Contributors to this exciting new volume examine the intersection of structure and meaning in Brahms's music, utilizing a wide range of approaches, from the theories of Schenker to the most recent analytical techniques. They combine various viewpoints with the semiotic-based approaches of Robert Hatten, and address many of the most important genres in which Brahms composed. The essays reveal the expressive power of a work through the comparison of specific passages in one piece to similar works and through other artistic realms such as literature and painting. The result of this intertextual re-framing is a new awareness of the meaningfulness of even Brahms's most "absolute" works.

How Brahms organized musical elements for expressive purposes

About the Author

Peter H. Smith is Professor of Music at the University of Notre Dame and author of Expressive Forms in Brahms's Instrumental Music (IUP, 2005).

Heather Platt is Professor of Music History at Ball State University and author of Johannes Brahms: A Research and Information Guide (2nd edition, 2011).

Reviews

Through its unique combination of historical narrative, expressive content, and technical analytical approaches, the essays in Expressive Intersections in Brahms will have a profound impact on the current scholarly discourse surrounding Brahms analysis. Because the analyses are so engaged with expressivity, performers too, will likely find many of them enlightening and perhaps critical in helping to hone their interpretations.

* Notes *

This exceptionally fine collection brings together many of the best analysts of Brahms, and nineteenth-century music generally, in the English-speaking world today.

* Nineteenth-Century Music Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253357052
Author Heather Platt
Format Hardback
Page Count 316
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 635g