Graduate Program
Music
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Semester of Degree Completion
2012
Thesis Director
Richard Rossi
Thesis Committee Member
Marilyn Coles
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Abstract
Johannes Brahms, known for his love of serious music and archaic forms, was indelibly influenced by residence in lively Vienna. During his Vienna years he composed some of his most "popular" works, both in terms of style and reception, among these the Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 52. These masterful "love song waltzes" are settings of folk poems from Georg Daumer' s Polydora. Brahms skill in songwriting lies in his subtlety. Not bound to overt text painting, the composer uses rhythmic and textural clues along with characteristically rich harmonic language to musically reflect the love, longing, and loss found in Daumer' s candid, simple poems.
Berlioz' technique in composing the riveting "Hungarian March" is equally effective. The formal structure of this work comes as an organic result of the development and combination of specific motives. Five in all, the manipulation of these motives within a framework of growing harmonic excitement, thickening texture, and escalating dynamic scheme make it easy to understand why this piece-which the composer claims to have written in one night-has become an orchestral tour de force.
Recommended Citation
Todd, Sarah, "Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer op. 52 and Hector Berlioz' "Hungarian march" from La damnation de Faust" (2012). Masters Theses. 847.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/847
