Old- Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann`, And the Poetics of Musical Memory

8/11/2019 Old- Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann`, And the Poetics of Musical Memory

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The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 24, Issue 1, pp. 72111, ISSN 0277-9269, electronic ISSN 1533-8347. 7 b th R t f th U i it f C lif i All i ht d Pl di t ll t f

A version of this essay was presented at the 2005 annual meetingof the American Musicological Society. My thanks to Dr. SylviaUhlemann of the Universitts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt,Dr. Thomas Synofzik of the Robert-Schumann-Haus in Zwickau,and Richard Saunders of the Hudson Rogue Company for theirhelp in tracing relevant manuscripts and printed editions, and toSeth Monahan for his assistance in preparing music examples.

1 Music Deposit 17, Special Collections, Yale University Music Library, New Haven,Connecticut.

Old Love: Johannes Brahms,

Clara Schumann, and thePoetics of Musical Memory

PAUL BERRY

Claras Private Reception of the F-Minor Capriccio

The oldest surviving record of JohannesBrahmss Capriccio in F minor for solo piano is an autograph manu-script in the special collections of the Yale University Music Library.1

Brahms made the manuscript for Clara Schumann on 12 September1871. He placed the date and a shorthand version of her name, Cl.

Sch., at the top of the title page, along with an indication of tempo andaffect, Unruhig bewegt, that remained unchanged in the Capriccios later,published version. He wrote in ink on ornately decorated music paper;his manuscript is virtually devoid of notational errors but replete withpedal indications, dynamic and expressive marks, and even specific fin-gerings. All these features can be seen on the autographs first page, re-produced in Figure 1. Its legibility, the precision of its performance in-structions, and the paper on which it was written all indicate that the


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manuscript was a presentation copy of a finished composition.2 Brahmspresumably presented his gift both in honor of Clara and Robert Schu-manns 31st wedding anniversary on 12 September 1871 and to cele-brate Claras 52nd birthday the following day.3 He almost certainly gave

2 For a transcription of the manuscript and a short introduction to the composi-tional history of the F -minor Capriccio, see Peter Petersen, ed., Klavierstcke op. 76: mit derUrfassung des Capriccio fis-moll(Vienna: Wiener Urtext Edition, Universal Edition, 1992).

3 In perhaps the most influential account of the Capriccios genesis, Max Kalbecksbiography flatly assumes that Claras birthday was the occasion for which Brahmss manu-script was intended; see Kalbeck,Johannes Brahms(Berlin: Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft,19151927), 3: 193. The birthday celebration on September 13 figures prominently inthe portions of Claras diary and correspondence that Berthold Litzmann first publishedin 19028 and to which Kalbeck had access, whereas her anniversary goes unmentioned;see Litzmann, Clara Schumann: Ein Knstlerleben, nach Tagebchern und Briefen (Leipzig:Breitkopf & Hrtel, 1923), 3: 26263. Since no direct evidence favors one occasion overthe other, however, we should acknowledge both Claras birthday and her anniversary aspotentiall important moti ations for the man scripts presentation Petersens introd c

figure 1. Johannes Brahms, untitled manuscript, 1871 (later revisedas the F -minor Capriccio, op. 76/1), first page. Music De-posit 17, Special Collections, Yale University Music Library,

New Haven, Connecticut


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the journal of musicology

her the manuscript in person: He had been visiting her home in Baden-Baden since May, and her diary places him among a group of oldfriends who gathered at her house on the evening of September 13.4

Clara appears to have kept Brahmss new composition to herself.No surviving evidence hints that anyone else was aware of the works ex-istence until the summer of 1878, when Brahms began assembling oldsolo piano pieces and composing new ones for publication in hisKlavierstcke, op. 76. In early July 1878, Theodor Billroth had access toall eight of the op. 76 Klavierstcke through the copyist Franz Hlava-czek;5 between September 8 and 12, Brahms played three pieces fromthe set, including Claras gift, for Heinrich and Elisabet von Herzogen-berg.6 At some point before November, the work preserved in Claras

manuscript had undergone significant revisions;7 by 6 February 1879,when Brahms sent a final version to his publisher, the piece had ac-quired its now familiar title, Capriccio.8 Starting in the summer of 1878,then, the F -minor Capricciocirculated among the composers musicalfriends in a manner typical of works he was about to publish, but untilit began to find a place in opus 76, the piece Brahms had presented toClara in September 1871 seems to have remained a thoroughly privatemusical utterance.

Three extant letters allow us to gauge Claras response to Brahmss

gift. First, in a letter to Rosalie Leser from 16 September 1871, she dis-played new-found warmth in her attitude toward Brahms, proclaiming

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4 Litzmann, Clara Schumann, 3: 263. For details on Brahmss movements during1871, see Renate and Kurt Hofman,Johannes Brahms: Zeittafel zu Leben und Werk(Tutzing:Schneider, 1983), 1047.

5 Theodor Billroth and Johannes Brahms, Billroth und Brahms im Briefwechsel(Berlin:Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1935), 26775. Brahms informed Billroth that new musicawaited him at Hlavaczeks in an undated letter from early July (ibid., 26768). By July 9,Billroth had seen all but nos. 3 and 4 of op. 76 and commented on them individually,including the F -minor Capriccio(ibid., 26971).

6 Johannes Brahms and Elisabet and Heinrich von Herzogenberg,Johannes Brahmsim Briefwechsel mit Heinrich und Elisabet von Herzogenberg, ed. Max Kalbeck (Berlin:Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1907), 1: 7275. Brahms played the works later publishedas nos. 1, 2 and 7 of op. 76.

7 Because Brahmss autograph for the final version of the Capricciodoes not surviveand Hlavaczeks copy is in private hands, it is impossible to determine when these revi-sions took place. Fortunately, George Bozarth has examined Hlavaczeks copies of opp.76/14. In his edition of Brahmss correspondence with Robert Keller, Bozarth claimsthat Brahms also made numerous small-scale compositional revisions in the Hlavaczekmanuscript. Given Bozarths description, we might tentatively assume that Claras Capric-ciowas revised in late June or early July 1878, just before it began to circulate amongBrahmss other friends. See George Bozarth and Wiltrud Martin, eds., The Brahms-KellerCorrespondence (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1996), 38. For the current location ofHlavaczeks copy, see Margit L. McCorkle, Johannes Brahms: Thematisch-bibliographischesWerkverzeichnis (Munich: Henle 1984) 323


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him charming as never before.9 Perhaps her old friends gift of anoriginal, unpublished composition helped color her impression oftheir time together at the birthday celebration three days prior. Next, a

letter to Brahms from 6July 1877 confirms that Clara still enjoyed play-ing from her manuscript long after its presentation and noted its datewhen she did so: But I must still tell you that I take great pleasure in apiece in F minor, Unruhig bewegt, which you sent me on September12th, 1871.10 This letter preserves Claras most detailed surviving de-scription of the Capriccioitself. Her account stresses the works affectiveambiguity and records how powerfully she experienced that ambiguityin the act of performance: The piece was dreadfully difficult, but sowonderful, so tender and melancholy, that when I play it, joy and sad-

ness always surround my heart.11 Finally, in response to Brahmssrequest for her impressions of all eight piano pieces from op. 76, in-cluding the newly revised Capriccio,12 Clara replied in writing on 7 No-vember 1878; her letter argued forcefully against Brahmss revisions.Her criticisms reveal a deep prior engagement with her manuscript gift,both at the piano and in her musical memory.

Clara presented two specific objections to Brahmss changes. First,in evaluating the Capriccios newly condensed return to its openingflourish in measures 5253, her letter appeals explicitly to her long fa-

miliarity with the works manuscript version, which stretches the samematerial over four measures instead of two: The earlier reading simplyalways delighted me so much. Why did you change it?13 Here is direct

9 All translations in this article are my own. For the original German of this passage,see Litzmann, Clara Schumann, 3: 263: so liebenswrdig . . . wie nie frher. Clara usedthe same word, liebenswrdig, in a diary entry describing Brahmss behavior in the dayssurrounding her birthday: Zu unser aller Gemthlichkeit hatte auch viel JohannesLiebenswrdigkeit beigetragen (ibid., 262).

10 Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann, Briefe aus den Jahren 18531896: Im Auf-

trage von Marie Schumann, ed. Berthold Litzmann (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, 1927), 2:115: Groe Freude, das mu ich Dir doch noch sagen, habe ich an einem Stck in Fis-moll Unruhig bewegt, welches Du mir am 12. September 1871 schicktest.

11 Ibid. Es ist furchtbar schwer, aber so wundervoll, so innig und schwermtig, damir beim Spielen immer ganz wonnig und wehmtig ums Herz wird. The Capriccioprob-ably posed a particular challenge for Clara in July 1877 because she had recently injuredher right hand (ibid., 112).

12 A letter from Brahms, no longer extant, prompted Clara to address the op. 76Klavierstcke: Ich war gerade dabei, mich an den Klavierstcken zu ergtzen . . . da kamDein Brief, und so will ich nicht zgern (ibid., 157). Brahms must have asked explicitlyfor comments about the individual pieces, or at least mentioned some of his plans for theopus as a whole, since Claras letter responds Ein Liebling von mir ist auch das C dur,

und Du willst es weglassen? Warum das gerade? Soll eines weggelassen sein, so bin ichmehr fr das in A dur (ibid.). Brahms eventually retained the C-major Capriccioas the fi-nal piece in op 76

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14 Brahms had given Clara a manuscript of the Deutsches Requiemon Christmas Day1866, but most of that choral score was in a copyists hand. Curiously, the last two signedautographs he made for her were also of solo piano pieces and also intended as birthdaypresents. In September 1861, Brahms gave Clara a signed autograph of his Handel Varia-tions, op. 24, apparently continuing a custom begun the previous year with a pianoarrangement of the second movement of the string sextet, op. 18; see McCorkle, Werk-verzeichnis, 65 and 82. Claras manuscript present of 1871was the first of another series ofbirthday autographs; see ibid., 19799 and 251.

15 Brahms/Schumann, Briefe, 2: 15859: Frher so: [musical example] jetzt andersin Oktaven gehend, was hrter klingt. Claras letter also applies the same criticism tomm 32 33 of the revised Capriccio which present a literal transposition of mm 28 29

evidence that Clara felt significant personal attachment, at least in ret-rospect, to particular passages from the composition she had come toknow. Perhaps the unapologetic directness of her question registered a

hint of annoyance that Brahms was not only publishing a musical workshe had long considered her own, but also altering it significantly in theprocess. After all, when she had first received Brahmss gift in 1871, heseems not to have given her a signed autograph in ten years.14 What-ever the actual substance of Brahmss revisions, the simple fact that hehad deviated from her original manuscript may have removed some ofwhat she perceived as the works personal aura.

Supplementing her claim of personal attachment to the piece was apoint of focused music-analytic criticism regarding measures 2829 of

the revised Capriccio, which correspond to measures 2728 of the origi-nal version. Although her comment was terse, she took care to includea musical example: What used to be like this: [here she copied mm.2728 from the 1871 manuscript] now goes differently, in octaves,which sounds harsher.15 Examples 1a and 1b compare the two versionsof the passage. For Clara, Brahmss revised left hand created obtrusiveparallel octaves against the bass on the third and sixth eighth-note par-tials of each measure. On the page, these octaves are buried amid cas-cading figuration; in singling them out, Claras letter hints that her as-

sessment of Brahmss compositions depended upon the constraints ofperformance as well as the analysis of musical structure. The new oc-taves are problematic partly because of their consistent metric place-ment, but mostly because of the fingering implied by the score, whichplaces the last two 16ths of each half-measure on the lower staff. Thisspatial arrangement naturally leads a conscientious pianist to play eachmeasures third and sixth partials with the left thumb, inadvertently butalmost inevitably creating the aural impression of an accentuated innervoice that progresses in parallel with the bass. While a glance at the

score may expose this inner voice, it becomes prominent only whenplayed.16


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Most importantly, the musical excerpt Clara included in her letterillustrates how well she knew the original version of the Capriccio, ironi-cally because the two do not correspond precisely. Examples 2a and 2bcompare her interpolated example to the passage it was meant to re-produce.17 Of the 24 notes in Claras excerpt, fully 12 diverge from her

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been tantamount to experiencing the sonic implications of the physical demands it im-posed. But regardless of exactly how Clara first noticed Brahmss parallel octaves, the fact

that she singled out mm. 2829 for particular criticism registers her sensitivity to the exi-gencies of performance.

17 Like most of Claras correspondence with Brahms, the original manuscript of thisletter is lost, either destroyed or untraceable in private hands. Nevertheless, there are twogood reasons to trust Litzmanns transcription of her interpolated musical example. First,Litzmann had already transcribed the same letter in Clara Schumann(3: 391). His latertranscription in the Brahms/Schumann Briefe is clearly a new engraving, but it matcheshis earlier reading of the original letter except for the F on the second beat of the sec-ond measure, which acquires a dot in the Brahms/Schumann correspondence. Thischange indicates that he returned to the original letter or at least scrutinized the earlierpublication carefully before printing the excerpt a second time. Second, Litzmann tookconsiderable pains to reproduce Claras original as precisely as possible, even when it

contravened standard notational practice. His two transcriptions are unanimous not onlyin the two successive upward stems on the second and third 16th notes in the last mea-sures second beat but also in their substitution of paired eighth rests where Clara un

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example 1.

a. Capriccio, mm. 2829, revised version (1878), annotated

b. Capriccio, mm. 2728, MS version (1871)


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own copy of the piece owing to discrepancies in pitch, register, or scor-ing. The final three 16ths present rearranged or entirely differentpitches. The 16ths on the third eighth-note partial of the excerpts sec-ond measure are transposed to the wrong octave with respect to theoriginal; the fifth partial of the second measure has acquired an up-ward stem. Finally, the excerpt scores the upper staff of its first measurein treble rather than bass clef, shifting the first three 16ths of each beat

into new positions on the page while leaving their pitches intact. Theresult preserves the essential melodic and harmonic features of the pas-sage in question and its departures prove negligible when heard in con-text. Nevertheless, it is inconceivable that Clara Schumann could haveso thoroughly miscopied a passage of music directly from her score.One can only conclude, instead, that she was quoting from memory.

Claras misremembered musical excerpt, her explicit enthusiasmfor the earlier reading preserved in her manuscript, and her statedadmiration for the Capriccios affective ambiguity all suggest that the

work remained important to her long after its presentation in 1871.Whereas the circumstances under which she first received Brahmss au-

example 2.

a. Capriccio, mm. 2728, MS version (1871)

b. Clara Schumann to Johannes Brahms, 7 November 1878: musicalexample

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the Capriccioitself were emotionally powerful, musically specific, and in-timately tied to the medium of performance at her instrument. Brahmsseems to have anticipated the nature and depth of his friends familiar-

ity with his piano piece before she criticized his revisions. Indeed, I be-lieve he had already used her familiarity as a compositional resource,purposefully designing a setting of Carl Candiduss poem Alte Liebein order to stir her musical memories of the Capriccio. Such a songwould incorporate an allusion in the strongest sense: a deliberate refer-ence to a previously existing work, specifically meant to be perceived assuch by some intended audience.

Allusion is a vexing topic in the Brahms literature. On the onehand, Brahmss knowledge of music by his predecessors and contempo-

raries was famously detailed, and his own compositional style oftenstrikes us as nostalgic or evocative.18 His surviving correspondence withsuch intimate friends as Theodor Billroth, Elisabet von Herzogenberg,and Clara herself shows that he acknowledged employing allusive pro-cedures on multiple occasions, particularly in the comparatively privategenres of chamber music and song.19 The tradition of interpreting in-stances of allusion as windows into Brahmss compositional thoughtand interpersonal relationships thus began within the composers owncircle and with his implicit sanction before taking permanent root in

Max Kalbecks biography.20 Several American scholars have recentlyreinvigorated that tradition by teasing widely divergent instances and

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18 Leaving aside the issue of allusion itself, recent studies display renewed interest inand a wide variety of approaches toward the complex issues of memory, nostalgia, and thepast in Brahmss compositional style. Examples include Daniel Beller-McKenna, Distanceand Disembodiment: Harps, Horns, and the Requiem Idea in Schumann and Brahms,

Journal of Musicology22 (2005): 4789; Karen Bottge, Brahmss Wiegenlied and theMaternal Voice, 19th Century Music28 (2005): 185213; Elmar Budde, Brahms oderder Versuch, das Ende zu denken, in Abschied in die Gegenwart: Teleologie und Zustand inder Musik(Vienna: Universal, 1998), 26778; Marjorie Hirsch, The Spiral Journey BackHome: Brahmss Heimweh Lieder, Journal of Musicology22 (2005): 45489; and Mar-garet Notleys new book Lateness and Brahms: Music and Culture in the Twilight of VienneseLiberalism(Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006). Reinhold Brinkmanns Late Idyll: The Sec-ond Symphony of Johannes Brahms, trans. Peter Palmer (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press,1995) has already become a locus classicus of interest in the nostalgic aspects of Brahmssmusic.

19 Brahms/Billroth, Briefe, 28283 and 398; Brahms/Herzogenberg, Briefe, 2: 140;and Brahms/Schumann, Briefe, 2: 562.

20 See Kalbecks interpretation of the closing theme of the op. 36 string sextets firstmovement as a cipher for Agathe von Siebolds first name, in Brahms, 1: 33031, and 2:15759. This argument relies on both music-analytic and biographical-documentary sup-port, and it remains one of the few widely accepted interpretations of its kind. Kalbeckalso addressed other, less emotionally charged allusions throughout his biography, in-cluding a quotation from the unpublished Brautgesang in Von ewiger Liebe op 43/1 and a


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spondence, diary entries, and early compositional variants permit de-tailed investigation of Brahmss attitudes with respect to Alte Liebe; andthe two works share musical material that is aurally salient and rich in

music-analytic and hermeneutic implications. After examining Alte Liebesnewly rediscovered autograph and reconstructing the circumstances ofthe songs first performance, this article proposes a detailed account ofBrahmss compositional process and explores how Clara might have ap-prehended the musical memories opened up by the song. Imaginativelyadopting a perspective originally unique to Alte Liebes intended listeneryields fresh insights into Brahmss compositional practice in the inti-mate genres of song and small-scale chamber music, a rich new histori-cal context in which to ground the study of allusion in his works, and a

hitherto unnoticed opportunity to explore the musical and personaldynamics of his closest friendship.

The Manuscript ofAlte Liebe and the Circumstances of Its Premiere

Brahms completed Alte Liebeon 6 May 1876, more than four yearsafter he had given Clara her Capricciobut still two years before its re-vised version first surfaced among his broader circle. Three days later,on May 9, he finished a setting of Goethes Unberwindlich. Dated

fair copies of both songs survive today in Brahmss hand. The auto-graph of Unberwindlich is in the Universitts- und Landesbibliothek inDarmstadt; Brahms gave it to the baritone Josef Hauser during a visit toKarlsruhe in late October 1876.24 The autograph of Alte Liebe is cur-rently in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale Uni-versity;25 the history of its ownership has not been thoroughly docu-mented until now. Like the early version of Claras Capriccio, the songsin both manuscripts differ from the readings Brahms eventually pub-lished. Most discrepancies are negligible, but each manuscript also

preserves at least one musically significant variant. The autograph ofAlte Lieberaises the third of the songs final tonic triad, whereas the pub-lished version ends on the minor tonic. The autograph of Unber-windlichscores its vocal line entirely in the bass clef, while the publishedversion uses treble; in addition, the published version brackets thepianos opening two-measure motive and attributes it to Domenico

24 Mus. Ms. 1522, Universitts- und Landesbibliothek, Darmstadt. Brahms was inKarlsruhe from October 28 through November 4, when his First Symphony was playedunder Dessoffs direction; see Hofmann, Zeittafel, 134. Hauser probably received the auto-graph in late October rather than early November, since he also acquired a copyists man-uscript of Alte Liebedated Okt 76; this copyists manuscript is also preserved in Darm-stadts Universitts und Landesbibliothek as Mus Ms 1523


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Scarlatti, but the manuscript neither brackets nor attributes the motive.Leaving aside the music itself, both autographs include another detailthat the published versions omit: Immediately following the closingdouble bar lines, Brahms appended his signature and the date onwhich he completed each song. Figure 2 presents a facsimile of AlteLiebes final two measures and dated signature.

A natural sign, a bass clef, an unattributed borrowing, and a pair ofdated signatures: Once we piece together details of the songs dissemi-nation between their composition in May 1876 and their printed re-

lease in August 1877, these variants in Brahmss original autographswill help reconstruct Claras experience of Unberwindlich and espe-cially of Alte Liebe. As usual, the songs circulated widely among Brahmssclose friends immediately prior to their publication as the first and lastof the Fnf Gesnge, op. 72. In the spring of 1877, the composer sentthem, along with many of the other songs from opp. 6972, to Billroth,and then to the Herzogenbergs and Clara herself, on their way to FritzSimrocks publishing firm.26 Several members of the Brahms circle en-

26 Billroth/Brahms, Briefe, 23436; Brahms/Herzogenberg, Briefe, 1: 1921 and2627; Brahms/Schumann, Briefe, 2: 9698; and Fritz Simrock,Johannes Brahms und FritzSimrock: Weg einer Freundschaft Briefe des Verlegers an den Komponisten (Verffentlichungen aus

figure 2. Johannes Brahms, fair copy of Alte Liebe, closing measuresand dated signature. FRKF 870, Friedrich R. Koch Collec-tion, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Uni-

versity, New Haven, Connecticut


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27 Amalie Joachim and Julius Stockhausen heard many of the songs in opp. 6972in late March or early April (see Billroth/Brahms, Briefe, 236). Wilhelm Engelmann musthave encountered at least some of them by early July 1877, since he referred playfully tothe text of Mdchenfluch, op. 69/9, in a letter from July 10; see Johannes Brahms andTheodor Wilhelm Engelmann,Johannes Brahms im Briefwechsel mit Th. Wilhelm Engelmann(Berlin: Deutsche Brahms-Gesellschaft, 1918), 64. Moreover, a letter to Brahms from

Simrock mentions a mid July party at which both of the Engelmanns enjoyed performingfrom scores that incorporated Brahmss recent revisions to opp. 6972; see Simrock,Briefe, 107.

28 Brahms/Herzogenberg, Briefe, 1: 27. Labeling the song von Henschel allowedElisabet to remind Brahms tactfully of an old promise to send her an autograph manu-script of her own. Brahms had mentioned the promise in a letter to her husband fromthe previous month (ibid., 26) but did not fulfill it until 13 November 1877, when hesent an autograph of the vocal quartet O Schne Nacht, op. 92/1 (ibid., 2829).

29 See McCorkle, Werkverzeichnis, 307. George Bozarth also lists Henschels copy onpage 260 of The First Generation of Brahms Manuscript Collections, Notes40 (1983):23962.

30 I am indebted to Richard Saunders of the Hudson Rogue Company for providing

a facsimile of the manuscript he sold in 1982. I have also traced its intermediary owners:an anonymous American who owned the manuscript from 1982 to 1985; Christies KingStreet in London which sold it on 27 March 1985; and a London art dealer who sold it

countered the songs second hand, through mutual friends, during thisflurry of prepublication activity.27 Others, however, had already encoun-tered Alte Liebeand Unberwindlichbefore Brahms released manuscripts

widely within his circle, even before he had written the bulk of thesongs in opp. 6972.

Surviving correspondence shows that an independent current ofreception began shortly after Brahms completed the surviving auto-graphs. After getting to know the songs of opp. 6972 during a visit tothe Schumanns in Berlin on 5 May 1877, Elisabet von Herzogenbergwrote a letter to Brahms in which she referred to Alte Liebeas belongingto the baritone Georg Henschel. In fact, she was referring not to thesong itself but to an autograph manuscript.28 In November 1881, Hen-

schel gave an autograph of Alte Liebeto Henry Lee Higginson, who hadfounded the Boston Symphony Orchestra and brought Henschel fromEurope to be its first conductor that fall.29 Sold in 1982 to an unidenti-fied American buyer by a small antiquarian company in upstate NewYork, Henschels manuscript subsequently vanished from scholarly at-tention; but a reproduction retained by the antiquarian company con-firms that it is precisely the autograph currently housed in the BeineckeRare Book and Manuscript Library.30 Elisabets letter shows, in turn,that Henschel already owned this autograph in the spring of 1877.

When did he first acquire it?In 1901 and 1907, having since moved to England, Henschel pub-

lished two different English translations of a diary he had kept during a


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31 George (formerly Georg) Henschel, Personal Recollections of JohannesBrahms, Century Illustrated Magazine66/5 (March 1901): 72536; and Personal Recollec-tions of Johannes Brahms(Boston: Richard C. Badger [Gorham Press], 1907).

32 Max Kalbeck, Neues ber Brahms, mitgetheilt von Max Kalbeck, Neues WienerTagblatt, April 2 and 5, 1898; both parts of the article appear in the popular Feuilletonsection, below the fold on pp. 13 of their respective issues.

33 I intend to investigate these discrepancies more fully in a forthcoming publication.34 Henschel, Personal Recollections, 732, and Personal Recollections, 33.35 Kalbeck, Neues ber Brahms, part 1 (April 2), page 2: Ein ebenfalls neues,

sehr schnes Lied: Alte Liebe von Candidus, schenkte er mir im Manuskript, so da ichnun schon die Manuskripte von vier Liedern von ihm besitze. Kalbeck relied upon this

sentence when preparing his edition of the Brahms/Herzogenberg correspondence, inwhich Elisabets remark about Alte Liebefrom 5 May 1877 received the following annota-tion: Der Snger Georg Henschel (geb 1850) ist gemeint dem Brahms das Manuskript

vacation shared with Brahms on the island of Rgen in the Baltic Sea inJuly 1876.31 These publications are often cited, particularly the widelyavailable Personal Recollectionsof 1907, but Henschels translations from

his diary are neither as accurate nor as comprehensive as they purportto be. In 1898, well before publishing either of his own translations,Henschel allowed Max Kalbeck to print portions of his diary in an arti-cle in the Neues Wiener Tagblatt.32 Passages from Kalbecks 1898 articlemay preserve some portions of the original German diary more accu-rately than the singers own translations.33With respect to Alte LiebeandUnberwindlich, at any rate, the discrepancy between the two versions isstriking. On the afternoon of 9 July 1876, Henschel and Brahms dis-cussed some of the composers latest songs. Henschels translations

name only one specific song, Unberwindlich.34 But immediately aftermentioning Unberwindlich, Kalbecks account adds: He gave me inmanuscript an equally new, very beautiful song, Alte Liebe of Can-didus, so that I now already possess the manuscripts of four of hissongs.35 The autographs later history itself provides a plausible reasonfor Henschels omission of this sentence in his English translations: By1901, he had long since given his manuscript away, rendering irrele-vant and inaccurate his enthusiastic claim of ownership.

After Henschel acquired the autograph now in the Beinecke Li-

brary, it seems scarcely to have influenced the songs reception: Elisabetvon Herzogenbergs letter remains the sole evidence that anyone inBrahmss circle was aware of his gift to Henschel, and nothing suggeststhat their mutual friends ever saw the manuscript again after July 1876.But Clara Schumann may already have encountered the autographbefore Henschel acquired it. Prior to sending Alte Liebe and Unber-windlich on the usual prepublication rounds or showing them toHenschel, Brahms ensured that his new songs, like the 1871 Capriccio,


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reached Claras ears first. He could not deliver them immediately inperson, since he was still in Vienna during May 1876, far from herhome in Berlin. Instead, sometime between May 9 and May 28, he sent

manuscript copies to Julius Stockhausen, a mutual close friend and thebest Lieder singer in Berlin, along with a note asking him to sing themto Clara: Immediately before and after my birthday I wrote two songsthat seem to me well suited for you. But go to Frau Schumann withthem and sing them to her.36 Stockhausen fulfilled Brahmss requestfor a performance immediately, singing Alte Liebe and Unberwindlichfor Clara on 28 May 1876. Circumstantial evidence suggests that heperformed from the very autographs that survive today in New Havenand Darmstadt.

Brahms put off deciding where he would spend the summer of1876 until late May or early June, after he had already sent Stock-hausen copies of his new songs.37 Once he finally chose the island ofRgen, he quickly arranged to visit Clara in Berlin during June 811 onhis way north.38 His time in Berlin gave him ample opportunity to re-trieve the manuscripts he had sent to Stockhausen, and their unantici-pated recovery might explain why Brahms was carrying apparentlyexpendable autographs when he encountered Georg Henschel in Julyand, while still on his way home to Vienna, Josef Hauser in October.

Brahmss movements and correspondence thus support a plausible nar-rative that traces the surviving autographs from their creation, throughClaras hands, to their eventual dispersal and present locations, withoutrequiring the existence of any more fair copies. Narratives involvingmultiple fair copies could also be derived from the same evidence, butby the mid 1870s, Brahms was not in the habit of making multiple auto-graphs of a single version of a solo song.39 In this case, having drafted

36 Johannes Brahms and Julius Stockhausen, Johannes Brahms im Briefwechsel mitJulius Stockhausen (Johannes-Brahms-Briefwechsel, Neue Folge, XVIII), ed. Renate Hofmann(Tutzing: Schneider, 1993), 118. The original reads: Grade vor u. nach m. Geburtstagmachte ich 2 Lieder die gar so gut mir fr Dich zu passen scheinen. Gehe doch damit zuFrau Schumann u singe sie ihr.

37 Brahms may have first begun considering the Baltic Sea as a potential summer re-treat several months prior. Henschels diary records that he and Brahms discussed possi-ble vacation destinations on the evening of February 27 (Personal Recollections, 731,and Personal Recollections, 26). In late April, however, Brahms was clearly still torn between

various options: In a letter postmarked April 22, he asked Simrock whether he ought toreturn to Rschlikon, near Zrich, where he had spent the summer of 1874 (Brahms,Briefe an Simrock, 1: 221). The first surviving evidence of his final decision to go to the is-land of Rgen dates from June 5, well after he had sent Stockhausen the manuscripts of

Alte Liebeand Unberwindlich; see Brahms/Engelmann, Briefe, 45.38 Clara described his visit in her diary (printed in Litzmann, Clara Schumann, 3:

335)

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his new pair of songs and copied them cleanly by hand in early May,why would Brahms have taken the time and effort to make a second setof fair copies within a week or two of the first? The work habits evident

from his previous decade of song composition suggest, instead, that hesimply sent to Stockhausen the autographs he had made (expectinghim to return them by mail) and retained his own drafts, which, asusual, no longer survive.

Thus it plausible to suppose that Clara had access to the song man-uscripts in question. And even if she did not see the autographs them-selves, she must have encountered both songs in the versions they pre-serve, complete with the Picardy third at the end of Alte Liebeand thebass clef and unattributed borrowing in Unberwindlich. Brahmss letter

refers to the songs as having been finished immediately before andafter his birthday, May 7; the surviving autographs (dated May 6 andMay 9) were therefore made as soon as the songs were finished, leavingno time for earlier versions that might have been sent to Berlin instead.At the same time, he did not consider altering any of the musical vari-ants preserved in his autographs until several months after he mailedcopies to Stockhausen.40 In sum, documentary evidence shows thatBrahms arranged a special premiere performance of his new songs forClara shortly after completing them and significantly before releasing

them among the rest of his circle; we know which versions of the songshe intended her to hear, and we can examine the manuscripts sheprobably saw. Finally, Brahmss letter to Stockhausen preserves an in-triguing indication of the composers attitude toward his new songs andtheir first audience. To his straightforward request for a performanceof the songs, Brahms added a curious comment: For as you are the

Deutsches Requiemin 1868. This trend is too marked to be blamed simply on chance lossesof later autographs, especially as one would expect their owners to retain more ofBrahmss manuscripts as his fame increased. One explanation might be that the com-posers growing financial independence permitted him to rely more often on profes-sional copyists instead of spending the time to make multiple fair copies himself. Indeed,the appearance and dates of the duplicate autographs which do survive from the 1870ssuggest that Brahms understood the value of his manuscripts and created duplicates de-liberately as formal presents. Many were clearly commemorative gifts, made on decorativepaper for particular occasions long after the music they contained had already been pub-lished; see, for instance, the copies of An ein Veilchen, op. 49/2, and Wiegenlied, op. 49/4,that Brahms prepared for Clara Schumann in September 1872, almost four years afterop. 49 had been published (McCorkle, Werkverzeichnis, 19799).

40 Josef Hausers dated copyists manuscript of Alte Liebeshows that the songs origi-nal Picardy third persisted at least through October 1876. Brahms informed his publisherof his final decisions to rescore Unberwindlichs vocal line in treble clef and to attributeits opening motive to Scarlatti only on 4 May 1877 (Brahms Briefe an Simrock 2: 31 32)


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best to sing them, yet she is the best to hear them.41What did he meanby this?

With regard to Stockhausens voice, Brahms might have intended

his comment to be understood in at least two distinct senses. Read asapplying to the baritones singing in general, the claim acknowledgeshis position among Brahmss friends as the preeminent male singer ofBrahmss songs. By explicitly reminding Stockhausen of the authority ofhis vocal interpretations, Brahms implicitly reinforced the baritonessense of place within their shared social circle.42At the same time, how-ever, Alte Liebeand Unberwindlichseem particularly well suited to Stock-hausens voice, insofar as echoes of that voice remain in music Brahmsclearly intended for it. Take three examples from the 1860s, when

Brahms formed his lasting impression of Stockhausens singing duringfrequent collaborations in Liederrecitals: He composed the baritone so-los in movements 3 and 6 of the Deutsches Requiem(186566) and theorchestral arrangement of Schuberts An Schwager Kronos (1862), in-tending Stockhausen to perform them. All three movements employsimilar overall ranges (Af, B f, and Af) and treat either f or fas a carefully prepared climax; all three avoid prolonged passages be-tween d and f, but demand from a baritone the rare flexibility re-quired to approach these high notes swiftly, both by step and by leap

from the middle register. Unlike any of Brahmss other songs from themid 1870s (the nine Lieder und Gesnge, op. 63, from 187374, andAbendregen, op. 70/4, from 1875), Alte Liebeand Unberwindlichemployvirtually the same ambitus and the same climaxes as our three test cases(their ranges are cf and G f) and require the same agility in theupper tessitura. A man in whose voice the Requiem solos and Schubertarrangement rang true would be an ideal singer for the songs Brahmssent to Stockhausen in May 1876.

Brahms thus seems to have had ample motivation, both personal

and musical, for his comment regarding Stockhausens singing. Whatabout Claras listening? That Brahms respected her opinion of his un-published compositions was certainly no secret among their mutual

41 Brahms/Stockhausen, Briefwechsel, 118: Denn wie Du der Beste zum Singen, istsie doch die Beste zum Hren!

42 This is just one of many overt expressions of admiration preserved in Brahmsscorrespondence with Stockhausen. Conspicuously reinforcing their respect for one an-others talent helped the pair maintain their friendship from its beginnings in 1861, de-

spite distances later created by geographical separation and professional competition (forinstance, the fact that Stockhausen was chosen over Brahms in 1862 to direct the con-certs of the Hamburg Philharmonic; for a concise and balanced description of this cir

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43 Brahms/Schumann, Briefe, 2: 98: Op. 72. 1. Alte Liebe, das war schon eine alteLiebe, oh wie herrlich ist das! . . . Nr. 4 und 5, groe Lieblinge, welch ein Schwung in Nr.4 Verzagen und wie ganz originell das Schlulied [Unberwindlich]. (Das kannte ichauch.)

44 Litzmann, Clara Schumann, 3: 335: Den 28. bei Stockhausen. Brahms hatte ihmzwei wunderbar schne neue Lieder geschickt mit der Bitte, sie der besten Zuhrerin

(mir) vorzusingen. Pressed for time amid her busy concert schedule and hampered bytiredness in her arms and hands, Clara occasionally completed her diary in retrospect,weeks or even months after the events it describes took place Her entries for May 1876

friends. But his formulation also indicates that he might have had musi-cal reasons for considering these songs especially fitting for Clara tohear. Denn wie Du der Beste zum Singen, ist sie doch die Beste zum

Hren: The letters balanced syntax implies that Alte Liebeand Unber-windlich fit Claras ears as precisely as they matched Stockhausensvoice, and the word denn establishes her privileged listening as thereason for Brahmss wish that she hear the songs. He urged Stock-hausen to perform them for her precisely because she was the best lis-tener. Unfortunately, no immediate record of Claras impressions ofthe new songs survives in her correspondence with Brahms, perhaps be-cause his visit in early June gave her swift and ample opportunity todiscuss them in person. When he asked her almost a year later for com-

ments on all the songs he would soon publish in opp. 6972, she re-sponded on 2 May 1877with barely a sentence each of unqualified butvague praise for Alte Liebeand Unberwindlich, explaining in both casesthat she was already familiar with the songs.43 Even her diary entryfrom the day of Stockhausens performance conveys her opinion onlyin the most general terms: The 28th at Stockhausens home. Brahmshad sent him two wonderfully beautiful new songs and asked him tosing them to the best listener (me).44

Nevertheless, while Claras surviving writings reveal little about her

response to Brahmss new songs, her diary entry still preserves a defin-ing aspect of her encounter with them: Whatever Brahms meant byproclaiming Clara the best person to listen, she was aware of his claim.Presumably on the day of the premiere, Stockhausen must have shownher Brahmss letter or told her exactly what he had read there. Fromthe first, then, Claras impression of Alte Liebe and Unberwindlichwaspotentially charged with the awareness that, at least in their case, thecomposer privileged her ear above all others. Thus made conscious ofthe individuality of her own musical mind, attuned to the tendencies

peculiar to her own experience, what did Clara hear when Stockhausensang Brahmss new songs? Alte Liebes piano postlude conceals an in-triguing possibility. Guided back by the final measures of the song into


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musical memories that only Brahms and Clara shared, we may recon-struct a plausible scenario for the reception of Alte Liebe and Unber-windlich in which compositional intent and informed listening drew

together the texts Brahms set, the choices he made in setting them, andthe musical knowledge unique to Claras perspective.

An Old Dream: Echoes of the Capriccio inAlte Liebe

Here is the poem Alte Liebe as it appeared in Brahmss copy ofCarl Candiduss Vermischte Gedichteof 1869,45 along with my translation:

Es kehrt die dunkle Schwalbe The dark swallow returns

Aus fernem Land zurck, Again from far-off lands;Die frommen Strche kehren The pious storks returnUnd bringen neues Glck. And bring new happiness.

An diesem Frhlingsmorgen Upon this springtime morningSo trb verhngt und warm So cloudy, drear, and warmIst mir als fnd ich wieder I feel as if Ive foundDen alten Liebesharm. Loves old grief again.

Es ist als ob mich leise I feel as if somebodyWer auf die Schulter schlug, Had gently touched my shoulder,Als ob ich suseln hrte As if I heard a whisperWie einer Taube Flug. As of a dove in flight.

Es klopft an meine Thre, A knock comes at my door,Und ist doch niemand draus; But no one stands outside;Ich atme Jasmindfte, I breathe the scent of jasmineund habe keinen Strau. But have no flowers here.

Es ruft mir aus der Ferne, A voice calls in the distance,Ein Auge sieht mich an, An eye returns my gaze,Ein alter Traum erfat mich An old dream takes hold of meUnd fhrt mich seine Bahn. And leads me along its path.

To read this poem is to eavesdrop on the emotional workings ofnostalgia. Once apprised of the season and scene surrounding the

45 Candiduss original poem omitted many of the internal and line-end commasthat appear in printed editions of Brahmss setting. I have examined Brahmss copy of theVermischte Gedichte in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna; like the

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poetic speaker, we sink ever deeper into mingled fantasy and reminis-cence. The speaker cannot recover or even fully name the former inti-macy hinted at in the glance of an eye or the call of a familiar voice; yet

once recalled, the past irresistibly reasserts its own patterns of thoughtand emotion. Candiduss brand of nostalgia is inevitable but not conso-latory. Springtimes warm weather and migratory birds initiate theprocess of recollection, but unlike the returning seasons, the speakersold dream is now lost forever. The cognitive dissonance between thespeakers unrecoverable memories and cyclically renewed natural sur-roundings resonates for the reader in the implicitly uneasy relationshipbetween the content of the poem and its title, which parodies a venera-ble and well known proverb, Alte Liebe rostet nicht (literally, old

love never rusts).46 Read in the context of its potential popular conno-tations, the title Alte Liebe may suggest the possibility of reconcilia-tion with the speakers old love; but within the poem itself, love hasalready faded entirely into self-conscious regret. The resulting disjunc-tion between our initially positive expectations for the poem and thehopeless reality we find within its text forces the reader to mimic thespeakers disturbing experience of half-forgotten memories.

Brahmss setting of Candiduss poem creates an analogy in tonesfor the process by which those memories infiltrate and destabilize the

poetic speakers present mood. Against a through-composed structurethat accommodates the affective turns of each poetic stanza, Alte Liebeoverlays strategic repetitions of the singers initial motive. Example 3presents annotated score excerpts of this six-pitch vocal incipit and itsrecurrences throughout the song. Following its initial appearance inmeasures 23 (Ex. 3a), the motive first recurs tentatively, buried in theaccompaniment in measures 1112 (Ex. 3b); it then disappears untilmeasures 3435 and 3839 (Ex. 3c), where it returns to the vocal line,limited now to its first five pitches; it recurs in full six-note form in the

vocal line in measures 4647 (Ex. 3d) and finally in the piano in mea-

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46 By the mid 19th century in German-speaking countries, collections of folkproverbs (Sprichwrter) had become important corollaries of the popular and academicenthusiasm for folk stories and folksongs exemplified by the Grimms Mrchen orBrentanosDes Knaben Wunderhorn. Alte Liebe rostet nicht found a place in nearly allcollections of proverbs, including Karl Simrocks seminal 1846 collection,Die deutschenSprichwrter, vol. 20 ofDie deutschen Volksbcher(Frankfurt am Main: H. L. Brnner, 1846;repr. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1988) and its monumental successor, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm

Wanders Deutsche Sprichwrterlexikon (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 186780). The sayingspopularity is also demonstrated by the fact that many collections contained variants on

its basic form, such as Alte Liebe rostet nicht, und wenn sie zehn Jahr in Schornsteinhinge, which appeared in both Karl Simrocks Sprichwrter, 331 (repr. ed.) and WandersSprichwrterlexikon 3 (1873): 129; Wanders lexicon included six other variants as well


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sures 5557 (Ex. 3e). Taken together, these repetitions allow Alte Liebeto link the gradual reappearance of the vocal incipit in its original formwith the progressive resurgence of the speakers past by engaging the

listeners memory of the songs opening measures at moments carefullyaligned with the speakers various reactions to recollected intimacy.

The first repetition occurs just before the second stanza of the poem,in which the speaker begins to perceive echoes of lost love in naturalphenomena. By rhythmically and texturally obscuring the singersinitial motive, measures 1112 reflect the hesitancy with which thespeaker at first engages the past; by avoiding the vocal line in favor ofthe piano accompaniment, the tentative recurrence of the motive rein-forces our sense that the initial impetus behind the speakers nostalgia

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comes from outside, in some chance configuration of season, climate,and natural surroundings. The next two repetitions (mm. 3435 and3839) parallel the moments in stanza 4 when the speakers reminis-

cences begin to produce sensory impressions that explicitly contradictempirical reality: But no one stands outside/ . . . But have no flowershere. The song reverts suddenly to melodic material, accompanimen-tal textures, and (in mm. 3435) dynamic levels taken directly from thesingers opening measures, but the six-pitch vocal incipit is curtailed tofive pitches in order to accommodate six syllables of text rather thanseven. The abrupt reappearance and subsequent truncation of the mo-tive make its familiar pitches sound out of place at this point in thesong, registering in tones the speakers increasingly agitated realization

that resurgent memories cannot be reconciled with current reality. Inthe closing couplet, the speaker finally acknowledges that the past re-mains emotionally overwhelming despite being unrecoverable: An olddream takes hold of me/ And leads me along its path. At the momentof this pivotal admission, the six-pitch vocal incipit returns at last in full(mm. 4647), complete with its original accompaniment from mea-sures 23.

Carried away from the reader and into private reminiscence, Can-diduss speaker then falls silent and the poem ends, but Brahmss song

accompanies the poets silence with a musical image of the old dreamthe speaker has just reencountered. As the singer ceases in measure 55,the six-pitch motive emerges once more in the accompaniment, liftedmomentarily into the highest register employed in the song by eithervoice or piano. Steady dotted half notes replace the halting rhythmcharacteristic of all five of the vocal incipits previous appearances; theresulting agogic uniformity focuses the listeners attention fully on themotives pitch content and simultaneously establishes a clear distinctionin melodic and harmonic pace between the piano postlude and the rest

of the song. The piano has never before played these six pitches on thebeat, nor has the left hand been reduced to unobtrusive off-beat en-trances. Range, rhythm, and relationship between tune and accompani-ment all transform the motive into a lyrical melody of unprecedentedclarity. Having already heard the motive itself five times, we naturallyapprehend this final, augmented statement of its pitches as retrospec-tively evoking those previous occurrences. Measures 5559 inevitablysound like a redaction of what preceded thema final, distilled recol-lection of the songs most important melodic material. Yet the postludes

exceptional lyricism also tempts us to hear its newly tuneful version ofthe motive as the songs true underlying theme. Indeed, for the space

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to which the song refers, a heretofore elusive musical dream of whichthe motives earlier manifestations were themselves only dim wakingmemories. Heard in the context of those earlier manifestations, the

piano postlude is the goal of a consistent trajectory. From the vocal in-cipits initial appearance, through stages of its partial and then full re-covery, to its final lyric transformation, the song shapes the listenersprogressive experiences of the motive in ways that model the speakersnostalgic turn of mind.

So far I have outlined, in effect, a public hearing of Alte Liebe: an in-terpretation of the relationship between Candiduss text and Brahmsssetting such as might have informed the impressions of any trainedmusician who encountered the song after it was published in 1877.

Whatever personal idiosyncrasies one might bring to the task of listen-ing, Alte Liebeengages in sophisticated and compelling play with musi-cal memory. Indeed, its capacity to establish and then manipulate thehearers apprehension of a specific and seemingly self-contained musi-cal past probably accounted for much of the Brahms circles prepubli-cation enthusiasm for the song, not to mention its subsequent publicpopularity47: The second lithograph in Max Klingers Brahmsphantasieof 1894 is one testament to the songs prominence among aesthetic de-pictions of nostalgia during the years following its release. But in May

1876, for one listener only, Alte Liebecould unlock far older and moreintimate musical memories because its piano postlude incorporatedsalient musical material hitherto unique to the still-unpublished Capric-ciothat Brahms had given Clara Schumann in September 1871.

Although the F -minor Capriccioresists interpretation according toany historically familiar formal outline, its theme is readily identifiable,whether a theme is understood as a scrap of music one can rememberand hum to oneself later on, a polyphonic complex whose recurrencesare aligned in a works structure with moments of re-beginning, or a

melodic and rhythmic profile that remains recognizable despite compo-sitional manipulations such as fragmentation or inversion. The Capric-cios theme begins after an emphatic introductory half cadence, when acontinuous melody separates itself from the hitherto relentlessly ho-mogenous texture and, for the first time, relegates the works prevailing16th-note figuration to an unambiguously accompanimental role. Thismelody traces a slow, circuitous ascent from scale degree 5 to scale

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47 The songs motivic organization is evidently compelling in its own right, even in-dependent of Candiduss text; Michael Musgrave describes Alte Liebeas a paradigmatic ex-ample of Brahmss instrumental type of song composition (in contrast to the declama


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degree 9, then accelerates while dropping precipitously toward scaledegree 3 (Ex. 4 includes a reproduction on the upper right). Literal,transposed, and inverted repetitions of the first four pitches (scale de-

grees 5 6 8 7) pervade the entire Capriccio, especially at structurally piv-otal moments: transitions to and from fragmentary or developmentaltextures, sudden disappearances and reappearances of 16th-note figu-ration, and the final return to the tonic key (shown on the lower left ofEx. 4).

The Capriccios theme is also the locus of Brahmss private allusionin Alte Liebe. From May 1876 until July 1878, only he and Clara couldhave recognized that the melody of the theme and the recurrent vocalincipit of the song are virtually identical. Both begin by tracing scale de-

grees 5 6 8 7 9; both treat scale degree 9 as the apex of their melodicspan and follow it with a downward leap. Not all of the songs presenta-tions of this melodic material are equally evocative of the Capricciostheme. In contrast to earlier occurrences of the vocal incipit, the lyricalversion in the piano postlude supplements identical scale degree con-tent with familiar rhythmic and registral strategies: It places the tune inthe same octave as the main theme of the piano piece and presentsmelodic pitches on successive downbeats and upbeats in a compoundduple framework, just as they always appear in the Capriccio. The center

of Example 4 reproduces Alte Liebes postlude, and the remainder of thefigure illustrates its most salient parallels with Claras piano piece (inthe manuscript version with which she was familiar in 1876). On theupper right is the primary occurrence of the Capriccios theme, startingin measure 13. Aside from a semitone transposition and an aurally im-perceptible metric shift from

68 to

64, the first five notes of its melody are

the same as those of the postludes tune.Yet despite all these resemblances, the postlude does not constitute

a straightforward quotation from measures 1315 of the Capriccio. In-

stead, it accompanies its melodic reference with polyphonic complexesand harmonic characteristics taken from three other specific momentsin the piano piece. First, the postlude doubles its melody an octave be-low and places a third voice in the middle, as does the Capriccios finalreturn to a tonic pedal in measure 65, shown on the lower left of Exam-ple 4; the tonic pedal itself also reappears in the bottom pitches of thepostludes left hand. Second, the register and spacing of the pianistshands in the first measure of the postlude duplicate precisely thosecharacteristics of the Capriccios opening flourish, as illustrated on the

upper left of Example 4. The right hands rootless arpeggio becomes arootless simultaneity, while the restless, fifth-less figuration in the left


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of special interest. Heard in relation to the Capriccio, the major triadpreserved in the surviving autograph resonates strongly. Not only doesthe piano piece also end with a major triad, as reproduced on the bot-

tom right of Example 4, but the major tonic displaces its minor doublethroughout the last 15 measures of the Capriccio, inflecting the worksmesmerizing conclusion with the affective ambiguity of modal mixture.For an ear steeped in the Capriccio, the final sonority in the version ofAlte Liebe that Clara first encountered efficiently evokes the harmoniclandscape in which the piano piece slowly comes to rest.

In addition to recalling the Capriccios theme, then, the last fivemeasures of Alte Liebeconflate aurally identifiable moments and inter-pretively salient materials that together span the length of the piano

piece, from first measure to last. As one might summarize a long con-versation, the postlude encapsulates the essence of Claras manuscriptgift rather than literally quoting any single phrase. The resulting con-fluence of musical references is too powerful and too specific to haveoccurred by chance. Brahms must have woven these echoes of theCapriccio into the postlude deliberately, knowing where his new songmight lead the mind of a musician intimately familiar with his old pi-ano piece, and knowing one listener whose mind was equipped to fol-low where it led. This hypothesis provides a detailed and plausible ex-

planation for Brahmss actionshis compositional decision-making inAlte Liebe, his efforts to arrange a timely performance especially forClara, and his statement proclaiming her the songs best listenerinsofar as those actions can be traced through the music and docu-ments he left behind. But what motivated his actions? Let us explorehow Clara might have experienced the music and text of Alte Liebe. Re-constructing what it would have meant for her to recognize the songsallusion to her Capricciowill help reveal why Brahms used musical mem-ories only she shared as compositional inspiration for the setting of

Candiduss text.

Imagining Claras Encounter withAlte Liebe

At the very least, hearing echoes of music from nearly five years ear-lier in Brahmss new song would have enhanced Claras experience ofhis text-setting. For any other audience, Alte Liebes strategic repetitionsof the vocal incipit might have constituted a persuasive musical repre-sentation of long-term recollection. But for her, the piano postludes

basis in preexistent thematic material could insinuate the act of long-term recollection itself into the apprehension and understanding of

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for Clara a uniquely compelling connection between words and music.By the same token, her prior memories of the Capriccio undoubtedlycolored Claras reception of Alte Liebe in ways that will never be recov-

ered unless new evidence surfaces regarding her original impressionsof the manuscript gift or the circumstances of its presentation. For in-stance, taking a cue from her stated admiration for the peculiar blendof tenderness and melancholy that she had found in the Capriccio, onemight wonder if its evocation in Alte Liebemade the song sound morespecifically bittersweet than either Candiduss poem or Brahmss settingcould imply on its own terms.

Even leaving aside prior emotional connotations, however, recog-nizing the Capriccios theme in Alte Liebes postlude would have ren-

dered Claras encounter with the song a highly personal experience,for two reasons. First, realizing that Brahms had borrowed musical ma-terial known to her alone would have made Alte Liebe seem designedfor her ears only, lending the song the quality of a private utteranceand urging her to interpret Brahmss intentions in personal as well asaesthetic terms. Such a situation was clearly extraordinary. Althoughshe and the composer were famously close, there is no reason to believethat Clara examined each of Brahmss new works for traces of privatesignification;48 yet Alte Liebes piano postlude would have all but com-

pelled her to do so, especially given her awareness that he had charac-terized her as the songs best listener. Second, the Capriccioresurfacesjust where the postlude presents a musical image of the poetic speakersold dream. By conjuring up her private musical past as the implicitobject of the poems nostalgia, Alte Liebepermitted Clara to participatevicariously in the speakers unexpected encounter with neglected mem-ories. Brahmss compositional choices thus allowed and perhaps en-couraged her to imagine herself as the poems disquieted protagonistrather than as a detached reader.

In combination, then, the intimacy of Brahmss allusion and itsalignment with Candiduss text facilitated for Clara a particular way ofinteracting with vocal music, a perspective peculiarly attuned to thedual possibilities of private significance and empathetic identification

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48 One exception was the Alto Rhapsody, op. 53, which Brahms showed to Clara inlate September 1869 as an implicit response to her daughter Julies marriage on Septem-ber 22. Goethes misanthropic protagonist bears a clear resemblance to the self-imageBrahms presented to the Schumann family in the wake of Julies betrothal, and his mu-

sics stark projection of its text moved Clara deeply (see Litzmann, Clara Schumann, 3:22930 and 232; Malcolm MacDonald describes the situation succinctly in Brahms(Ox-ford: Oxford Univ Press 2001) 139 40) In this case however it was primarily the text


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with the poetic speaker. Both the act of the performing Alte Liebeandthe broader musical context in which Clara first encountered the songwould have reinforced this interpretive perspective. So far we have con-

sidered her response to Brahmss music as a purely aural phenomenon,but surely the best pianist in the room on 28 May 1876was not contentsimply to listen. One assumes she would rather have been at her instru-ment, accompanying Stockhausens premiere of Brahmss new songs.In any case, a letter from the following spring shows that she later en-joyed playing the songs herself and even sang them to her own accom-paniment if no other singer was available.49 Keeping in mind the kindsof physical engagement she brought to bear in assessing Brahmssrevised Capriccio of 1878, how would playing Alte Liebe have affected

Claras experience of Brahmss compositional choices?Most obviously, the reference to the Capriccio occurs just as the

singer falls silent and accompaniment becomes solo postlude. In themidst of performance, the songs textural organization focuses the pi-anists ear fully on her own music-making precisely when Clara wouldhave needed to listen and establishes the piano as the primary mediumthrough which the Capriccioenters the song. However Clara was meantto understand Brahmss allusive gesture, excluding the singer from itsproduction could have helped underscore its intimacy by confining her

private musical material to her instrument alone. But there is a compli-cation: Alte Liebeand the Capriccioare separated by the gap of a semi-tone. Although such a change in key is barely perceptible to the ear(unless one has absolute pitch or hears the two works in close succes-sion), it forces a pianists hands into entirely new positions on the key-board. For every note of the Capriccios primary melody, the songspostlude inverts the relationship between white and black keys. Insofaras Clara identified the source from which Brahms borrowed his pianopostlude in Alte Liebe, her fingers could also interfere with the full re-

covery of her musical memories, making the Capriccios theme feelstrange just as it began to sound familiar. This built-in dissonance be-tween aural and kinesthetic recollection could have instantiated forClara the temporal distance that ultimately renders Candiduss olddream unrecoverable, adding a uniquely visceral impact to her identifi-cation with the poetic speaker. The very act of playing her instrumentopened up a new and powerful way to experience firsthand the tempo-ral disjunction inherent in the poems disquieting nostalgia.

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49 Brahms/Schumann, Briefe, 2: 96: Ich habe dieser Tage viel daran [with the songsin opp 69 72 including Alte Liebe and Unberwindlich] zugebracht htte ich nur gleich


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Claras perspective on Alte Liebemay also have depended upon itspairing with Unberwindlich, the second song Brahms urged Stock-hausen to sing for her. Here is Goethes text as Brahms set it on 9 May

1876,50 along with my translation:

Hab ich tausendmal geschworen I must have sworn a thousandtimes

Dieser Flasche nicht zu trauen, Never again to trust that bottle;Bin ich doch wie neu geboren, Still its like Im born anewLt mein Schenke fern sie schauen. When my innkeeper lets me see it.Alles ist an ihr zu loben, Everything about it beckons,Glaskrystall und Purpurwein; Crystal glass and purple wine;

Wird der Propf herausgehoben, Once the corks been popped, thebottles

Sie ist leer und ich nicht mein. Empty, and Im not myself.Hab ich tausendmal geschworen, I must have sworn a thousand

timesDieser Falschen nicht zu trauen, Never to trust that lying woman,Und doch bin ich neu geboren, And yet Im still born anewLt sie sich ins Auge schauen. When she lets my eye meet hers.Mag sie doch mit mir verfahren, Even if she treats me falsely

Wies dem strksten Mann geschah. As befell the strongest man:Deine Scheer in meinen Haaren, Put your scissors in my hair,Allerliebste Delila! My beloved Delilah!

Like Candiduss poetic speaker, Goethes protagonist finds himself irre-sistibly reminded of an old romantic attachment, but the circumstancesof that attachment and his attitude toward it are entirely different.Rather than listening to the beating pinions of imaginary doves, heorders another drink; instead of coyly confiding delicate memories of

unrecoverable love, he roguishly submits to repeated seductions by afaithless lover. Brahmss settings of the two poems project opposite ex-tremes with regard to nearly every compositional parameter, divergingmarkedly in mode, meter, tempo, affect, and overall form. To Stock-hausen (or to us) they probably seemed charmingly unrelatedtwo in-dependent and distinctive lyrical utterances paired by chronologicalhappenstance.

For Clara, however, a single shared compositional procedure couldbring Brahmss new songs into close interpretive proximity: Like Alte

Liebe, Unberwindlichborrows musical material from a solo piano piece,

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in this case a keyboard sonata in D major by Domenico Scarlatti, K.223. As described above, Brahms eventually labeled this allusion explic-itly when he published Unberwindlich, but the version Clara first en-

countered leaves the borrowed material unacknowledged. AlthoughClara performed many of Scarlattis works during solo recitals through-out her career, no mention of this particular sonata survives in her ex-tant correspondence or diary entries, and no copy of the piece remainsamong the remnants of the Schumann library.51 It is therefore impossi-ble to determine for certain whether she could have recognized Brahmssreference, and whatever private associations the work might have car-ried for her are now lost. Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that Brahmsmeant Clara to perceive the allusion in Unberwindlichat least as easily

as that inscribed in Alte Liebe. Having constructed two new compositionsaround allusions to works for solo piano, sent both to the same woman,and referred to her as their best listener, he surely expected her torecognize what he had done. Even if she missed his point at first, hisbracketed attribution in the published version of Unberwindlich soonensured that any literate musician would notice his borrowing andidentify its source.

Once Clara perceived the central compositional technique the twosongs shared, she might have heard them as an intimately related and

deliberately complementary pair. This is not to deny the important dif-ferences between the two allusions. Instead of emerging near the endthrough a sublimated amalgam of musical references, the head motiveof Scarlattis sonata cheerfully commandeers the opening measures ofUnberwindlichwith a texturally enhanced but nearly literal quotation.Examples 5a and 5b compare the songs piano introduction with thebeginning of the sonata in the edition Brahms knew.52Yet even though

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51 Consistently programming a short piece by Bach or Scarlatti as a concert opener

was one of many ways in which Clara decisively influenced the emerging spectacle of thepublic piano recital in the mid 19th century; see Nancy B. Reich, Clara Schumann: TheArtist and the Woman, rev. ed. (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 2001), 25557. Unfortunately,contemporary concert reviewers rarely recorded even the key or tempo marking of theScarlatti sonatas that Clara played. The most accurate and comprehensive account ofClaras concerts and performing repertoire is found in Claudia de Vries, Die PianistinClara Wieck-Schumann: Interpretation im Spannungsfeld von Tradition und Individualitt(Schumann-Forschungen V), ed. Akio Meyer and Klaus Wolfgang Niemller, through theRobert-Schumann-Gesellschaft, Dsseldorf (Mainz: Schott Musik International, 1996),34777. I am grateful to Dr. Thomas Synofzik, Director of the Robert-Schumann-Haus inZwickau, for information regarding Scarlatti-related materials formerly in the Schumannlibrary.

52 The placement of the trill in Brahmss quotation and the lack of alternativeprinted sources for K. 223 in the 19th century confirm that he knew the sonata from CarlCzernys edition Smmtliche Werke fr das Piano Forte von Dominic Scarlatti (Vienna: Tobias


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the two references occur at opposite ends of their respective songs,Brahms incorporated them into their new contexts in fundamentallysimilar ways. Scarlattis melody vanishes from the songs motivic surfacesoon after the piano introduction, only to return triumphantly in thevoice to set lines 7 and 15 of the text, where Goethes speaker finally

gives in to the dual temptations of wine and lovemaking. In other words,both songs align recurrences of borrowed melodies with the resurgenceof old feelings. In light of this fundamental similarity, Brahmss contrast-ing choices of borrowed material and divergent methods of large-scale

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copy of the edition. Robert Schumann had reviewed the edition himself when it firstappeared in 1839 (see the Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik, 10/39: 15354); we might reasonablyassume that he had kept a copy, although no record of such a volume survives today.Brahmss quotation of K. 223 in a song intended for Clara would have seemed particu-larly appropriate if he had initially found the sonata in her library. For more on Unber-windlichs allusion to K. 223 and Brahmss copy of Czernys Scarlatti edition, see JoelLeonard Sheveloff, The Keyboard Music of Domenico Scarlatti: A Re-Evaluation of thePresent State of Knowledge in the Light of the Sources (Ph D diss Brandeis Univ

example 5.

a. Unberwindlich, published version, piano introduction

b. Scarlatti, K. 223, Czernys edition, opening measures

ll[

ll

ll

ll

bb

ll

ll

ll

ll

ll

ll

bll

ll

l

l

l

l

!Vivace

D. Scarlatti

Hab ich

[

! `

Allegro vivace.


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musical organization can be understood to register the contrasting ori-gins of those old feelings and the divergent emotional responses theyelicit from the two poetic speakers. Obvious and immediate quotation

of Scarlattis melody parallels Goethes cavalier attitude toward past ex-perience, whereas the subtle and delayed return of the Capriccioin AlteLiebeunderscores Candiduss comparatively bashful stance.

By sending both songs at once, Brahms encouraged Clara to recog-nize their shared allusive strategy and to interpret their differing sur-faces as opposite sides of a coin: one public and self-mockingly humor-ous, the other private and melancholically nostalgic. In turn, perceivingthe pair as complementary counterparts might have added a gender-specific dimension to her imagined identification with Alte Liebes pro-

tagonist. Unlike Candiduss poetic speaker, Goethes is characterizedunambiguously as a man, both by the explicitly feminine pronouns thatdescribe his seducer and by his self-proclaimed association with Samsonin the poems final stanza. In the version of Unberwindlich that Clarafirst encountered in May 1876, the musical setting reinforces thespeakers masculinity by scoring the vocal line in bass clef. Brahmss de-cision carried special weight. Although he had already published morethan 120 solo songs, many of them appropriate for baritone or bassvoices, Unberwindlichwas the first for which even a draft survives that

employs a clef other than treble.53 Once Clara recognized Brahmssnew songs as a contrasting but integrally related pair, his choice of textand vocal clef in Unberwindlich might have encouraged her to placethe two members of that pair on opposite sides of a prevailing genderbinarythat is, to imagine the speaker in Alte Liebeas a woman, an in-trospective female alternative to the brash male protagonist of Unber-windlich. Such imagining would have opened new ways for Clara to em-pathize with the perspective of Candiduss speaker.

Brahmss Private Allusion: Motivations and ImplicationsGender-based identification with the poetic speaker in Alte Liebewas

yet another level of engagement that Brahms seems to have reservedfor the songs best listener alone. By the time the Capriccio began tocirculate (potentially allowing others to notice the shared allusive proce-dure that bound the two songs together), Brahms had already changedUnberwindlichs vocal clef, undermining the musically heightened mas-

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53 For instance, see Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen, Ich schleich umher, and Der Strom, der

neben mir verrauschte, op. 32/24;Die Mainacht, op. 43/2; Sonntag, op. 47/3; andDer Gangzum Liebchen,Der berlufer, and Herbstgefhl, op. 48/1, 2, and 6. Brahms even avoided us-ing the bass clef in Dmmrung senkte sich von oben op 59/1 whose vocal line spans G to e


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culinity that had marked the song as an explicitly male counterpart toAlte Liebe in its manuscript version. For Clara, however, the implicitlygendered contrast with Unberwindlichwould have reinforced the same

interpretive stance that Alte Liebealready facilitated on its own. The mu-sical structure of the song, the physical articulation of that structureduring the act of performance, and the broader musical context inwhich she first encountered Alte Liebeall encouraged her to search forpersonal significance in Brahmss compositional decision-making and,simultaneously, to identify empathetically with Candiduss poeticspeaker. Why would Brahms have wanted Clara to adopt such an inter-pretive perspective toward his new song? What intentions did he meanher to perceive beneath his setting of Candiduss text?

How Clara actually understood Alte Liebe will always remain amystery; she may never even have noticed the allusion to her Capriccio.Nevertheless, we have reviewed overwhelming documentary and music-analytic evidence indicating that the song incorporated a deliberate at-tempt to reawaken in her mind a particular musical memory and use itto manipulate her methods of listening. Whether or not that attemptactually succeeded, its potential effects upon her are revealing in them-selves. When those aspects of Alte Liebeor its initial performance contextin which we have identified traces of Brahmss conscious decision-

making seem likely to have elicited a powerful and consistent interpreta-tion from a listener with Claras memories and manner of interactingwith keyboard music, we may plausibly argue that Brahms meant toelicit a similar interpretation from Clara herself. Reconstructing howshe might have reacted to the song on 28 May 1876 can thereforedeepen our understanding of Brahmss compositional choices and thepersonal motivations that guided them.

Indeed, some of the tendencies already uncovered by consideringClaras reception of Alte Liebewarrant further study elsewhere among

Brahmss songs and chamber music. Imagining how the Capriccios themefelt in Claras hands when transposed by semitone yields circumstantialevidence of a rich phenomenological dimension to Brahmss musicalpoetics.54 Recognizing the physical effects of half-step transposition inAlte Liebealerts us to the use of the same technique as an analogue fortextual images of temporal or physical disjunction in other songs, aswell as to the potential hermeneutic importance of such transpositions

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54 That Brahms himself was sensitive to the inherent relationship of particular musi-cal material to the key in which it was originally composed is documented in Kalbeck,

Brahms, 3: 44243. For more on the role of half-step transposition in Brahmss compo-sitional approach to chamber music, see Margaret Notley, Brahmss Cello Sonata inF major and Its Genesis: A Study in Half Step Relations Brahms Studies (ed Brodbeck) 1:


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55 The hidden compositional similarities between Alte Liebe and Unberwindlichmight provide a new way of accounting for Brahmss decision-making with respect toopuses and ordering in his song publications of 1877 The public presentation of these

in instrumental music. Similarly, asking how the presence of borrowedmaterial might have affected Claras perception of the relationshipbetween Alte Liebeand Unberwindlich sets into relief the poetic subject

matter and compositional approaches that the two songs share. Thisline of inquiry not only opens up new directions for the analysis ofthese two songs55 but also calls attention to underlying congruences incompositional method among other works that Brahms circulated inpairs or groups prior to their publication. Even the mere precedent ofAlte Liebes private allusion is illuminating: Alongside the publicly acces-sible and historically oriented referential gestures so often cited inBrahmss symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas, this study hasdemonstrated how, in the more intimate genre of the Lied, allusive pro-

cedures could give one listener exclusive access to a particular interpre-tive perspective on a new composition. That Brahms unquestionablydesigned at least some aspects of a song for Claras ears alone encour-ages us to search his vocal and chamber works for evidence of othercompositional decisions that might have carried special significance forselect members of his circle.

At the same time, the complex interrelationship between Brahmssmusic and Claras interpretive perspective on Alte Liebecautions againsttreating further examples in a cursory fashion. Amid the recent prolif-

eration of research on allusion in 19th-century music, the most impor-tant contribution of this case study is its grounding in a particular his-torical moment. I have approached Brahmss allusion to the Capriccionot simply as a feature of his song, but as a function of that songseffect upon the mind of its intended listener in May 1876. Such an ap-proach is often infeasible or even inappropriate: Determining howspecific historical listeners might have understood particular musicalworks requires substantial evidence of those listeners prior musical ex-periences and modes of musical apprehension, and some of Brahmss

referential gestures were clearly designed to be grasped by a generalaudience rather than by specific members of his circle. But given suffi-cient musical and documentary evidence, investigating the private re-ception of allusions like Alte Liebes can help untangle the hiddenthreads of compositional intent and informed listening that woveBrahmss songs and small-scale chamber music into the fabric of hisinterpersonal relationships.


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In the case of Alte Liebeitself, the deliberate privacy of the allusionand the subject matter of Candiduss text make it tempting to evaluateBrahmss song against the backdrop of his early relationship with Clara.

The idea almost certainly occurred to Clara herself when she first en-countered the song. After all, Brahms had used the Capriccio, a workcomposed explicitly and exclusively for her, as his musical image forCandiduss dream of old love. By presenting echoes from her secretpiano piece as nostalgic memories of an irrevocably lost romantic at-tachment, Alte Liebeestablished a metonymic equation that encouragedher to imagine herself as the poems absent beloved and, in turn, toalign Brahms with the solitary poetic speaker who cannot escape hismemories of her. Moreover, Clara was well aware that Brahms had writ-

ten Alte Liebe in early May, either because she encountered the datedmanuscript currently in the Beinecke Library or through contact withthe letter he had sent to Stockhausen, which dates Brahmss newsongs to immediately before and after my birthday and from whichshe quoted a passage in her diary entry for May 28. Knowing the songsdate equipped her to perceive a connection between the season inwhich Brahms drew memories of the Capriccio into the making of newmusic and the returning springtime by which the speaker is remindedof his past and spurred to poetic utterance. The timing of Alte Liebes

composition could therefore help her to perceive Brahms as furtheraligning himself with the poetic speakers nostalgic perspective.

Put together, the songs date and the origins of its borrowed mater-ial would have made it difficult for Clara to avoid interpreting the textof Alte Liebeas retrospectively addressing the composers old feelings forher. On the other hand, every comp

Old- Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann`, And the Poetics of Musical Memory

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