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Liebeslieder Walzer (Brahms Opus 52)

• History/Background
• Analysis
• Reception
• Transcriptions

Background

Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes are comprised of two opus numbers: 52 and 65. The waltzes are a collection of love songs in Ländler style for choir and four hands piano. The lyrics for the Liebeslider come from Georg Friedrich Daumer's Polydora collection of folk songs and love poems. While there is no concrete record indicating the exact inspiration for the Waltzes, speculation for Brahms' moti range from his frustrated love for Clara Schumann's daughter

Reception

Historical

In his lifetime, Brahms was well respected, particularly due to his works composed between 1863 and 1871, which are considered his “unsettled years,” before he established his residence in Vienna. The Liebeslieder Waltzes were completed in 1869 and were first performed January 5, 1870. One of the earlier reviews from London in 1877 suggest that the audience greatly enjoyed Brahms’ work. Although there were initial criticisms regarding the “ad libitum” of voices and “lack of melodic flow” through the eighteen movements, the London concert of the Liebeslieder Waltzes went on to be among one of the most liked performances of the year One aspect of the Liebeslieder Waltzes that possibly contributed to the work’s reception was that Brahms composed them with reference to Johann Strauss who was considered the “Waltz King.” With such another well-known composer attached to the work the audience would have enjoyed the tribute. To some, Brahms revived chamber music. Liebeslieder exemplifies this in both Op. 52 and Brahms’ later arrangement for four-hand piano, Op 52a, written and premiered in 1874. Other arrangements of the Liebeslieder Waltzes appear in 1870 when Brahms was pressured by Ernst Rudorff to create an orchestral arrangement, which he premiered on March 19, 1870. It contained eight pieces from Op. 52 and one piece that was later included in the Neue Liebeslieder, Op. 65. The orchestral version was not published until 1938. Brahms referred to the Liebeslieder as “pretty concert numbers” in a letter written to his publisher, Fritz Simrock, in 1870.

Musical Components

The Liebeslieder Waltzes are a collection of love songs written in a popular style that do not lose Brahms’ compositional complexity. Scored for piano 4 hands and voices ad libitum, the piece can easily accommodate many different sized ensembles. The words are taken from Daumer’s Polydora, also the material for his op. 39 Waltzes and op. 65 Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes. Although today they are part of the standard choral repertoire, Brahms more likely intended them to be played in parlors or informal home gatherings rather than in concert halls. Immediately successful, these waltzes were responsible for much of his personal wealth, and solidified his reputation with the general music-buying public in Vienna and Europe.

Table

Title	Tempo	Form	Voices	Key	Approximate Duration
1. Rede, Mädchen	Im Landler-Tempo	Rounded Binary	SATB	E Major	1'20
2. Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut		Binary	SATB	A minor	0'45
3. O die Frauen		Binary	TB	B flat Major	1'00
4. Wie des Abends schöne Röte		Binary	SA	F Major	0'50
5. Die grüne Hopfenranke		Binary	SATB	A minor	1'45
6. Ein kleiner, hübscher Vogel	Grazioso	Rondo	SATB	A Major	2'35
7. Wohl schön bewandt war es		Binary	S (A)	C minor	1'10
8. Wenn so lind dein Auge mir		Binary	SATB	A flat Major	1'30
9. Am Donaustrande		Rounded Binary	SATB	E Major	2'10
10. O wie sanft die Quelle		Binary	SATB	G Major	0'55
11. Nein, es ist nicht auszukommen		Rounded Binary	SATB	C minor	0'52
12. Schlosser auf, und mache Schlösser		Binary	SATB	E flat Major	0'45
13. Vögelein durchrauscht die Luft		Binary	SA	A flat Major	0'45
14. Sieh, wie ist die Welle klar		Binary	TB	E flat Major	0'50
15. Nachtigall, sie singt so schön		Binary	SATB	A flat Major	1'20
16. Ein dunkeler Schacht ist Liebe	Lebhaft (lively)	Binary	SATB	F minor	1'20
17. Nicht wandle, mein Licht	Mit Ausdruck (with expression)	Binary	T	D flat Major	1'55
18. Es bebet das Gesträuche	Lebhaft (lively)	Rounded Binary	SATB	D flat/C sharp Major	1'25

Rhythm

The set opens with the quintessential waltz rhythm: the “oom-pah-pah” of the bass note played on beat one followed the chord on beats two and three. Brahms never strays too far from this familiar idiom, and the simple, easy-to-sing folk melodies allow his work to stay grounded as he adds more rhythmic complexity. Brahms is known for his unique manipulation of time, particularly his use of syncopation and hemiolas. This begins right away as a subtle hemiola creeps into the first stanza. Waltz 2 broadens this with a hemiola lasting throughout the song: the piano plays a ¾ accompaniment to the 3/2 melody in the tenor. In waltzes 8, 10, 13, and 15 as well, lines are barred to imply a different meter than the standard ¾ waltz meter Brahms used as a template.

Another time manipulation used here is his metric displacement, or the shift away from an established barline. This very subtle alteration is seen most notably fifth waltz, where the secondo piano part begins on the anacrusis with two descending quarter notes. This pattern of emphasis on the third beat continues as the primo piano enters. When the voices finally enter with an emphasis on meat one, the listener’s perception of the barline shifts. The quarter note-half note pattern that waltz 5 is built upon is commonly used by Brahms, usually to symbolize the loneliness of separation (Stark). This pattern appears periodically throughout the set, for instance making up much of waltz 7.

Ordering

Brahms wrote the waltzes rather quickly in the summer of 1868 as an unordered set of dances, with little regard for their ultimate arrangement. Likely he thought a home performer would simply pick and choose their favorites to be performed. The uncertainty of the ordering, grouping, and number of volumes lead to lengthy correspondence with his publisher, Simrock, with changes made up until the first performance, and within his own copy of the published first edition. (brod)

The waltzes exist today in a single set of 18, but it is evident that Brahms made accommodations for the possibility of two books of nine waltzes, or even three books of six waltzes, giving numbers 6, 9, and 18 a particular sense of closure in their phrasing, gestures, and structure. Along with the opening dance, these three are the only waltzes in the set to introduce a more complex formal structure. 1, 9, and 18 are in rounded binary form and 6 is a rondo, while the rest of the Liebeslieder adhere to the simpler Binary form more often found in folk-song transcriptions. The longer, more structured patterns give a sense of drama befitting a closing number, particularly (as in 6) when they end with a satisfying return to the home key. The closing gestures are most apparent in 9, which would have served as an ending in both the two-book and three-book versions of the set (in his tripartite plan, Brahms reordered the middle book to close with 9). This was also the waltz that Brahms chose to end his arrangement for choir and orchestra. The waltz returns to E Major, the key that started the set, and ends with a descending melodic line, a decrescendo, ritardando, and a fermata, all things that unmistakably signify an ending.

Versions

Due to the piece’s popularity and playability, many versions and transcriptions of the Libeslieder Waltzes exist. Opus 52a, for piano duet without voices was published in 1874, with minor additions and intricacies added to the original piano lines. Brahms also published a version for voices with piano solo in 1875. Conductor Ernst Rudorff convinced Brahms to create an arrangement of the waltzes for voice and small orchestra for a performance in 1870, although this version was not published until 1938. The orchestral version does not contain the complete set of waltzes, but instead numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, 5, a song that would later become waltz 9 in his Neue Liebeslieder Watzer, 11, 8, and 9. (Stark)Friedrich Hermann also created a transcription of the Liebeslieder Waltzes for strings alone in 1889. (imslp or review).

External Links

• IMSLP Free Score-- imslp.org/wiki/Liebeslieder_Waltzes,_Op.52_(Brahms,_Johannes)