The Songs of Johannes Brahms Review

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(More customer reviews)If you're a devotee of the solo Gesänge und Lieder of Johannes Brahms, you will find this book very valuable indeed.
The author analyzes 212 of Brahms's songs - all 196 that Brahms published in opus-numbered sets, the eight resettings of Op. 103 Zieguenerlieder quartets for solo voice, and eight works without opus numbers. Not included are any of the many Deutsche Volkslieder set by Brahms.
For each song, the author provides the German text and a prose English translation. The translations are especially well done; by doing them in prose, the author is able to more faithfully render the meaning of the German than would be the case were the translation to be restricted by the requirements of English rhyme and meter.
Each translation is followed by a non-technical discussion of the song, generally in one or two paragraphs but occasionally longer. These describe the musical structure of the song and the methods that Brahms used to convey his meaning; occasionally there is also a brief bit of background on the circumstances of the song's composition.
For each song, there then follow a more technical notes section, in which the author identifies the source of the text, identifies recurring motifs that Brahms used in his songs (an introductory chapter describes these motifs), references other settings of the same text by other composers, and sometimes describes early reactions to the song by Brahms's friends or fellow musicians.
The analyses illustrate the author's deep understanding of this marvelous literature and have greatly enhanced both my knowledge and appreciation of this superb body of work. The principal omission, and the reason I rate the book only four stars, is the complete absence of musical quotations - except for a few in the introductory "Motifs" chapter - in spite of the fact that in his analyses, the author often refers to specific measures by number. To fully appreciate the author's insights, therefore, you will need access to scores. (Fortunately, Dover publishes a very affordable four-volume set of the complete Brahms songs, available from Amazon.)

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In this highly anticipated book, Eric Sams examines each of Johannes Brahms's 213 songs, translates the texts into English, and provides original commentary on points of musicology and literary detail. Sams here reveals for the first time the full extent of the poetry, fantasy, and humour of the composer's work. After an introduction to Brahms as a song-writer and to his use of motifs, the book offers a complete song-by-song analysis and will serve as an invaluable companion for students, performers, and listeners alike. Sams demonstrates how Brahms built a verbal expressiveness from his unsurpassed devotion to musicianship and musicology. Songs were among Brahms's first and last works, and much of his music is associated with words, whether overt texts or covert allusions. Essential to the composer's method of song-writing was a harmony between musical form and poetic text. Sams underscores the use of motifs at the core of Brahms's song-music. He argues that it is not so much with words that Brahms sings to us, but with the very music itself. Brahms became the innovator of an all-pervasive new language in which musical form became a medium for poetic dialogue.

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