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Brahms' short, late piano pieces--opus numbers 116-119: a source study, an analysis and performance practice: 2-vol. set

(Boston University, 1986) Cai, Camilla

With the advent of Margit McCorkle's new Brahms Verzeichnis we can see just how few sources, of the many mentioned in the correspondence, do indeed survive. A study of the remaining sources for the short piano pieces: intermezzi, capricci, rhapsodies and others, allows us to partially reconstruct Brahms' compositional process. Remaining holographs do not usually link directly into the publishing process and, therefore, display a fascinatingly different image from that of the first edition and its publication stages. So little material from early compositional stages remains that special emphasis in this study necessarily falls on the publication stages, from engraver's copies and proof sheets to Brahms' corrections in the Handexemplare. The result of studying their differences provides an overview of the difficulties that face future editors of a scholarly edition and also demonstrates and details Brahms' continued active participation throughout the compositional-publishing process. Certain pieces from the late opus numbers 116-119 provide the special analytical focus. These late pieces seem to act as studies, or challenges to Brahms, to concentrate one (occasionally two) of his principles or practices of composition into a miniature form. Several specific pieces lend themselves to detailed analysis because they demonstrate such techniques especially clearly; particularly revealing, for example, are his manipulations of various elements of music to both delineate and obscure form. These pieces also present knotty problems for the pianist-performer in understanding the often deliberately ambiguous rhythms or harmonies, in clarifying melodic strands buried in a contrapuntal yet pianistic texture, and in interpreting the meaning of conflicting expressive terms and symbols. Knowledge of late nineteenth-century performance practice brings an understanding of the original context for these pieces and becomes a critical factor in bringing them to life. Together, the source material, the analyses, and research concerning the pianos Brahms knew suggest pathways to solutions for the rich and exciting interpretative complexities Brahms left us in these last piano solos.