finale is full of syncopations, diminished sevenths, distorted symmetry and interrupted periodicity. The stormy triplets return from the first movement and in the coda and combine contrapuntally with the main theme and highlights it cyclic origin from the first movement à anticipating Brahms.

Strong contrasts and brings new expressivity within the standard four movement structure.

Except for Schubert's last quartet G major D.887, nothing this unique had been written since late Beethoven. Like Beethoven and Schubert, he ended his career with chamber music for strings as this was his last composition.

 

Spohr's Chamber Music

Chamber works comprised of about half of his 152 opus numbers. 34 string quartets are largely unknown today. They are of two types: 8 termed quatuor brilliant or Solo quartett or a French mannered three movement violin solos with string trio accompaniment. The remainder are termed the ‘true quartet' in which all four voices are prominent.

 

Frank's Chamber Music

String quartet in D 1889-90

His last completed work. Composed between 20 from 1889-1890.

Large scale, makes complex use of cyclical form and has quasi orchestral textures.

The first movement has been compared to as a giant Lied where the central section includes a fugal development is in itself a complete sonata movement. Like the finale of Beethoven's 9 th symphony the introduction to the finale recalls themes from the scherzo and trio and the Larghetto while the main theme of its sonata form structure is taken from that of the first movement and undergoes augmentation and contrapuntal development.

 

Verdi's Chamber Music

String quartet in E minor 1873

•  Eclipses most of the Italian composers in the genre.

•  Demonstrates his ease in counterpoint.

•  The recapitulation and development and combined into one in the opening sonata form Allegro à te development finds its way into the transitional part of the recapitulation, with its large first theme and chromatically harmonized second theme.

•  The Andante is like a scena of an opera

•  The scherzo e minor has a striking modulation in the middle section to A flat (G sharp major).

•  The finale is a joke fugue, scherzo fuga and can be considered as a preliminary study for the choral fuge which his in his opera Falstaff (Tutto il mondo e burla à All the world's a joke). Its mood is similar though has a different theme. Leraned fugue on a skittish six bar subject.

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