Pieces › Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

III. Un poco Allegretto e grazioso

Johannes Brahms · 1855–76 · A♭ major · 165 bars · 193 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: A♭ major, E♭ major, F minor, E♭ minor, D♯ minor, B minor, E minor, B major.