Brahms: a Selected Bibliography

MuHL 587. The Music of Johannes Brahms. Spring 2008. Wed. 12-1:50 MUS 303. Class no 44116D

Instructor: Bryan R. Simms (WPH 304). Office hour Mon 2-3 and by appointment. A good way to contact me is by email (my address is ). You can also call me at 740-3216 or leave a message at 740-3211.

Course web site: www.usc.edu/schools/music/muhl-simms/587

Purpose of the class. This class will deal with the life, music, and historical position of Johannes Brahms, 1833–97. We will undertake a close study of Brahms's principal compositions, their structural and expressive content, and the cultural milieu from which they grew.

Assigned music. Listen repeatedly to the assigned works by Brahms that are listed in the syllabus below. Do so until you have a very good knowledge of their musical content and can identify and comment upon any distinctive excerpt drawn from them. An anthology of scores containing all of or excerpts from the assigned listening is available at the USC Bookstore (3d floor, in the Custom Publishing area). Please purchase this and bring it to every class. Listening may be done from the audio clips (RealMedia files) on the course web site.

Assigned reading. The assigned reading is enumerated week by week on the syllabus below. This consists of a variety of essays on the composer, his milieu, and specific works. These readings are available on the course web site or on other web sites as indicated.

Examinations. There are two examinations: a mid-term and a final:

YOU MUST BE PRESENT FOR THE EXAMINATIONS (Oct. 17 12-1:50 and Friday, May 9, 11-12:50)

Written Assignment. A short written assignment is a requirement for this class (due on April 30). Your paper should be about ten typed and double-spaced pages, it must be honestly written, and it must observe standards of proper scholarly-writing.

You may choose your own topic freely, but it should deal with some aspect of Brahms's life, music, or cultural position. Here are some areas in which you might find a topic (narrow these down):

Brahms’s interpretation of earlier music. Editions, conducting, performance practices; comparisons with other 19th-century interpretations. Choose some suptopic

Brahms and Wagner: some subtopic

Brahms early years in Hamburg: facts and fiction

A piece by Brahms not among those we have studied

Music by Clara Schumann and its relation to that of Brahms

Brahms encounter with Liszt and his circle in June 1853: fact and ficton

Brahms’s personal and professional relations with Anton Bruckner and his circle

A cappella choral music of Brahms compared to that of Bruckner

The use of letter mottoes in some piece by Brahms

Bach and the choral music of Brahms (some subtopic)

Brahms seeks advice: some topic concerning Brahms’s highly unusual habit of sending out preliminary versions of his works to others to ask for feedback.

In these papers I am looking primarily for your ideas and conclusions about your topic, drawn from your own close study of primary documents (e.g., scores, contemporary reports and documents, writings or letters by composers) and from a critical engagement with ideas and theories in the literature. I am not interested in reading a restatement of what others have written on your topic (also see below).

I will assess your paper using these criteria:

Correct form and style. Your paper must be typed, double-spaced, carefully proofread, and correct in grammar, spelling, and form. Use a dictionary and a good style manual (such as the MLA Handbook or Kate Turabian's Manual for Writers of Term Papers) for further information.

Keep these guidelines in mind.

Thoroughness of research. Read all of the English-language sources that deal with your topic and cite them in a bibliography. At the minimum you should find out what is written on your topic by a subject search in a good library catalog (including MELVYL for the University of California libraries and HOMER for the use libraries) and a search for relevant articles in RILM and The Music Index.

Correct use of the literature. Engage critically with the ideas of other writers (don’t just repeat it). Extend the theories and other ideas that you find in the literature in original ways and show why other theories fail. Your paper should essentially be based on your own ideas and conclusions made from your own study of musical or other documents.

PLEASE NOTE. It is dishonest to use distinctive ideas or language (whether directly or paraphrased) of another author without documenting this borrowing in some way (such as in footnotes). Any such quotations or paraphrases should be very limited. Please talk to me if you are unclear about what constitutes plagiarism or what its consequences are.

Grades. Your course grade will be computed from the grades on the mid-term exam, final exam, and term paper, each counting equally. In general, I consider a grade of 90% or above to be an A, 80% to 89% a B, 70% to 79% a C. You must have a final grade of C or better to receive credit for the course.

Other Requirements. Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me early in the semester. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 am-5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. The phone

number of DSP is (213) 740-0776.

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SYLLABUS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Jan. 16. The works of Johannes Brahms (1833-97) and the world in which he lived

Jan. 23. Brahms’s Apprenticeship: the student of Eduard Marxsen

Listening and study:

Piano Sonata no. 1 in C (1853), mvt. 1

Ballade in D minor for piano, op. 10/1 (“Edward” 1854)

“Liebestreu” from Six Songs op. 3/1 (1853)

Reading:

Swafford, Jan. “Did the Young Brahms Play Piano in Waterfront Bars?” 19th-Century Music 24/3 (2001): 268-75. JSTOR

Avins, Styra, “The Young Brahms: Biographical Data Reexamined.” 19-Century Music 24/3 (2001): 276-89. JSTOR

Jan.. 30 Widening Horizons: Music after the tour of 1853

Listening and study:

Serenade no. 1 in D op. 11 (1858), mvt. 1

Piano Concerto no. 1 in D minor, op. (1854-8), mvts. 2-3

Reading:

May, Florence. The Life of Johannes Brahms. London: E. Arnold, 1905. Vol. 1, pp. 1-44 (“Personal Recollections”). Web site

Schumann, Robert, “New Paths” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 28 Oct. 1853 (translation on web site)

Feb. 6. Brahms in Detmold and a visitor in Vienna

Listening and study:

Trio for horn, piano, and violin in Eb, op. 40 (1865), mvt. 1

Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel, op. 24 (1861)

Sextet no. 1 in Bb, op. 18 (1860): mvt. 1

Reading:

Nancy Reich. “Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.” Brahms and His World (1990), 37-47. Web site

Feb. 13. The first masterpiece: A German Requiem

Listening and study

Ein deutsches Requiem op. 45 (1857-68), complete

Reading:

Michael Musgrave. “Historical Influences in the Growth of Brahms' Requiem.” Music & Letters 53/1 (1972): 3-17. JSTOR

Feb. 20. The later choral works of Brahms

Listening and study:

Schicksalslied (1871)

Alto Rhapsody op. 53 (1869)

Motet op. 74 (1879), no. 1, “Warum ist das Licht”

Reading:

James Webster. “The Alto Rhapsody: Psychology, Intertextuality, and Brahms's Artistic Development.´ Brahms Studies 3, 2001, 19-45. Online (Expanded Academic ASAP)

Feb. 27. Concertos

Listening and study:

Violin Concerto in D, op. 77 (1878), mvt. 2 (Adagio)

Piano Concerto no. 2 in Bb, op. 83 (1881), mvt. 1

Reading:

Schwarz, Boris. “Joseph Joachim and the Genesis of Brahms's Violin Concerto.” Musical Quarterly 69/4 (1983): 503-26. JSTOR

March 5. MID-TERM EXAM

Mar. 12. Songs

Listening and study:

from op. 43 (1864):

Von ewiger Liebe

Die Mainacht

from the Liebeslieder op. 52 (1869), nos. 1-2

from op. 72 (1876): Alte Liebe

from op. 86 (c. 1878), CD 4/6, Feldeinsamkeit

op. 91, nos. 1-2 (c. 1884, with viola):

Gestillte Sehnsucht

Geistliches Wiegenlied

from op. 105 (1886):

Wie Melodien zieht es mir

Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer

Reading:

Fellinger, Imogen, “Cyclic Tendencies in Brahms’s Song Collections,” Brahms Studies 1990, 379-88. Web site.

Henschel, George. Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms. New York: AMS Press, 1978, pp. 44-51, 54-61. Web site

Mar. 19 (spring break)

Mar 26. Chamber music

Listening and study:

String Quartet in A minor, op. 51 no. 1 (1873)

String Quintet in F, op. 88 (1882) mvt. 1

Violin Sonata no. 1 in G, op. 78 (1879), mvt. 1

Reading:

Musgrave, Michael, and Robert Pascall. “The String Quartets Op. 51 No. 1 in C Minor and No. 2 in A Minor: A Preface.” Brahms 2 1987. Web site

Schoenberg, Arnold, “Brahms the Progressive,” in Style and Idea (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1984). Web site

Apr. 2. Music for Piano

Listening and study:

Rhapsodies op. 79 no. 1 and 2(1880)

Piano Pieces op. 118 (1892)

Reading:

George Bozarth. “The Pianos of Johannes Brahms.” Brahms and His World (1990), 49-64. Web site

Jenner, Gustav. Johannes Brahms als Mensch, Lehrer und Künstler (Marburg 1905). Excerpts translated by Susan Gillespie as “Johannes Brahms as Man, Teacher, and Artist,” in Brahms and his World 1990, 185-20

Apr. 9. Brahms and the orchestra

Listening and study:

Variations on a theme by Haydn, op. 56a (1873)

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68 (1855-76), mvt. 1

Reading:

Walter Frisch. “’Echt symphonisch": On the Historical Context of Brahms's Symphonies.”Brahms Studies II 1998, 113-134. Online (Expanded Academic ASAP)

Botstein, Leon. “Brahms and his Audience: The Later Viennese Years 1875-1897.” Cambridge Companion 1999, 51-75, Web site

Apr. 16. Brahms as symphonist

Listening and study:

Symphony No. 2 in D, op. 73 (1877), mvt. 4

Symphony No. 3 in F, op. 90 (1883), mvt. 1

Reading:

Robert Bailey, “Musical Language and Structure in the Third Symphony,” Brahms Studies 1990, 405-21. Web site

Apr. 23.

Listening and study:

Academic Festival Overture, op. 80 (1880)

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98 (1885), mvt. 4

Reading:

Robert Pascall. “Genre and the Finale of Brahms's Fourth Symphony.” Music Analysis 8/3 (1989): 233-45. JSTOR

Apr. 30. Nearing the end: Brahms’s late works Term papers are due!

Listening and study:

11 Chorale Preludes for organ, op. 122: “O Welt, ich muss dich lassen” (no. 5)

and “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen” (1896)

Four Serious Songs, op. 121 (1896)

Clarinet Quintet in B minor, op. 115, mvt. 1 Reading:

Daniel Beller-McKenna. “Brahms on Schopenhauer: The Vier ernste Gesange, op. 121, and Late Nineteenth-Century Pessimism.” Brahms Studies 1994, 170-88. Online (Expanded Academic ASAP)

Friday, May 9, 11-12:50. Final examination (please note the day and time!)

Johannes Brahms: A Selected Bibliography

Call numbers in the USC Library is shown in boldface

Items marked with an asterisk are on reserve in the Music Library.

Journals:

American Brahms Society Newsletter. 1983- (mainly short articles). ML27.U5A424 journal stacks

Brahms-Studien. Yearbook published since 1974 by the Brahms-Gesellschaft Hamburg. ML410.B8 ML410.B8 journal stacks (in German)

Nineteenth-Century Music. Issues to 2003 available on JSTOR

Collections of Essays:

Cambridge Companion to Brahms. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999. Not at USC (!)

*Brahms Studies: Analytic and Historical Perspectives. Ed. George Bozarth. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990. (from 1983 conference) ML410.B8I5 1983

Brahms Studies. 3 vols. (1994, 19989, 2001) University of Nebraska Press. Ed. David Brodbeck. Online through Expanded Academic ASAP

*Brahms and His World 1990. Ed. Walter Frisch. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1990. ML410.B8B65 1990

*Brahms: Biographical, Documentary, and Analytical studies. Ed. Robert Pascall. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983. ML410.B8B66 1983

*Brahms 2: Biographical, Documentary and Analytical Studies. Ed. Michael Musgrave. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987. ML410.B8B66 1987

Correspondence:

*Avins, Styra. Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters. Trans. Josef Eisinger and Styra Avins. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. ML410.B8A4 1997.

*Letters of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, 1853–1896. Ed. Berthold Litzmann. 2 vols. New Yor: Vienna House, 1973. ML417.S4A43 1973

(Brahms’s letter exchanges with Theodor Billroth, Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, and Robert Keller are also available at USC in English translation)

General Books:

Beller-McKenna, Daniel. Brahms and the German Spirit. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2004. ML410.B8B42 2004.

Frisch, Walter. Brahms and the Principle of Developing Variation. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1984. MT92.B86F7

Geiringer, Karl. Brahms: His Life and Work. 2nd ed. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1948. ML410.B8G42 1982B

———. On Brahms and His Circle: Essays and Documentary Studies. Seattle: Harmonie Park Press, 2006. ML410.B8G43 2006

Hancock, Virginia. Brahms’s Choral Compositions and his Library of Early Music. UMI Research Press, 1983. Diss. ProQuest Dissertations Online

Henschel, George. Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms. New York: AMS Press, 1978. ML410.B8H3 1978.

(Jenner in 1888 was a student of Brahms in composition).

Kalbeck, Max. Johannes Brahms. 4 vols. Berlin: Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1910-27. Grand ML410.B8K219

May, Florence. The Life of Johannes Brahms. 2 vols. London: E. Arnold, 1905. Grand 92.B813ma

McCorkle, Margrit. Johannes Brahms: Thematisches-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis. Munich: G. Henle, 1984. ML134.B8A3 1984.

Musgrave, Michael. A Brahms Reader. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 001. ML410.B8M865 2000.

Notley, Margaret. Lateness and Brahms: Music and Culture in the Twilight of Viennese Liberalism. OUP 2007. Online (Netlibrary)

Platt, Heather. Johannes Brahms: A Guide to Research. New York: Routledge, 2003. ML134.B8P6 2003

Swafford, Jan. Johannes Brahms: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. ML410.B8S93 1997.

Journal Articles.

(The generally short articles in issues of The American Brahms Society Newsletter are not listed here. For an accounting of these, see RILM.)

Analytic perspectives

Frisch, Walter. “Brahms, Developing Variation, and the Schoenberg Critical Tradition.” 19th-Century Music 5/3 (1982): 215-32.

———. “The Shifting Bar Line: Metrical Displacement in Brahms.” Brahms 1 1990, 139-64.