Unlike so many other composers, Brahms took his time creating his first symphony: he was 43 years old at the time of its premiere. Certainly Brahms had the ability to create a successful orchestral work early on, as evidenced by the two delightful serenades that he composed between 1857 and 1859, but these exercises that looked back to Haydn and Mozart were not what Brahms had in mind for a symphony: Beethoven's shadow hung over his head. Brahms was compelled to create something that could stand alongside the great masterpieces of his predecessor and this took time.

When he was 21, Brahms had heard a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and it spurred him to begin sketching his own ambitious symphony in D minor. These attempts proved unsatisfactory and the first two movements eventually became part of Brahms' first piano concerto, while another found its way into A German Requiem. Beethoven's Ninth would eventually inform Brahms' conception of his own first symphony, but so would Beethoven's Fifth, especially in the choice of key, C minor.

Brahms' opening movement was originally to have begun at the point where the orchestra now launches into the Allegro tempo — in fact, the composer sent a piano score of the movement to Clara Schumann in this form — but he later added a slow introduction that establishes several of the movement's important themes; this opening is then recalled — not quite as slowly — in the first movement's coda. For the most part, Brahms follows traditional sonata-allegro form, but offers up some surprises as well: ordinarily a C minor first theme would give way to an E-flat major second theme-it does, but then a violent E-flat minor episode follows, creating a shocking shift of the harmonic gears at the repeat of the exposition.

Following a technique he learned from Beethoven, the slow second movement is in E major, harmonically far removed from the C minor of the opening. These keys are at an interval of a major third and Brahms follows this plan throughout the rest of the work, moving up another major third to A-flat major for the third movement and then to C minor/major for the finale.

Brahms diverged from Beethoven's symphonic model in one important way: in place of Beethoven's quicksilver scherzos, Brahms preferred a more relaxed third movement, often in 2/4 time instead of the traditional faster 3/4.

The introduction to the final movement opens slowly and in C minor: following a descending figure from low strings and contrabassoon the first violins hint at a melody that will soon take on great importance; a pizzicato episode follows and the tempo accelerates, then suddenly relapses as these two ideas are repeated. A syncopated rhythm, swirling from the depths of the orchestra creates great urgency — then the clouds part and a magnificent horn solo signals the arrival of C major. (Brahms had sketched this horn melody on a birthday card to Clara Schumann several years before, attaching the message "High on the mountain, deep on the valley, I send you many thousands of greetings.") Next comes a chorale stated by trombones and bassoons, after which the horn call is reprised, but now developed much more elaborately, subsiding to a simple dominant chord — how will it resolve?

Brahms here introduces his "big tune," the melody hinted at by the violins at the opening of the movement, now stated in full. (When someone pointed out to the composer the resemblance of this tune to the "Ode to Joy" melody of Beethoven's Ninth, Brahms is said to have responded, "Any ass can hear that.") The violin theme is developed and alternated with other material from the slow introduction, building in fervor. Eventually, the bottom seems to drop out and the tempo slackens for a passionate reprisal of the Alpine horn call. A recapitulation section follows, but the "big tune" it absent. This leads to a faster coda, which seems intent on driving the movement to its conclusion, but Brahms interrupts with a fortissimo restatement of the trombone chorale from the introduction. A new syncopated triplet rhythm returns the coda to its faster pace and leads to the symphony's triumphant conclusion.

© 2003 Jeff Eldridge