The Horn Trio in E major, Op. 40, by
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
is a chamber piece in four movements written for
natural horn
The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day (French) horn (differentiated by its lack of valves). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century the natural horn evolved as a separation from the trump ...
,
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
, and
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. Composed in 1865, the work commemorates the death of Brahms's mother, Christiane, earlier that year. However, it draws on a
theme
Theme or themes may refer to:
* Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work
* Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos
* Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
which Brahms had composed twelve years previously but did not publish at the time.
The work was first performed in
Zurich on November 28, 1865, and was published a year later in November 1866. The Horn Trio was the last
chamber piece Brahms wrote for the next eight years.
Brahms chose to write the work for natural horn rather than valve horn despite the fact that the valve horn was becoming more common. The
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...
of the natural horn is more somber and melancholic than the valve horn and creates a much different mood. Brahms himself believed that the open tones of the natural horn had a fuller quality than those produced by valves. Nineteenth-century listeners associated the sound of the natural horn with nature and the calls of the hunt. Fittingly, Brahms once said that the opening theme of the first movement came to him while he was walking through the woods. Brahms also learned natural horn (as well as piano and cello) as a child, which may be another reason why he chose to write for these instruments following the death of his mother.
Notwithstanding Brahms's love for the sound of the natural horn, he did specify that the horn part could be played by a cello and it was indeed published with a transposed cello part. Much later in 1884 Brahms also reworked the part for viola.
Movements
The work is divided into four movements:
In the first movement, Brahms emphasizes the simplicity of the opening
theme
Theme or themes may refer to:
* Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work
* Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos
* Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
by abandoning the structure of
sonata form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle ...
in favour of three slow sections offset by two shorter, more rhapsodic segments. Brahms also deviates from classical practice by adopting a slow–fast–slow–fast order of movements, perhaps looking back to the old ''
sonata da chiesa
Sonata da chiesa (Italian: "church sonata") is a 17th-century genre of musical composition for one or more melody instruments and is regarded an antecedent of later forms of 18th century instrumental music. It generally comprises four movements, t ...
'' form.
The Scherzo represents a lighter side of grief; since the work as a whole simulates the stages of mourning, the Scherzo serves as the reminder of happy memories. As in the first movement, Brahms uses the pitches of the E
overtone series
A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a ''fundamental frequency''.
Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator su ...
to establish the theme. (This theme is found in some variation in every movement, most directly in the Finale.) The playfulness that the tempo suggests offers a break from the slow and somber surrounding movements. The contrasting ''trio'' section uses transposed material from a small unpublished piano piece (''
Albumblatt'') which Brahms had written twelve years earlier, in 1853.
[
The Adagio mesto opens with four measures of solo piano in the low register of the instrument; this sets up the solemn, contemplative mood of the movement that is emphasized by the entrance of the violin and horn. ]Daniel Gregory Mason
Daniel Gregory Mason (November 20, 1873 – December 4, 1953) was an American composer and music critic.
Biography
Mason was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He came from a long line of notable American musicians, including his father Henry Ma ...
held the Adagio from the Horn Trio to be one of Brahms's most impassioned and heartfelt slow movements.
The Finale contains the main theme that is present in the previous three movements, but it is prominently displayed in E major in a lively tempo. The joy felt in the Finale symbolizes the recovery at the end of mourning.
Orchestration
In 2006 hornist Radek Baborák
Radek Baborák (born 11 March 1976 in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech conductor and French horn player.
Career
Radek Baborák was born into a musical family. He commenced his horn studies at the age of eight under the tutelage of Karel Kren ...
took part in the premiere of Miloš Bok
Miloš Bok (born 16 January 1968) is a Czech composer, conductor, pianist, organist, choirmaster and music educator.
Life and career
Miloš Bok was born on 16 January 1968 in Prague. He graduated in piano playing in 1988 at the Prague Conserva ...
's arrangement of the work as a concerto for horn (or viola, or cello), violin and orchestra.
See also
* Horn trio Horn trio can mean a work written for three horns or horns as well as one for horn and two other instruments. In the latter category, an important genre is the trio for horn, violin and piano. Although there are a few earlier examples, the tradition ...
** Trio for horn, violin, and piano (Banks)
** Trio for horn, violin, and piano (Berkeley)
The Trio for horn, violin, and piano, Op. 44, is a chamber music work by the English composer Lennox Berkeley. It was composed in the early 1950s and was premiered in March 1954 in London. A performance takes about 15 minutes.
History
The Horn Tr ...
** Horn Trio (Holbrooke) – an early twentieth-century work composed as a companion to Brahms's Horn Trio
** Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (Ligeti)
The Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano by György Ligeti was completed in 1982. The piece was a turning point in Ligeti’s career. Ligeti had composed little since he completed his opera, '' Le Grand Macabre,'' in 1977, having only finished a few sm ...
References
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Piano trios by Johannes Brahms
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
1865 compositions
Funerary and memorial compositions
Compositions in E-flat major