MUHL M406-051 (2 credits) Topics in Music History: 1850-the Present: Brahms and His World MUHL M815-051 (3 credits) Topics in Music History: 1850-the Present: Brahms and His World General Syllabus Fall, 2019
Instructor: Dr. William Horne Office: Monroe Hall 302 Phone: 985-630-1223 Office Hours: Wednesday, 4:00-5:00, or by appointment
Class Meeting Times: Wednesday, 5:00 to 6:50 pm Graduate students will be required to meet for one additional hour each week to discuss their more extensive reading assignments. Additional meeting times for graduate students TBA.
Bulletin Description: A seminar-style study of a single topic concerning music from Wagner to the present, usually focusing on some aspect of Western art music but including consideration of influences from nonwestern and popular music. Course may be repeated for credit, so long as the topic is different.
Topic Description: In this course we will study a sample of works by Johannes Brahms representing the different chronological periods and range of genres in which he wrote: piano music, solo song, instrumental chamber music, choral music, concertos, and symphonic music. We will also strive to gain a fuller understanding of the world in which Brahms lived, including the economic, social, and political contexts in which he worked, the musical politics of his era, and the significance of his work in the development of musical styles and ideas.
Expected Student Learning Outcomes: • Students will demonstrate knowledge of major issues relating to musical style and musical life in Europe during Brahms’s lifetime. • Students will be able to describe Brahms’s aesthetic values and compositional style. • Students will be able to demonstrate a detailed knowledge, including aural recognition, of about 12 representative works by Brahms. • Students will be able to demonstrate improved research skills, both in the preparation of weekly discussion topics and in writing a research paper having to do with Brahms’s life and/or music. • Students will be able to demonstrate improved ability to understand and evaluate scholarly writing. • Students will be able to demonstrate improved oral communication skills in discussing issues that come before the class. • Students will complete an independent research project and present their work orally and in writing.
Required Text: There is no required text. Books and scores will be on reserve in the library. Recordings of works to be studied are readily available online.
The following resources will not be on reserve, but may be found in the reference section of Loyola’s library (Reference materials always remain in the reference section of the library.):
Johannes Brahms. Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. Edited by the Johannes Brahms Gesamtausgabe e. V.: Editionsleitung Kiel in Verbindung mit der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien. Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1996-the present.
Platt, Heather. Johannes Brahms. A Research and Information Guide. Second Edition. New York and London: Routledge, 2003. Quigley, Thomas. Johannes Brahms: An Annotated Bibliography of the Literature Through 1982. Metuchen and London: Scarecrow Press, 1990. Quigley, Thomas. Johannes Brahms: An Annotated Bibliography of the Literature from 1892 to 1996. Lanham and London: Scarecrow Press, 1998.
The following resources may be found in the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane, on the sixth floor. Please leave books or periodicals you consult in Tulane’s library on the 6th-floor reading tables to be reshelved.
Johannes Brahms. Sämtliche Werke. Ausgabe der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien. Vols. 1-10 ed. Hans Gál; vols. 11-26 ed. Eusebius Mandyczewski. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, [1926-27]. M3 .B8
Clive, Peter. Brahms and His World. A Biographical Dictionary. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2006. ML410 .B8 C54 2006
Loges, Natasha. Brahms and His Poets. A Handbook. Woodbridge and Rochester: Boydell Press, 2017. ML410 .B8 L64 2017
McCorkle, Margit L. Johannes Brahms. Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis. Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1984. ML134 .B8 M3 1984
The following online resource may be of interest:
http://www.brahms-institut.de The website of the Brahms Institute at the Musikhochschule Lübeck. Under “Forschung” (Research) you can access a number of digitized autograph manuscripts by Brahms, many digitized “Stichvorlagen” (engravers’ models—the hand-written copies that publishers used to create published versions of Brahms’s works), as well as digitzed first editions of Brahms’s complete works and many other interesting materials. You can right-click on this site to read pages in English.
Types of Assignments: Reading assignments, listening assignments, short writing assignments, and a term paper. NB—all assignments are provisional; they may change during the course of the semester. Graduate students will be required to do additional reading assignments. All written assignments in this class must be submitted in hard copy.
Calendar:
Dates Subjects
8/21 Introduction and orientation: Brahms and genre. Starting a timeline: exploring the biographical portion of the article about Brahms in the New Grove Dictionary. Schumann’s “Neue Bahnen” article. Assignment for 8/28: Listen to Brahms’s Sonata, Op. 1; read commentaries about this work by Adolf Schubring (Frisch and Karnes, Brahms and His World, pp. 195-202), and Malcolm MacDonald, (Brahms, pp. 64-66), Johannes Behr, Chapter 31,“Germany,” in Loges and Hamilton, Brahms in Context, pp. 307- 313. Contantin Floros, Chapter 13, “Schumann’s Essay ‘Neue Bahnen’: A New Interpretation,” in Constantin Floros, Brahms and Bruckner as Artistic Antipodes, pp. 107-121.
8/28 Brahms’s Sonata, Op. 1 Motivic work; cyclicity; musical referentiality; styles and varieties of criticism Assignment for 9/4: Listen to Clara Schumann’s Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 20, and Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9. Read: Siegfried Kross, “Brahms and E. T. A. Hoffmann,” 19th-Century Music 5 (1982): 193‒200, and E.T.A Hoffmann, “Johannes Kreisler’s Certificate of Apprenticeship,” from the same volume, pp. 182-192. Read Avins, pp. 36-41, 46-8, 67-8, 104-5, 134-6, and the article on Clara Schumann in Clive (pp. 398-404.)
9/4 Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9. Brahms as reader; his identification with E. T. A. Hoffmann’s literary figure, Johannes Kreisler; his relationship with Clara Schumann; Clara Schumann’s and Brahms’s variations compared; organization in Kross’s article. Assignment for 9/11: Listen to Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, Op. 15; read MacDonald, (Brahms, pp. 99-104), Avins, pp. 49-50, 147, 149-52, 164-5, 168, 188-90, and the article on Joseph Joachim in Clive (pp. 244-8).
9/11 Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, Op. 15. Problems of genre. Early relationship with Joseph Joachim. Brahms as pianist— Mozart’s D Minor Concerto and Beethoven’s C Minor Concerto. The issue of virtuosity. Assignment for 9/18: Listen to Brahms’s Four Songs for Women’s Chorus, Op. 17, and Motet, Op. 29, No. 2. Read Sophie Drinker, Brahms and his Women’s Choruses, Chapter 5, “Franziska Meier’s Diary 1859,” pp. 24-41, and Avins, 128-131, and 161-2.
9/18 Brahms’s Four Songs for Women ‘s Chorus, Op. 17, and Motet, Op. 29, No. 2. Brahms’s counterpoint studies with Joachim, his work as a choral conductor in Detmold, canonic and fugal procedures in the Motet. Assignment for 9/25: Issues in Brahms Research: What was Brahms’s childhood like? Read Jan Swafford, “Did the Young Brahms Play Piano in Waterfront Bars?,” 19th Century Music 24 (Spring, 2001), 268-75, and Styra Avins, “The Young Brahms: Biographical Data Reexamined,” 19th Century Music 24 (Spring, 2001), 276-89.
9/25 Discussion of the articles by Swafford and Avins, especially the use of evidence, argumentation, and organization. Assignment for 10/2: Listen to Brahms’s songs, “Der Kuss,” “Scheiden und Meiden,” and “In der Ferne,” Op. 19, Nos. 1-3, and “Von ewiger Liebe, Op. 43, No. 1,” and his String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36. Read the article on Agathe von Siebold in Clive, pp. 416-20, and Avins, pp. 181-4.
10/2 Brahms’s Lieder, Op. 19, No. 1-3, Op. 43, No. 1, and his String Sextet No. 2, Op. 36. Music as veiled autobiography: dangers and opportunities. Schubertian influence on the chamber music of Brahms’s “first maturity.” A harvest of contrapuntal studies in chamber music. Assignment for 10/9: In preparation for your midterm exam, listen to and read about Brahms’s Horn Trio, Op. 40. When you come in for your exam, you will be given the opportunity to respond to questions about this work, and about the other works we have studied so far, by writing short paragraphs. Ten questions will be provided to you in the 10/2 class. I will choose five of these for you to respond to in the exam.
10/9 Midterm exam Assignment for 10/16: Listen to Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45. Read Daniel Beller-McKenna, “Religion, Language, and Luther’s Bible” Chapter 2 in Daniel Beller-McKenna, Brahms and the German Spirit, pp. 31-52. Choose a paper topic from the list of suggested ones provided by me or be ready to propose a paper topic to me in the next class. I must approve all paper topics. Please submit paper topics in writing.
10/16 Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. Movement II as a “scherzo in the tempo of a sarabande.” The Requiem and Schumann’s “Neue Bahnen.” Was Brahms religious? Organization in McKenna’s chapter. Assignment for 10/23: Listen to Brahms’s Hungarian Dances for piano four- hands, books I and II, and Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25, movement IV. Read Jonathan Bellman, “Performing Brahms in the style hongrois,” Chapter 12 in Performing Brahms: Early Evidence of Performance Style, ed. Michael Musgrave and Bernard D. Sherman, pp. 327-48. Have a paper topic in place by the end of this class. Begin to assemble source materials for your paper and to develop a thesis statement for your paper.
10/23 Brahms’s Hungarian Dances for piano four-hands, books I and II, and Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25, movement IV. Arrangement as an activity for 19th- century musicians; Brahms and the piano-four-hand idiom. Brahms introducing himself to Vienna. The historical performance practice movement. Organization in Bellman’s chapter. Assignment for 10/30: Listen to Brahms’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1. Read Avins, pp. 441, 455-6, 501-2, 506, the article on Theodor Billroth in Clive, pp. 39-44, and the article in Clive on Eduard Hanslick in Clive, pp. 194-7. Read Walter Frisch, Brahms and the Principle of Developing Variation, pp. 109-116. Prepare a thesis statement for your term paper and list of source materials for your paper in the format of a formal bibliography. These materials must be handed in in the next class.
10/30 Brahms’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1: Brahms’s Vienna circle; Schoenberg’s ideas about developing variation. Organization in Frisch’s writing. Hand in your written thesis statement and list of source materials for your paper in the format of a formal bibliography. Assignment for 11/6: In small groups as assigned, listen to: Group 1: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, op. 125, or Group 2: Franz Liszt’s symphonic poem No. 8, Héroȉde funébre and his piano piece, Funerailles, or Group 3: Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony, Op. 120. Do some background reading focused on the following: For Beethoven’s 9th Symphony: Wagner’s view of the significance of this work. For Liszt’s pieces: the autobiographical background of these works and what Liszt himself wrote about them. For Schumann’s 4th Symphony: John Daverio, “The Symphonic Year: 1841,” Chapter 6 in John Daverio, Robert Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age, pp. 222-241. Begin drafting your paper in outline format to hand in in the next class.
11/6 Your thesis statement and list of source materials will be returned. The background for Brahms’s First Symphony: The long shadow of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Liszt’s symphonic poems; Robert Schumann’s 4th Symphony. Hand in your paper outline. Assignment for 11/13: Listen to Brahms’s First Symphony, Op. 68. Read Mark Evan Bonds, “The Ideology of Genre: Brahms’s First Symphony,” Chapter 5 in Mark Evan Bonds, After Beethoven. Imperatives of Originality in the Symphony, pp. 138-74. Start working on a first draft of your paper.
11/13 Your paper outline will be returned. Brahms’s 1st Symphony. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as goad and stumbling block; the intermezzo concept for interior symphonic movements; the element of Introduction; organization in Bond’s chapter; reading critically about allusions in Brahms’s music; the issue of epigonism; the issue of Wagner. Assignment for 11/20: Be prepared to explain your progress on your paper with the class. Be prepared to hand in the first draft of your paper in the next class.
11/20 Discussion of your progress on researching and writing your papers. Brahms’s 4th Symphony, Op. 98: two precursors of the last movement. (My presentation) Hand in the first draft of your paper.
11/27 Thanksgiving Holiday
12/4 The first draft of your paper will be returned. Discussion of your progress on researching and writing your papers. Brahms’s late style: Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115. (My presentation) Assignment for final exams: You will present your papers to the class during the two final exam periods listed in this syllabus. For this purpose you will be divided into two groups, one to meet on Wednesday, Dec. 11, and one to meet on Friday, Dec. 13. You will have about 15 minutes to present, with a few minutes allowed for questions after each presentation. Since Friday, December 13 is the last day of exams, your written paper must be handed in by 7 pm on that day.
Final Exam (i.e., final paper presentations) Wednesday, December 11, 7 - 9 pm, or Friday, December 13, 5-7 pm
Grading: Midterm Exam 25% Short assignments 25% Final Paper 25% Attendance, outline, and participation 25%
Grading scale: 93-100 = A 90-92 = A- 87-89 = B+ 83-86 = B 80-82 = B- 77-79 = C+ 70-76 = C 67-69 = D+ 63-66 = D 60-62 = D- Below 60 = F
Statement Concerning Attendance, Absences, and Late or Delinquent Work: Regular attendance is essential for success in this course. Each absence beyond one (1) will result in subtraction of three (3) points per absence from the student’s final grade. Students have the most success in this class when they keep up-to-date with their work. Accordingly, my policy is not to accept late assignments in this class unless by prearrangement with me, or because of illness or some unforseen emergency.
Statement Concerning Cheating and Plagiarism: Students are expected to do their own work and not to copy the work of other students or collaborate on assignments with other students (unless requested to do so by the instructor). Students who submit copied or collaborative work may expect to receive any grade for that work that the instructor wishes to assign.