Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)

Movements

The symphony is divided into four movements with the following tempo markings:

1. Allegro non troppo (E minor)
2. Andante moderato (E major)
3. Allegro giocoso (C major)
4. Allegro energico e passionato (E minor)

This is the only one of Brahms' four symphonies to end in a minor key. A typical performance lasts about 40 minutes.

Analysis

I. Allegro non troppo

This movement is in sonata form, although it features some unique approaches to development. For instance- alone amongst the first movements of his four symphonies- there is no repeat of the exposition; according to Malcolm MacDonald, the music is so "powerfully organic and continuously unfolding" that such a repeat would hinder forward progress.

The opening theme has often been associated with the tenor acclamation “Er kommt, er kommt, der Bräutgam kommt” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140. Its melodic construction is based on a chain of descending thirds, transformed at the opening into an expressive rising sixth. The theme’s fragmented, syncopated profile creates an underlying tension which Brahms develops as a fundamental motivic force throughout the movement. Later, the descending thirds emerge more explicitly in the musical foreground. A fateful transformation of this material returns at the climax of the finale, embedded within the chaconne variations.

II. Andante moderato

Featuring a theme in E Phrygian, heard at the beginning unaccompanied and at the end with a lush orchestral accompaniment in the dominant scale, this movement has a modified sonata form with no development section (akin to binary form), though there is a development-like section in the recapitulation.

III. Allegro giocoso

This movement is the only one with the character of a scherzo to be found in Brahms' symphonies, as well as the only one with additional percussion alongside the timpani (the triangle). It is not in typical scherzo form, however, being in 2/4 time and in sonata form, without a trio. The sonata form itself is modified further, with a foreshortened recapitulation and with the secondary theme nearly absent in the development and coda.

IV. Allegro energico e passionato

This last movement is notable as a rare example of a symphonic passacaglia, which is similar to a chaconne with the slight difference that the subject can appear in more voices than the bass. For the repeating theme, Brahms adapted the chaconne theme in the closing movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150. The main theme is 8 bars long and is heard at the very start of the movement. Brahms then repeats the theme in different variations precisely 30 times always 8 bars long, until he deviates from this pattern just before the coda which begins in bar 253 at "Piu Allegro". 4 bars before the coda Brahms changes for the first time during the whole movement the 8 bar pattern and creates a 4 bar long transition into the coda.

An analysis of this last movement by Walter Frisch provides yet further interpretation to Brahms' structure of this work, by giving sections sonata form dimensions.

Arnold Schoenberg, in his essay Brahms the Progressive (Brahms is often characterized as a conservative composer), pointed out several thematic relationships in the score, as does Malcolm MacDonald in his biography of the composer. The first half of the chaconne theme is anticipated in the violins during the coda at an important point of the preceding movement; and the first movement's descending thirds, transposed by a fifth, appear in counterpoint during one of the final variations of the chaconne, immediately before the coda.

Reception

The work was given its premiere in Meiningen on 25 October 1885, with Brahms himself conducting. The piece had earlier been given to a small private audience in a version for two pianos, played by Brahms and Ignaz Brüll. Brahms' friend and biographer Max Kalbeck, reported that the critic Eduard Hanslick, acting as one of the page-turners, exclaimed on hearing the first movement at this performance: "For this whole movement I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people." Hanslick, however, wrote also that "[for] the musician, there is not another modern piece so productive as a subject for study. It is like a dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back."

The musicologist Donald Tovey praises the work as “one of the greatest orchestral works since Beethoven”, and singles out the end of the first movement, which “bears comparison with the greatest climaxes in classical music, not excluding Beethoven”. The symphony is rich in allusions, most notably to various Beethoven compositions. The symphony may well have been inspired by the tragedies of Sophocles, which Brahms had been researching at the time.