20-21 Program

of the mildly dissonant duets could stand by itself. The final section is actually
the most consonant because its fuller texture creates greater harmonic
stability.
Movement two, TSIAJ (“This Scherzo Is A Joke”), is a tongue-in-cheek
musical mosaic containing distorted fragments of American folk melodies,
hymns, fraternity ditties, and campus songs. It recalls “games and antics by the
students...on a Holiday afternoon; and some of the tunes and songs of those
days were... suggested in this movement, sometimes in a rough way.” Song
fragments, sometimes in different keys, are layered over each other—a polytonal
recipe for jarring dissonance—but the melodies are so straightforward
and tuneful that the listener recognizes each as a consonant, free-standing
unit. Clashing harmonies clarify rather than destabilize each melody. Only
Charles Ives was thinking and writing with this type of melodic/harmonic
invention at this time.
“The last movement was partly a remembrance of a Sunday Service on
the Campus...which ended near the ‘Rock of Ages’.” A jagged introduction
gives way to a rhapsodic melody that establishes the movement’s restrained
tone and the work ends in reflection, with the cello intoning Thomas Hastings’
“Rock of Ages.”
Piano Quartet in g minor, Opus 25
By the middle of the nineteenth century concerts were being presented
in large venues requiring greater sound and scope. Adapting to these
circumstances, between 1856 and 1861 the young Brahms created his
four-movement, symphonic-scale Piano Quartet in g minor, Opus 25. This
multifaceted work has memorable melodies, a wide range of moods, concise
reasoning balanced with broad swaths of sound, and high-spirited folkdancing.
In the sonata-form first movement there are multiple exposition themes
and digressions while in the recapitulation themes return out of order. There
is, however, a unifying motive—heard in the first measure. This rising/falling
figure is the seed from which the movement grows. Focusing on its myriad
treatments is one of the satisfactions of listening to this intellectually rigorous
and complex movement.
The c-minor Intermezzo is a light interlude after the monumental first
movement. In ternary form, it begins with bubbling triplets accompanying two
themes, the first light and diaphanous, the second more biting. The Trio picks
up speed and lightens the atmosphere. Movement three is a song that churns
along in a spirit of affirmation and self-confidence. By its conclusion, unresolved
questions from the opening movements are answered or overwhelmed by
waves of sonic opulence, clearing the stage for the concluding Presto, the
shortest and most famous movement of the quartet.
Brahms’ Rondo alla Zingarese (“Rondo in the Gypsy style”) finale is a
tour-de-force of rhythmic and melodic exuberance. The sectional form is a
perfect set-piece vehicle for juxtaposing colorful, dramatic, and contrasting
episodes. Rustic, evocative touches are found in the grandeur and pathos
of the slow episodes while piano textures evoke the sound of the Central-
Eastern European cimbalom. Brahms craftily ratchets up increasing bits of
momentum, hurtling the music to a virtuosic conclusion.
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