Pieces › Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

IV. Allegro con spirito

Johannes Brahms · 1877 · A major · 429 bars · 687 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: A major, D major, D minor, E major, B minor, F♯ minor, C♯ minor, F♯ major, A♯ minor, C major, E minor, F major, B♭ major.