brahms requiem analysis

The sixth movement is the perfect dramatic corollary to the second, Goernes surprisingly tender utterance of We shall be changed leading to tremendously exciting choral singing of Death, where is thy sting?. Yet doubt as to whether it might have been misattributed seems dispelled by a nearly comparable 1935 New York Philharmonic Toscanini concert. Nola Frink must know how that feels. WebAbstract: Johannes Brahms was the first composer to claim the requiem genre without utilizing the Catholic Missa pro defunctis text. Shaws approach facilitated his singers understanding of structure and their ability to avoid mistakes. My only quibbles are a slightly stodgy pacing of the VI fugue and a bad splice before its final "Where is thy sting." This will be between the soloists, the audience, and me. Ratzlaff says the singer next to him vowed he would never perform for Shaw again. Perhaps in an on-going effort to plumb its depths, Brahms reportedly covered his copy with annotations. One of the last vestiges of the vigor that distinguished Walter's long career until the very end (which regrettably is the only portion most classical fans know nowadays from his final Columbia stereo remakes), this magnificent reading is beautifully paced, never rushed but always pressing forward with energy and a strong rhythmic thrust, including overpowering timpani in II, an extraordinary rarity in the entire Walter discography. He says it was no accident Shaw was drawn to the Requiem. But from the vantage of the complexity and cynicism of the seemingly insoluble problems of our current world-view, is that really a problem or more a hallmark of sophistication? If he realized a certain passage was going to require a little more from the first altos, for example, hed assign some second sopranos to join them for a few measures. ], Willem Mengelberg, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Toonkunst Choir, Max Kloos, Jo Vincent (1940, Turnabout LP, 65'). The stillness and tranquillity of the final movement brings a satisfying sense of closure and healing. The event was poorly publicized, so the audience, according to Jessop, consisted only of Shaws wife Caroline, a few other people, and a cat. All is there even the climaxes are not slighted but rather controlled and integrated through the sheer care and consistency of the performance, heard through the prism of Celibidache's distinctive outlook. Although the fifth movement was not performed till 1869, ten months after the Bremen premiere, Musgrave does not believe it was a late addition to the other six movements, as some have claimed. Recordings of Brahmss large-scale choral-orchestral works have to pass two acid tests: first, the balancing of massive structures so that the whole thing hangs together, neither rushing nor dragging;and secondly, the handling of texture, so that listeners can hear individual orchestral-vocal lines and timbres, but also enjoy the seamless fusion of the gigantic collective sound which give such works their meaning. The logic of the voice leading is as inevitable as if decreed from heaven., Shaw was famously obsessive in his efforts to understand composers intentions and distill them for his singers. On the one hand, performances in the local language would seem take the composer's desire for accessibility to its logical conclusion, enabling audiences to understand the words and better appreciate their musical settings. Indeed, Schumann had urged Brahms to "direct his magic wand where the massed forces of chorus and orchestra may lend him their power." Hermann Prey sings the heart-rending baritone solos as if his life depended on it, while Elisabeth Grmmers mature, warm sound offers the reassurance and dependability often missing from more girlish renditions. It is an ideal set-up for the solo soprano movement that follows. It is both curious and disturbing that such an accessible work had to wait until 1947 for its first studio recordings clearly a sign of producers' low confidence in its commercial prospects. For Jones, the most important lesson to pass along at the symposium was Shaws commitment to the symbols on the page as being what the composer wanted to hear. Prior to Shaw, Jones argued, American choral music was too much about the conductorthe Westminster sound, the St. Yet the two realizations, while both exceptional, are far from identical the Norrington is notably leaner, crisper and faster and with good reason our only indications are indirect and thus somewhat speculative. Karajan applies his trademark polish, but without lapsing into the slickness that would tend to dominate his later work. The chorale lay at the root of the Requiem.. It opens with a solemn march in time (derived from the slow scherzo of the abandoned symphony), lightens with hope, proclaims the word of God in bold unison, and ends in varied radiant assertions of "ewige Freude" ("everlasting joy"). Shaws rehearsals for a 1990 Carnegie Hall performance of the Brahms Requiem, captured on video and screened at the symposium, begin with the opening notes, but not with the words Selig sind. Instead, the singers intone One and two and tee and four and, one and two and tee and four and, one and. The technique, count singing, is often associated with Shaw. A large chorus can be a mucilaginous mess. The Brahms Requiem: Questions for the Conductor Along with questions about his musical and textual motivation, Brahms left several other issues to puzzle For a taste of Furtwangler's magic in modern sound, Barenboim comes quite close, with nearly identical tempos, beautifully shaped phrases, thundering climaxes (with hugely imposing timpani Furtwangler reportedly asked his timpanist if he was playing as loudly as he could and when assured that he was demanded that he play even louder), and deep spirituality he invests the mourners' opening with a wondrous sense of longing by stretching each phrase and magnifies the explosive triumphant outbursts of the climaxes with deeply serious preparatory passages. The quotations and other factual information for this article are primarily derived from the following sources: Armin Zebrowski: "Brahms' German Requiem" (article in, R. Kinloch Anderson Karajan/Berlin (Angel SB-3838, 1977), William Mann Klemperer/Philharmonia (Angel SB-3624, 1961), Siegfried Kross Karajan/Berlin (DG 2707 018, 196x), Leonard Burkat Levine/Chicago (RCA ARC2-5002, 1977), Joseph Braunstein Bamberger/Hamburg (Nonesuch HB 73003 (1966), Karl Geiringer Haitink/Vienna State Opera (Philips 6769 055, 196x), H. Kevil Koch/Berlin RSO (Musical Heritage Society 3724/25, William S. Newman Barenboim/London (DG 2707 066, 1979), Walter Neimann Ormandy/Philadelphia (Columbia M2S 686, 1962), Robert Shaw Robert Shaw/RCA Symphony (RCA LM 6004, 1948), Andre Tubeuf and Alan Blyth Karajan/Vienna (EMI 61010, 1988), Robert Pascall Norrington/London Classical Players (EMI 54658, 1993), Steven Ledbetter Shaw/Atlanta (Telarc CD-80092, 1984), Robert Shaw Jessop/Utah (Telarc CD-80501, 1999), Patrick Lang Celibidache/Munich (EMI 56843, 1999), Martin Smith Gardiner/Orchestra Revolutionnaire (Philips 432 140, 1991), Eva Pinter Schuricht/Stuttgart (Hanssler 93.144, 2004), Roger Norrington his CD of the Brahms Symphony # 1 (EMI 54286, 1991). The fidelity is only fair, but it far outstrips Furtwngler's other extant recording at the 1947 Lucerne Festival (with Hans Hotter and Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, also on Music & Arts). It was important for us to make things as easy as possible, because he could be extremely hard on himself. That wakes up peoples listening skills., As he watched the rehearsal video, Jessop experienced renewed appreciation for count singing. One of the last sections they worried over was the final movement: Blessed are the dead that they rest now from their labors and that their works follow after them. To this day, Frink cant listen to those words and that music without thinking of Shaw. For answers to those questions, Shaw would have sought someone with the expertise of yet another symposium faculty member, musicologist Michael Musgrave. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians construes the title mainly as a mandate to perform the work in the German language (although, ironically, the German Requiem is heard in translation far more often than any other religious work of comparable stature). He was absorbing musical Brahms, though, with no liturgical purpose, was not bound to any particular content or order and could fashion the entire work according to musical logic. Yet the title Johannes Brahms bestowed upon his Ein Deutches Requiem ("A German Requiem") conveys a world of genuine meaning. Yet others plumb Brahms' compilation for even deeper meaning. He has freedom because of the rhythmic discipline.. Later, he replaced the first movement Andante with Ziemlich langsam und mit Ausdruck (Quite slow and with expression), suggesting a weightier, more nuanced conception. One of the most fascinating consequences of the composer's free selection of his libretto is the variety of interpretations his text has stimulated. Finally, 1947 brought not one but two fine studio recordings of the German Requiem. The result is a constant tension between leisurely, steady tempos that suggest a patient unfolding filled with lyrical affection and the tensile strength and crisp articulation that strain to leap forward with constant bursts of energy but never do. Were going to do it anyway, Shaw decided. On balance I suppose I would opt for Norrington's as the more outspoken. That is truly possible only when the story and its meaning are told in the living language of the singer and listener. Still, says Jessop, Shaw struggled because he could not let go of the fear that he would do injury to the music itself. Jessop remembers Shaw saying, Rarely do music and text meet on the same high level, but in Brahms they do.. Certainly, the Requiem, completed just before the Franco-Prussian War, touched German listeners, symbolising the dead of war as well as signalling the emergence of a new empire. The intense concentration and focus of this 1943 Toscanini concert is the converse of Mengelberg's more intuitive interpretive approach. Just what did Brahms mean by a "German" Requiem? In keeping with the two soloists' respective functions, the baritone aptly quakes with excitement, while the soprano is serene. The orchestral sound is revelatory, evoking the austerity of a church organ without relinquishing a jot of emotional weight. WebFor the Requiem, he draws melodic inspiration from the tunes and rhythms of Gregorian chant, which thought in similarly long phrases. Maurice Durufl's Requiem: the best recordings, Britten's War Requiem: the story of how Britten came to compose his most famous piece. Some Others While the stereo era has produced many rewarding and enjoyable recordings of the German Requiem, most strike me as of somewhat lesser interest than the ones above. Some may regard Toscanini's manner as a model of sophistication and integrity, mostly refusing to inject himself into the splendor of the music itself and enabling its structure to emerge in our minds, but it may strike others as too impersonal and abstract; I tend to prefer a more proactive approach that directly communicates a deeper range of human feeling. Many accounts of this recording tend to apologize for the need to overcome post-war deprivations (excuse me while I dry my tears), but what emerges is a fine combination of beauty and fervor that radiates sincerity. Indeed, during rehearsals Brahms asserted a desire for even more openness: "I would happily omit the 'German' and simply say 'human.'". Brahms was a structural composer, according to Musgrave, and as such he would think about the totality of the work. Indeed, the only oblique allusion to Christ is the opening line ("Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted"), a brief quotation from the Sermon on the Mount. Symposium chair Andr Thomas, director of choral activities at Florida State University, dreamed that for the participants, it would feel something like sitting around the table with the renowned mentor Nadia Boulanger, a chance for them to spend four days immersed in the genius of Brahms and one of his greatest interpreters, Robert Shaw. The author of this paper "The Symphony No 1 in C Minor Brahms" examines and analyzes the Symphony No. Others dwell more figuratively on the relationship of text and music, as when regarding the pedal point that accompanies the conclusion of the third movement as symbolizing the firmness of faith. By far the slowest German Requiem on record, this concert both exemplifies and validates Celibidache's view. James Levines 2004 recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra would reinforce that view it is dirge-like without grandeur, unrelentingly static. To Musgrave, the familiar fourth movement, Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, seems an odd man out. Did Brahms compose it at an earlier time? Shaw was drawn to the texts Brahms selected; he dissected and researched all of them. Jessop remembers especially how Shaw responded to the text from Revelation Brahms used in the final movement: I dont know if the soul is immortal, but I do know your good works will follow after you.. For Shaw, rehearsal time was precious. At a slow and patient 79 minutes, time seems suspended in a rarified atmosphere of deep spirituality. WebSummary. Vocally, Brahms is as exhausting a piece as a chorus is asked to sing, he told the video interviewer. Nearly all the great Furtwngler concert recordings reflect his long leadership of the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras (and the corresponding familiarity and empathy of their musicians with his deeply personal and erratic style), and his results with foreign ensembles were mostly disappointing. Siegfried Kross rejects these specific stimuli, deeming the work far too closely connected with Brahms' whole personality. By the end, one feels no different from the start. The titles of most classical works are merely generic ("Symphony # 1 in C Major"), descriptive ("Scheherazade") or appended by others and often sadly inappropriate (the "Moonlight" Sonata). Given its vast performance tradition, its hard to pin down Brahmss intentions. The miniature score Shaws message, as paraphrased by Ratzlaff, read, As far as Im concerned, its fine whether you come in or not. Hanslick added that "a work so hard to understand and dwelling on nothing but ideas of death should not expect a popular success and should fail to please many elements of the great public." In notes for the release, Shaw wrote that he had been torn for 50 years between viewing the German Requiem as a dramatic/narrative work "that might best connect with American performers and audiences in their own language" and a work that was primarily lyric, poetic or contemplative and that would be more revealing in the original. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work In the meantime, in addition to isolated movements, two exceptional concerts had been recorded, although not released at the time. The vibrato-free Orchestre Rvolutionnaire et Romantique may divide listeners, but the payoff of this live performance from 2008 is the fabulous recorded sound quality across the range, from the throbbing subterranean bass which opens the work to the piercing, high solo winds of the inner movements. That aspect of the Requiem deserves its own attention. In the notes to his recording, Gardiner asserts that he attempted to eschew a standard smooth approach in favor of the Baroque devices that Brahms, more than any other composer of his time, studied, cherished and assimilated, including dissonance, cross-rhythms and syncopation, and in particular Schtz's speech- and dance-derived rhythms. He was not so much setting texts as realizing them, he told symposium participantsa comment that inspired fellow faculty member Leonard Ratzlaff to chime in: This text is replete with tone painting, he said, citing the sudden key change in the sixth movement after the baritone sings in einem Augenblickin the blink of an eye. For Ratzlaff, who teaches choral conducting at the University of Alberta, it provided an object lesson for the conductors in the room: At some point, its important to have a micro look at the text, what it inspired the composer to write, harmonically and melodically., In the 1870s the Brahms Requiem received endless performances, says Musgrave, including premieres in London in 1871 and New York in 1877. The final movement at last delivers a long-deferred prayer for the dead from Revelations 14:13. The structure of the Requiem is such a powerful thing, the way the end brings back the beginning through inversions and use of identical text: Selig sind. Ann Howard Jones took this opportunity for some practical advice: Structural analysis is the nitty-gritty of our work. The analysis starts big and goes lower and lower, she says. In his reminiscences, Ochs recalls Brahms saying the Requiems first and second movements contain elements of a well-known chorale. Natasha Loges is the head of postgraduate programmes and professor of musicology at the Royal College of Music. The piece unfolds patiently and beautifully, with due attention to detail instead of the customary blur of growly bass, movement I begins with its joined quarter notes articulated just enough to add rhythmic support to the coalescing haze. The fifth movement is that ravishing soprano solo intoning a mother's comfort. Remarkably, perhaps overrun by the stereo revolution, this splendid monaural recording was never released at the time and was issued only in 1972 on the budget Odyssey LP label. There was ample precedent for that approach, but none among major religious works of the time. WebSDG is happy to present last recording issued from the 2008 Brahms: Roots and Memories tour, in which John Eliot Gardiner and his ensembles explored the music of Johannes Brahms. Hardings sense of structure in this 2019 recording is assured and persuasive, evoking a slow, dignified but steady move from the depths of grief into a bruised but courageous renewal. Each movement is appreciably slower, often strikingly so the opening sprawls to 1210 compared to 925 in his 1943 NBC broadcast, and the finale to 1305 vs. 940 in 1943. Reversing the harsh judgments of flat consistency in earlier Grove editions, he considers VI to "contain passages as expressively declamatory as anything in the 19th century." A guide to Brahmss A German Requiem and its best recordings, Journalist and Critic, BBC Music Magazine. The performance itself faithfully follows Shaw's own interpretations. While conductors views often evolve over time, at first it seems hard to reconcile such radically different perspectives arising within a mere six years. Composers of Latin requiems could inject themselves only partially into the final product, as each section had to illustrate, if not advance, the dogmatic progression as well as the prescribed wording of each required section a mournful Requiem aeternam, a fiery Dies irae, a somber Rex tremendae, a fearful Lacrymosa, a comforting Agnus Dei, etc. By 1872 its text had been translated into English. During this period of his career, Brahms was paying close attention to Bach, Schtz, and the Lutheran choral tradition. Singers were given numbers to represent their voice ranges, starting with 101 for the lowest bass, a tool Shaw used to adjust balances in advance, saving precious rehearsal time. Johannes Brahms leads his lifelong friend Clara Schumann up the aisle of St. Peter's Cathedral in Bremen, arm-in-arm, as though they were about to be Nevertheless, the work was soon performed all over Europe, including in a piano duet performance in London in 1871. Kargs sound is dramatic, if not ideally matched to Goerne, but again it is the silky-smooth orchestral-choral sound that wins over. Place each syllable on the pulse where it belongs. However, Reinthaler pointed out a hitch, namely that none of the movements clearly stated Christian doctrine. For me, his mature confidence not only imbues the text with an appropriate nobility and assurance but compels appreciation for Brahms' achievement, inviting us to infer what we will from this fine, attentive presentation of the composer's materials. Katharine Fuge (soprano), Matthew Brook (bass) Monteverdi Choir & Orchestre Rvolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner. Nowadays, systematic building of discipline is far less common, and so is the irascible, cantankerous kind of conductor Shaw could sometimes be. But perhaps the most significant but overlooked word in the title is the first and least prominent: "Ein" ("A"). He found in that music qualities he was not finding in the music of his own time, says Musgrave. The most palpable point of distinction is with the far more prevalent Catholic requiem Mass. The timings, both overall and of individual movements, are somewhat deceptive, as his fast sections are very rapid, while the slow portions tend to be quite measured. The most common English renderings of "Blessed are" or "Blessed they" generate multiple problems at the very outset. He goes on to emphasize that since Brahms did not write for specific occasions, there is no one "authentic" way to play his music, and that the use of original instruments compels nothing old-fashioned, but rather enables rethinking and creation afresh. It begins with the pulse. WebA German Requiem, Op. More likely is that by shunning Latin for the vernacular, Brahms intended the work to be more accessible to modern audiences. The former is 28 bars long and tonicizes E-flat major. In Powerpoint style Dr. Ted gives us an introduction to Brahms greatest choral work. Shaws longtime personal assistant, Nola Frink, was by his side as he struggled to find the right syllable for every note. Neither makes much grammatical sense nor fits the rising notes comfortably, both begin with a sudden "bl" sound rather than the soft "s" that gently launches the original, the sibilance falls on the only syllable lacking one in the original, and the extended third note of the music sounds more soothing with Brahms' sustained "in" than with an "ar" or "ey" vowel. A sort of German Requiem this was the unformed compositional plan that the 32-year-old Brahms announced to his friend Clara Schumann in a letter 1865. Ratzlaff remembers a letter he sent to his chorus following a problem-filled rehearsal during New Yorks Mostly Mozart Festival sometime in the early 70s. That, in turn, points to the sheer modernism of the work, not only reflecting the emerging secular spirit of the time to probe traditional material for individual expression, but launching the egoistic attitude of personal viewpoints that would come to challenge and even override established faith (as in Benjamin Britten's 1961 War Requiem and Leonard Bernstein's 1971 Mass). The second movement combines thoughts of mortality ("All flesh is as grass"), patience, the permanence of God and the joy of redemption. He must have been preoccupied with it for a long time. WebNot surprisingly, the title of Requiem has at times been called into question, but Brahms stated intention was to write a Requiem to comfort the living, not one for the souls of the He solved all the challenges long before the first rehearsal of a piece in a way that made total sense to a singer.. Alas, the only source is a shortwave transmission; even after exhaustive restoration efforts severe irreparable sonic defects of constant swish, considerable phase distortion, low fidelity, dropouts and a major gap remain, leaving more to the imagination than this extraordinary souvenir deserves. Take, for example, the opening phrase, "Selig sind." After a long hiatus, the sporadic recording history of the German Requiem resumed in curious fashion in 1955, when two mono LP sets were recorded at the same location by the same orchestra and chorus but released on competing European labels. It calls for a depth of tone which is almost unforgiving in its demands. The Wagnerians were telling you what the future was; Brahms was hobnobbing with scholars, unearthing music nobody knew. Musgrave dismisses the claim of Brahmss first biographer, Max Kalbeck, that the Requiem began as a cantata, instead favoring a somewhat related explanation from German conductor Siegfried Ochs. Perhaps by refusing to take a point of view, Toscanini suggests an inherent complexity to Brahms' conception, which contains both elements; while others vary their readings to convey both aspects in the appropriate sections, Toscanini's consistency leaves much to the imagination, making us work harder than we might wish to infer the emotional content. Three movements were trialled unsuccessfully in Vienna, but some listeners recognised that it was perhaps too austere, too Bach-Protestant for the pleasure-loving Viennese. It was with these purposes in mind that I Take away the dynamics. [All listings below are in the format of: conductor, orchestra, chorus, baritone soloist, soprano soloist (year, source, timing in minutes). With the sixth movement we reach the dramatic climax. Many commentators have noted with great admiration Brahms' deep knowledge of the Bible. WebThis is a strategy Brahms will use several more times during the German Requiem. As summarized by Michael Murgrove, the overall focus of the work is on comfort, hope, reassurance and reward for personal effort rather than the judgment, vengeance, sacrifice and overt references to Christian symbolism that characterize the Latin requiem mass. In any case, if he began the Requiem by intending to create a chorale-based work in the tradition of Bach, he soon abandoned the idea, says Musgrave, because that influence reappears only in the sixth movement. But he didnt want us to know much about it. An 1865 letter to his dear friend Clara Schumann provides the first recorded evidence of its existence. Interviewed for the video, he called it the fastest way to unify sound and find metric divisions, adding, youd be surprised how you can undiscipline a choir by beginning with text the first time., Answering a symposium participants question, Shaws longtime assistant, Norman Mackenzie, current director of choruses at the ASO, explained the rationale for count singing this way: Its the principle of building blocks. WebIt is an oratorio, a choral setting of biblical texts, and has little to do with the Latin Requiem Mass. Sergiu Celibidache, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Munich Bach Choir, Franz Gerihsen, Arleen Auger (1981, EMI, 88'). While I personally prefer a more vivid reading, I still have to admire the purity of concept and the extreme to which Celibidache molds the work to his unique vision. WebAn analysis and overview of Johannes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem. That may have had something to do with family history. Indeed, nearly all prior musical requiems (including the famous ones of Mozart, Cherubini and Berlioz), and most that would follow (Verdi, Dvorak, Faure, Britten) used the standardized Latin text of the Catholic mass for the dead. So any gain in comprehension is offset by a loss of musical suitability. Abendroth's concert is superficially similar to Furtwngler's but with enough crucial distinctions to highlight why Furtwngler's magic is unique and eludes others who might be tempted to emulate him. April 10, 1868. It provides historical information, performance considerations, musical analysis, and resource material for all who enjoy the musicology behind this magnificent work. Jessop considers it the pinnacle of craftsmanship in composition for chorus. 2012-2023, Chorus America. There is no rushing here; this is a measured, patient walk towards reconciliation with death. Recorded live at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 2008. It was stunningly original. Even the instrumentation can be somewhat variable; although the score is marked for a contrabassoon anchor, Brahms reportedly preferred an organ. Music that is truly great has in it many prof'ound lessons that may be learned by the teacher or student of harmony. To make a thorough study of these lessons is to became a better teacher or student, and also to became a more discerning musician. It was with these purposes in mind that I chose to make an harmonic analysis of the Requiem by Brahms. While marginally more dramatic (the powerful chord that concludes III is sustained for an astounding 18 seconds; in Stockholm it was "only" 12), the Lucerne recording resisted even the extraordinary restoration efforts of Maggi Payne and remains sonically challenging, afflicted not just with poor fidelity but severe wow, overload distortion and noise that often overwhelms the music and precludes genuine appreciation. Jessop apprenticed with Shaw during the 1980s, and stepped in to conduct the 1999 recording of Shaws Requiem translation in the wake of Shaws death.

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