CHAPTER 39
Absolutely Classic: Brahms and the Nineteenth-Century Symphony
OVERVIEW
Chapter 39 explores the continuing relevance of absolute genres in music of the Romantic
nineteenth century. Brahms’s Third Symphony serves as a testament to the evolving absolute
music symphonic tradition as established by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the continuing importance of absolute music genres in instrumental music of
the Romantic era
2. To understand melodic lyricism and the expansion of form, instrumentation, and harmonic
color as style characteristics of Romantic symphonies
3. To recognize Brahms’s Third Symphony as both a continuation of the absolute symphonic
tradition established by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven and a contemporary statement of
musical Romanticism
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Take students through the form of the first movement of Brahms’s Third Symphony. Pause
after the entrance of the second theme. Ask students to consider the thematic content and
key area. What kind of form is being revealed in this movement? Guide them through the
rest of the movement, pausing at important structural moments of the sonata-allegro design.
Emphasize to students the lasting influence of sonata-allegro form on absolute music genres
such as the symphony well into the nineteenth century.
2. Before listening to the third movement of Brahms’s Third Symphony, map the large and
small-scale form of the movement (A: a a b a B: a b a b A´: a a b a) on the board. Ask
students to note how Brahms employs instrumentation to delineate the form. Have students
connect an instrument or group of instruments that carry the theme to each section of the
form. Ask students to the variety of orchestration choices as they describe the mood of each
thematic section. Emphasize this imaginative use of instrumental timbres as central to
absolute music genres of the Romantic era. Also stress the important role that form plays in
establishing a narrative context for the piece.
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. Some nineteenth-century proponents of Brahms went to great lengths to assert the validity
of absolute over program music. The critic Eduard Hanslick, for example, went so far as to
claim that the content of music is wholly derived from its form. Music, in other words,
speaks only of its own design and nothing else. Do you agree with this idea? Can music
truly be absolute? Why or why not?
2. Compare the approaches to symphonic writing of Berlioz and Brahms. How does each
embody the traits of Romanticism? Would you call one more “Romantic” than the other?
Why?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
Introducing Brahms as a Romantic-era composer who embraced the traditional formal designs
of the Classical era might need clarification to avoid confusion about Classical vs. Romantic.
Take this as an opportunity to explore the Romantic nature of this composer’s melodic and
harmonic language, as well as his Romantic approach to orchestral scoring.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (Romantic)
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bonds, Mark Evan. After Beethoven: Imperatives of Originality in the Symphony. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. This book underscores the overshadowing influence of
Beethoven on the creative output of the great Romantic symphonists. Brahms is treated in
Chapter 5 (“The Ideology of Genre”).
Dahlhaus, Carl. The Idea of Absolute Music. Translated by Roger Lustig. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1989. Dahlhaus documents the nineteenth-century conceptualization of
absolute music from its beginnings in German Romantic philosophy.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Absolutely Classic: Brahms and the Nineteenth-Century Symphony (Chapter 39)
I. Absolute Music in the Romantic Era
A. Multimovement genres: symphony, concerto, chamber music
1. form: organizing element
2. Romantic composers: freedoms with structures
3. repertory continues to dominate orchestral concerts
B. Form and expression in the Romantic symphony
1. music moved from palace to concert halls
2. orchestra increased in size
3. symphonic structure: longer, more expansive
4. framework for composers: lyrical themes, harmonic experiments, individual
expressions
5. 19th century symphonies:
a. mvt 1: most dramatic, retains sonata-allegro form
i. optional slow introduction
ii. features long, expressive development
b. mvt. 2: loose three-part form, slow, lyrical
c. mvt. 3: strongly rhythmic dance or scherzo
d. mvt. 4: dimension and character balance first movement
C. Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
1. German composer, conductor
2. mentored by Robert and Clara Schumann
3. moved to Vienna
4. traditionalist: absolute music, Classical forms
5. lifelong affection for folk music
6. age 40, began composing symphonic works
7. output: four symphonies, four concertos, major contributions to chamber music,
piano, and song repertoire
D. Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F Major
1. written at age 50
2. shortest of his four symphonies
3. most Romantic in tone: shifting moods, timbres, creative invention
4. uses Classical era forms
5. three-note motive permeates entire symphony
6. third movement, lyrical melancholic waltz replaces scherzo
E. Listening Guide 28: Brahms, Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Third Movement (1883)
1. A-B-A´, brief coda; C minor
2. moderate triple-meter waltz
3. rhythmically complex: three-against-two patterns, syncopation
4. A section: opens with yearning cello melody
5. B section: major key; expressive, chromatic accompaniment
6. ends quietly: last chord, pizzicato strings