Brahms: Symphony No. 1

by David Lee Brodbeck , General editor Julian Rushton

• ISBN13: 9780521474320
• ISBN10: 0521474329
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-01-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Brahms' First Symphony has been hailed as Beethoven's Tenth. Its controversial status and relationship in the Beethovenian tradition is considered alongside other important issues in the early reception history of this key work in the symphonic repertory. David Brodbeck begins with an account of the lengthy genesis and complicated background to the writing of the symphony, before providing a thorough critical reading of the work, movement by movement. In particular, the author reveals a dense web of extra-compositional allusions - references in the music to works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Robert Schumann - in which, the author argues, much meaning resides.

Table of Contents

List of plates	viii	(1)
Preface	ix
1 Frustrated efforts	1	(15)
First attempts	2	(4)
Contexts for the opening Allegro	6	(3)
"Symphony by J.B.?"	9	(2)
In limbo	11	(5)
2 Completion, First performance, and publication	16	(15)
Renewal of work and completion of the Whole	17	(2)
Pre-publication performances	19	(9)
Later revisions and publication	28	(3)
3 Structure and meaning in the first movement	31	(20)
4 The middle movements	51	(12)
Second movements	51	(7)
Third movement	58	(5)
5 Structure and meaning in the last movement	63	(16)
6 Early reception	79	(12)
Some early reactions	80	(4)
The "Tenth Symphony"	84	(3)
Wagner's Brahms	87	(4)
Appendix	91	(3)
Notes	94	(16)
Select bibliography	110	(2)
Index	112