Pieces › Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

I. Un poco sostenuto – Allegro

Johannes Brahms · 1855–76 · C minor · 513 bars · 538 chords analysed

Twenty-one years in the making. The finale's big tune so resembles the “Ode to Joy” that conductor Hans von Bülow called the work “Beethoven's Tenth”; Brahms replied that any fool could see that.

Brahms waited until he was 43 to publish a symphony — he felt Beethoven's shadow too keenly. The four he then wrote between 1876 and 1885 are warm, dense and tightly argued; every theme seems to grow out of another. A symphony is a large work for orchestra, usually in four movements: a dramatic first movement in sonata form, a slow movement, a dance (minuet or scherzo) and a fast finale. With strings, woodwind, brass and timpani all taking part, the harmony is spread across the whole orchestra — the numerals under the score read it all at once.

Keys visited: C minor, D♭ major, D minor, B minor, E major, G major, B♭ major, E♭ minor, B major, F♯ major, B♭ minor, G♭ major, A major, C major, F minor, C♯ minor.