Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

Following the guidelines of HMA the music will now be described from four
perspectives. The first perspective is a phenomenological description of the music and
some conclusions concerning the image potential of the piece.
Table 8. 1 Phenomenological description of the Brahms movement
PHENOMENOLOGICAL MUSIC DESCRIPTION
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto D major, 2nd movement (in F major)
SHORT VERSION (Long version can be seen in Appendix 8.8):
A long oboe cantilena unfolds with stable woodwind accompaniment. The melody is
simple, based on the three notes in the tonic major chord [a-f-c, often echoed by other
instruments, before the melody continues], yet sophisticated: phrases may be
prolonged or sequenced in an unpredictable, yet pleasant way. The slow adagio tempo
makes it easy to follow both the core melody and the accompaniment. This is very
safe – the only hint at tension and chromaticism is found in a) the transition bars
between the melodic phrases, where bass and treble marks the dominant function in
chromatic as/descending, b) the use of small crescendo-decrescendos.
The entry of the solo violin and the strings (prepared by two string bars of tonic and
dominant) is a beautiful restatement of the melody, with fresh echoes of the melodic
core motif in woodwinds, however this section quite fast (already shortly after the
beginning of 2nd statement in F) takes the listener into new realms: the key changes
suddenly to the remote G flat/F sharp not immediately identifiable as major or minor;
the mood changes correspondingly (from mood wheel category 3/4 to 7), and the
melodic line of the solo violin (even if the core motif is based on the ’innocent’ motif
cell of bar 10) turns longing and plaintive, with many seufzers (a falling semi-tone
interval). This is intensified by an octave rise in the solo violin, by an unexpected
fermata, by the many rather dramatic crescendos and the short melodic-harmonic
sequences mowing upwards. The music is no longer stable and predictable, but
ambiguous and filled with chromaticism and other musical surprises. Also the tempo
rises, until a calando brings the movement back to adagio and the tonic F major.
When the oboe sings the well-known pastorale theme the violin joins in with soft,
eloquent embellishments of the melodic line. Diatonic and chromatic melodic
movements are integrated on the firm harmonic basis of F major. The violin restates
the core motif and through a series of small variations/sequences the movement is
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