Brahms – Fourth Symphony

Description

Brahms was in the habit of leading a well-ordered life. From the time he was thirty, when he settled permanently in Vienna, he would spend his winters making guest appearances in performances of his music. But in the summer, he would retire to some small village where he could compose amid the quiet and inspiring surroundings of the Austrian countryside. It was during the summers of 1884 and 1885 that Brahms, in the Austrian Alps, wrote his Fourth Symphony. He seemed to realize the stern character of his work, for he wrote to a friend: “I am pondering whether the symphony will find more of a public. I fear it smacks of the climate of this country (Austrian Alps); the cherries are not sweet here, and you would certainly not eat them.”

The tone of the entire symphony is one of seriousness, and the work reflects the earnestness of Brahms’ later years. In the fourth movement Brahms broke all tradition by casting the finale in the form of a chaconne or passacaglia. The terms chaconne and passacaglia are, for all practical purposes, inter-changeable, and refer to an old Spanish dance form, usually in 3/4 time, which consists of a set of variations on a theme that is usually eight measures long and usually in the bass. In this symphony the theme is in the top voice. Upon this theme, which he took from the chaconne in Bach’ s Cantata No. 150, Brahms constructed a monumental and powerful set of thirty-four variations. This arrangement includes the theme with sixteen variations and the coda.

Published by: Dorabet Music Company