Brahms and Bach
Now we arrive at the sixth and last installment on Brahms' Fourth Symphony. This work is revered, but its revolutionary importance is often missed, because the world has come to accept the very arbitrariness against which Brahms was fighting. It may seem odd to label this symphony as revolutionary, when Brahms is so often characterized as a reactionary, resisting everything new; but new does not always mean better, or even good. Sometimes, defending classical rigor IS a revolutionary act, especially as in this case, where Brahms defends that rigor by creating something new, really new!
We began this series by identifying the least action principle: that nature always acts for the good, and in the most efficient way. We examined it in physics, and whether that principle of efficiency and goodness could apply in music as well.
So far, Brahms has shown brilliantly that it does. (However, when Brahms first presented this work to his friends at the piano, played by himself and Ignaz Brull, it was met with a deafening silence. In that silence, the music critic and champion of Brahms, Eduard Hanslick, said, "I feel as though I have just been beaten up by two very intelligent men."
THE PASSACAGLIA
The last post began by citing Beethoven and Bach as bookends for this great composition, and indeed they were. Brahms had a portrait of Beethoven looming over his piano, and one of Bach over his bed. Brahms remarked that the greatest events of his lifetime were the unification of Germany, and the publication of the complete works of Bach. When a new work was published by Handel, Brahms studied it within a few days. When a new work was published by Bach, all work stopped immediately, to examine the new treasure.
People sometimes ask how Brahms advanced music over Beethoven. There are many things I could point to, but my answer often surprises them. Brahms had a huge collection of scores, going back to the Renaissance. He recognized valuable traditions that had been lost, and needed to be restored, if classical culture is to be advanced. One of those traditions was the “Passacaglia”, or “Chaconne”—an ancient, rigorous and binding form, and a necessary form, in an age increasingly defined by "anything goes”.
Neither Mozart or Beethoven, despite their revival of Bach and Handel, including in fugues, investigated this form (although Beethoven's 32 Variations in C Minor, woO 80 might qualify as an attempt. We include a link for those interested). https://youtu.be/sfQsrf3cofA
Brahms had to develop his skills in a prototype, before composing a full-fledged Passacaglia, with 30 variations. (This is not new. Beethoven wrote his Choral Fantasy as preparation for the far more difficult task of setting Schiller's “Ode to Joy” to his Ninth Symphony.)
The most important foray for Brahms was his 1873 "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" for orchestra. It begins with a theme in two sections, A and B, of 15 measures each, but with repeats, for a total of 60 measures (although only thirty in the score, since repeats are not counted as measures). Seven long variations follow. Brahms has followed, for now, the format of a proper Theme and Variations.
At measure 361, the Finale begins. Brahms suddenly condenses the entire bass line into a mere ten-notes, occupying only 5 measures, which he repeats twenty times, for over 100 measures:
Bb Bb Eb D C Bb Eb C F F(8va).
The Theme and Variations is now transformed into a “Passacaglia”, and it makes the Finale wondrous and powerful. Even when the opening theme returns, the ten-note bass figure keeps going. You will hear it in the accompanying audio. (Here’s the finale: https://youtu.be/0IzEMDjHJZY?t=909 starting at 15:09)
To compose an entire movement of thirty variations as a Passacaglia, while making that thirty-times repetition always new, and fresh, was something that had not been attempted since Bach. It was a monumental challenge.
We have already discussed Bach’s Cantata #150 (Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150, https://youtu.be/lC8UErdK_XE?t=676) from whence came the theme, and the magnificent Passacaglia for organ in c minor as a model (https://youtu.be/zzBXZ__LN_M)
There was another prototype for Brahms, Bach's Chaconne for solo violin (Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV1004). Brahms loved this work, but was also awed by it. Whenever his violinist friend Joseph Joachim was in town, Brahms demanded to hear it. He made an arrangement for it for piano, left hand only. However, he also commented that he could not have written it, because he might have died from the excitement. (Here’s Hilary Hahn: https://youtu.be/ngjEVKxQCWs)
Bach was not the first to do this. Heinrich Biber composed a passacaglia for solo violin over forty years earlier on a four-note bass. Here’s a link:
https://youtu.be/sgcR183f8gA?list=TLPQMzAwNDIwMjIE3W9PvMfU4w
Such works pale though, when compared to Bach's Chaconne, a work 256 measures long, with 64 variations, based on a simple 4 measure foundation. The piece is a triptych of three sections. The beginning and end are in D minor, and the middle in D major. Brahms follows suit, except in E minor, E major, and back to E minor.
As already discussed, Brahms took the bass line of the last movement of the Ciacona in Bach's Cantata, 150, in A minor as his theme: A A B B C C D E E A, transposed it to e minor, and added a chromatic tone: E F# G A A# B B E.
Though the Chaconne is not quoted directly, it defines the architecture. At the center of the triptych, in the major key section, is a tender, soft-spoken, and loving "Chorale", or hymn. (See audio link below. See example of a triptych painting.)
The chorale in the Bach may be the master's tribute to his recently deceased wife. Brahms honors Bach in this case.
Many such works were written after Brahms' revival of this ancient lost form—the Passacaglia—some of them worthwhile, such as those by Rheinberger, Reger, Taneyev, and Shostakovitch. But the new direction in late 19th century music was such that nothing fulfilled the promise of Brahms.
We include a performance of the movement with analysis: https://youtu.be/ajoUNA4LLKk
and a stunning video of Furtwangler leading the Berlin Philharmonic in a rehearsal in London in 1948: https://youtu.be/leYbb5KZYDg
Audio File https://drive.google.com/.../161MX2S48Hgtwudjhij.../view...
No doubt, the Passacaglia and the Chaconne shall inspire great works in the future.
