Pieces › Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

II. Adagio non troppo

Johannes Brahms · 1877 · B major · 105 bars · 215 chords analysed

Written in a single summer by a lake in Carinthia; Brahms joked that it was so melancholy the score should be printed with a black border.

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: B major, F♯ major, C♯ minor.