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Chapter 16 - Genre

from Part II - Identities, Environments and Influences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2019

By
Matthew Gelbart
Edited by
Natasha Loges  and
Katy Hamilton
Natasha Loges
Affiliation:
Royal College of Music, London
Katy Hamilton
Affiliation:
Royal College of Music, London
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Summary

The two passages of music below might be taken, by a musician who had not yet encountered them, to come not only from the pen of very different composers but from very different eras. The first (Example 16.1) seems to be from the early to middle part of the nineteenth century. Its theme – songlike in form but clearly instrumental in tessitura and technique – unfolds exuberantly upward against a cloud of oscillating strings, a sensuous texture retained by at least some of the instruments almost continually until the theme lands on a cadence at bar 16. This opening seems inspired byFelix Mendelssohn’s celebrated Octet Op. 20, whose beginning is remarkably similar, although Mendelssohn’s theme is presented by violin rather than cello Example 16.2). In both chamber pieces, too, the outer elements of the texture come to play off each other melodically as the theme unfurls.

Keywords

BrahmscontextgenrestylecompositionaestheticsconservativeprogressiveSchumannhistorical
Type
Chapter
Information
Brahms in Context , pp. 149 - 163
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Further Reading

Dahlhaus, C., ‘Zur Problematik der musikalischen Gattungen im 19. Jahrhundert’, in Arlt, W. et al. (eds.), Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen: Gedenkschrift Leo Schrade, (Bern: Francke, 1973), 840–95Google Scholar
Gelbart, M., ‘Layers of Representation in Nineteenth-Century Genres: The Case of One Brahms Ballade’, in Walden, J. (ed.), Representation in Western Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 13–32Google Scholar
Gelbart, M., ‘Nation, Folk, and Music History in the Finale of Brahms’s First Symphony’, Nineteenth Century Studies 23 (2009), 57–85Google Scholar
Krummacher, F., ‘Reception and Analysis: On the Brahms Quartets, Op. 51, Nos. 1 and 2’, 19th-Century Music 18/1 (Summer 1994), 24–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musgrave, M., Brahms: A German Requiem (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Notley, M., ‘The Chamber Music of Brahms’, in Hefling, S. (ed.), Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), 242–86Google Scholar
Lott, M. Sumner, The Social Worlds of Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music (Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015), 195–202Google Scholar

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  • Genre
  • Edited by Natasha Loges, Royal College of Music, London, Katy Hamilton, Royal College of Music, London
  • Book: Brahms in Context
  • Online publication: 15 May 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316681374.016
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  • Genre
  • Edited by Natasha Loges, Royal College of Music, London, Katy Hamilton, Royal College of Music, London
  • Book: Brahms in Context
  • Online publication: 15 May 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316681374.016
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Genre
  • Edited by Natasha Loges, Royal College of Music, London, Katy Hamilton, Royal College of Music, London
  • Book: Brahms in Context
  • Online publication: 15 May 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316681374.016
Available formats
×