Sara Elmer TH 251 Analytical Studies - Paper 5/4/11

Interpreting Brahms Ballade in G Minor No. 3, Op. 118 in analyzing Brahms Op. 10 Ballades and Chopins Ballades

Since Chopin was the first to compose a Ballade as an instrumental work, there were many instrumental ballades as models for composers such as Brahms. Therefore, where did Brahms draw his inspiration? Was it from Chopin? Was it from the ballad genre? Was it a combination of these or simply his own creative process, which formed his Ballade in G Minor No. 3, Op. 118? Using Chopins Ballades and Brahms earlier works - Op. 10 Ballades, this paper is going to interpret the Op. 118 Ballade in analyzing in depth to see where Brahms drew from to compose this particular Ballade. In order to do so not only will there be an analysis of the Op. 118 Ballade, there will be some comparison to that of Chopins Ballades to find any possible common traits in both. The Brahms Ballade in G Minor No. 3 belongs to the Klavierstucke Op. 118 set, which also includes four Intermezzi and a Romanze. The Klavierstucke Op. 118 set was composed later in Brahms life (Murdoch, 208). It is considered to be part of the third or contemplative period of Brahms music (Evan, 40). The music from this period is thought to show his inner self because of the music being very personal and introspective (Murdoch, 208). He also composed three collections of some other shorter piano works: Opp. 116, 117, and 119 around

 this same time in his life (Botstein, 193). Not only are all of the pieces from Opp. 116-119 lyrical in character, but also they are all written in ABA form and basically are uniform in rhythm and texture (Botstein, 193). As the other pieces within the Klavierstucke Op. 118 set, this Ballade was composed in an ABA form. The first section begins in the key of G Minor and went through several key changes that are rather vague as to whether those key changes are simply tonicizations or modulations. The fact that the middle section was in B Major is interesting in that it did not change to B-flat Major, which was the relative major (III) of G Minor. William Murdoch stated that Brahms was extraordinarily fond of this key, and mentioned how he thought that Brahms

must have enjoyed writing in it more than in any other and that it was never used better than in this Ballade (274). Within the middle section, it is ambiguous as to what key it is in, but B Major keeps coming back as the main tonal center. In the return of the A section, the same progressions and key changes happen again. In both of the A sections, the texture is very thick and jarring. This texture and the key it is in, adds to a dark and aggressive tone to these sections. Most of the phrases in the A section also start the same way in terms of rhythm within the top voice of the chords: short, short, long (see example 1). In the transition in between the sections, the texture shifts gradually into the texture of the B section in measures 33-41 (see chart). The B section is in strong contrast of texture with that of the A section (see chart). This section is much more lyrical and flowing in nature. In place of the jarring texture, there is a nocturne accompaniment of flowing arpeggios (see example 2). During the B section at measures 53-57, it seems as if Brahms was trying to bring the A section back with the short, short, long rhythm; but this is not yet the place where it returns. After this brief moment in which the A section is trying to return, it goes back to the B

 section material. Murdoch stated that those four bars where Brahms tried to bring back the

original subject in the key of D sharp minor used again in the transition from the B section into the A section for the purposes of modulation (274). This moment that Brahms did in that section plays into the self-expression of the work. Here when all seems peaceful there is something that struggles to come back through and eventually does come back. This can also be connected to the narrative aspect of the ballad genre. In measures 70-77, there is a transition to lead into the return of the A section (see chart). At the end of the A section there is a coda at measures 109-118. In this coda, there is material from the first transition as well as material from the B section (see example 3). Yet those last four bars echo the middle section in the tonic key of G Minor (Murdoch 274). This particular Ballade was composed many years after Brahms wrote the Op. 10 Ballades. It was between the years 1851 and 1854 when Brahms composed the Op. 10 Ballades (Young, 48). It is interesting to note that the third piece in the Op. 10 Ballade does not hold the title ballade, instead it receives the title of Intermezzo from Brahms (James, 86). These works are considered to be products of his youth unlike the Ballade from the Op. 118 set (Young, 48). They were also written during what was thought of as Brahms symphonic period (Evans, 24). It was about forty years later in 1892 when he wrote the Op. 118 set, which shows his mature style (Botstein, 193). Yet it was much earlier when Chopin composed his first Ballade in 1836 (Parakilas, 19). Chopin was the first to use the title of a ballade for an instrumental piece (Parakilas, 19). Before Chopins use of the title ballade, the ballad genre was known as folk-songs that would tell stories (Parakilas, 19-20). In the ballad genre, Carl Loewe was considered the leading ballad composer during his generation (Parakilas, 20). Parakilas included a description

 4 from Gordon Gerould of the ballad genre who said that a ballad is a folk-song that tells a story with stress on the crucial situation, tells it by letting the action unfold itself in event and speech, and tells it objectively with little comment or intrusion of personal bias (20). Just as the ballad genre, Chopins Ballades are written as a narrative in that it proceeds from a weak and open, soft and moderate beginning, through successive waves of nervous intensification and acceleration, to an exceptionally strong and conclusive, frantic and fiery ending, with the final goal reached in an act of desperation, rather than by means of a logical and orderly progression (Rink and Samson). There are some scholars who believe that Chopin modeled his Ballades according to ballads of Mickiewicz, while other scholars strongly disagree with that belief (Parakilas, 26). Therefore, it is vague on whether or not Chopin used the ballad genre as a model for his own instrumental ballads. Yet Chopins Ballades had become a model for many composers to use for their own ballades. Those composers used certain techniques of representation and of musical process which Chopin created within his own Ballades (Parakilas, 29). Before analyzing the Op. 118 Ballade, there are some characteristics to take note of within both Chopins Ballades and Brahms Ballades in the general sense. In the next section, there will be different general characteristics of the way both composers used the ballade genre. This includes looking at the structure, the meter, and the texture of the ballade. The structure of Chopins Ballades has three musical events which included statement of themes, transformation of themes, and resolution (Parakilas, 72). In Chopins Ballade in G Minor No. 1, Op. 23, there is an introduction at measures 1-8 and a coda at measures 209-264, which in a sense frames in a structure that resembles a sonata-allegro form (Berger, 48-49). The Brahms Op. 10 Ballades does not have an unified structure to all four works within that set.

 The first Ballade, Edward, in that set is in a simple ternary form (Young, 61). The second and third from that same set are in a very loose form ternary form in that both middle parts are

greatly expanded unlike the first Ballade. The last Ballade strongly contrasts with all of the other in the set in that it has an ABAB structure. Yet Brahms did something completely different with the Ballade from Op. 118 because Brahms used a similar structure to what Chopin used in his Ballades. This Ballade was written in an ABA form with a coda at the end. Referring to Brahms Piano works Opp. 116, 117, 118, and 119; Botstein says that all of those pieces are basically in an ABA form (Botstein, 193). The structure of the Ballade from Op. 118 was similar to Chopins Ballades in that there are three sections in both of those Ballades. This could be to the fact that this Ballade was part of Op. 118 set instead of being in a set of Ballades as the Op. 10 was composed. The Op. 118 set consisted of Intermezzi, Romanze, and the Ballade, which are all connected by the same straightforward form (Botstein, 193). Since this Ballade belonged to that set, Brahms could have composed in the ABA form instead of a more similar form for the Op. 10 Ballades to unify the Op. 118 set. There was a similarity between Brahms Op. 118 Ballade and Chopins Ballades in the number of sections within the ballade structure yet what happened in the three sections differed. Unlike Chopins structure, Brahms Op. 118 ABA form consisted of statement, digression, and restatement (Alperson, 142). The first section of both this Ballade and Chopins Ballades was the same in that both state the themes. While Chopins second section transformed the themes from the first section the second section of the Op. 118 Ballade left the themes that were originally stated in the first section. Chopins third section resolved while Brahms simply restated the themes in the third section of this Ballade.

 The meter that Chopin used in his Ballades is sextuple. The first Ballade was the only one of his Ballades that began in common time for seven measures and then changed to the

sextuple meter (Parakilas, 54). In all of the other Ballades by Chopin, he used the sextuple meter throughout the piece. It was unsure if Chopin chose that meter because of the ballads he knew of or not (Parakilas, 54). The sextuple meter is used in three of the Ballades from Op. 10. The first Ballade does not use the sextuple meter at all and the third piece from the Op. 10 set is the only one that uses that meter throughout the piece and does not change meters. However, the Ballade from Op. 118 did not use the sextuple meter at all instead it used cut time. Within Chopins Ballades, there are some characteristics of a nocturne accompaniment or barcarolle rhythm (Parakilas, 54). According to Parakilas, the characteristic of Brahms Ballades are considered to be similar in style to Mendelssohns Songs Without Words and Schuberts Impromptu (Parakilas, 54). Yet there is a section within the Ballade from Op. 118 that has the nocturne accompaniment characteristic. As mentioned earlier, this nocturne accompaniment is evident within the B section of the Ballade with the lyrical melody in the top voice of the chords in the right hand. The nocturne accompaniment with this lyrical melody adds to the singing aspect of this section within the very contrasting and jarring A sections. There was a similarity of the texture and where it is placed in the overall structure between Chopins Ballade in G Minor No. 1, Op. 23 and this particular Ballade. In this B section, Brahms used an accompaniment in the style of a nocturne. This same texture was found in the second section Chopins Op. 23 Ballade. The overall structure of the texture was the same as well since both middle sections are between sections with rather aggressive, thick texture. The A section of the Op. 118 Ballade has a jerky accompaniment unlike the flowing accompaniment of the nocturne style in the B section (Alperson, 142).

 This flowing style of the middle section with the nocturne accompaniment could have part to do with the fact that this Ballade was composed during a time in Brahms life that was considered a phase in which his self-expression was developing in emotional fervour

(Murdoch, 270). The Ballade from the Op. 118 set as whole could possibly be different from the Op. 10 Ballades because Brahms was composing more in the sense of his personal self. Not that he was not doing that before this time, but that Brahms works around that time was more introspective than previous times (Murdoch, 208). Another factor could possible be that Brahms composed this way according to the narrative model of a ballad just as Chopin had done with his Ballades. In analyzing Chopins Ballades, Parakilas pointed out that all four of them gradually gain momentum from beginning to end (54). This momentum that is through the Ballades plays into the aspect of the ballad story in that it moves from its act of defiance to its reckoning (Parakilas, 54). Here it is noted that there is a firm connection of these Chopins Ballades with that narrative aspect of the ballad genre. In Brahms Op. 118 Ballade, he started the piece very aggressively and forceful then changed to a very sweet and peaceful B section. But during that sweet and peaceful B section the bold A section tried to come back in sooner as if it was overcoming the peacefulness of the B section. When the material from the B section was used within the coda, it was as if the piece was trying to resolve but cannot do so and ended within the tonic key of G Minor. From a narrative viewpoint, it is as if there is a conflict which digresses for awhile almost a resolution of the conflict. Then there is a reminder of that conflict because there is a struggle between the conflict and possible resolution. Yet the conflict unfortunately prevails and builds up to a climax. Though it does not end here, rather it leaves the possibility of a resolution again ends in an ambiguous manner.

 In looking at the Op. 10 Ballades to that of the Op. 118 Ballade, there really are not strong traits that they share. While the Op. 10 Ballades have some traits shared with that of Chopins Ballades, there is a much stronger connection between the Ballade from Op. 118 to Chopins own Ballades. There really is not a definite way to know where Brahms drew his inspiration for the Ballade Op. 118 without any sources directly saying how what specifically inspired him and what he used as a model for that Ballade. Parakilas even mentions that it is

vague as to whether or not Brahms knew of Chopins Ballades when he composed the Edward Ballade (141). Some things that can be taken into consideration in regards to the similarity in the characteristics of the Op. 118 Ballade and Chopins Ballades is that Brahms wrote this piece during a time in his life when his music was really reflecting himself, his life. This Ballade is also part of a set that is very unified in many aspects. Even through analyzing this piece in the context of his other Ballades and Chopins Ballades, it is rather ambiguous as to what influenced Brahms to write this Ballade the way in which he did unlike his earlier Op. 10 Ballades. It could be that he either modeled Chopins Ballades, modeled the ballad genre, chose those traits to make a uniform set, or it was simply more of a reflection on him.

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Chart of Brahms Ballade in G Minor from Op. 118: 1-41 (A section) G Minor Short, short, long rhythm 42-73 (B section) B Major Nocturne accompaniment 74-118 (A section and Coda) G Minor Short, short, long rhythm

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Works Cited Alperson, Philip. What Is Music?: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Music. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1994. Print. Berger, Karol. Chopins Ballade Op. 23 and the Revolution of the Intellectuals. Chopin Studies 2. Ed. John Rink and Jim Samson. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1994. 72-83. Print. - - -. The Form of Chopins Ballade, Op. 23. 19th-Century Music 20.1: 46-71. JSTOR. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/746667>. Botstein, Leon, ed. The Compleat Brahms: A Guide to the Musical Works of Johannes Brahms. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. Print. Evans, Edwin. Handbook to the Pianoforte Works of Johannes Brahms. London: Reeves, [1936?]. Print. James, Burnett. Brahms: A Critical Study. New York: Praeger, 1972. Print. Murdoch, William. Brahms with an Analytical Study of the Complete Pianoforte Works. New York: Sears Publishing Company, [1933?]. Print. Parakilas, James. Ballads Without Words: Chopin and the Tradition of the Instrumental Ballade. Portland: Amadeus, 1992. Print. Young, John Bell. Brahms: A Listeners Guide. New York: Amadeus, 2008. Print. Unlocking the Masters ser. 15.