Allusion as Narrative Premise in Brahms's Instrumental Music

<p>Who inspired Johannes Brahms in his art of writing music? In this book Jacquelyn E. C. Sholes provides a fresh look at the ways in which Brahms employed musical references to works of earlier composers in his own instrumental music. By analyzing newly identified allusions alongside previously known musical references in works such as the B-Major Piano Trio the D-Major Serenade the First Piano Concerto and the Fourth Symphony among others Sholes demonstrates how a historical reference in one movement of a work seems to resonate meaningfully musically and dramatically with material in other movements in ways not previously recognized. She highlights Brahms's ability to weave such references into broad movement-spanning narratives arguing that these narratives served as expressive outlets for his complicated sometimes conflicted attitudes toward the material to which he alludes. Ultimately Brahms's music reveals both the inspiration and the burden that established masters such as Domenico Scarlatti J. S. Bach Haydn Mozart Schubert Schumann Wagner and especially Beethoven represented for him as he struggled to emerge with his own artistic voice and to define and secure his unique position in music history.</p>