Piano Quartet No. 3 (Brahms) - First Movement

First Movement

The first movement is a sonata form movement in C minor in triple meter. It begins with the piano playing bare octaves on C. The violin, viola, and violoncello then play the ominous first theme, consisting of two sighing gestures of a descending minor second, followed by a descending theme. Some have speculated that the sighing motive is a musical utterance of the name "Clara," in reference to Clara Schumann, the composer, pianist, and lifelong friend and love interest of Brahms. More clear is Brahms's transposed version of Robert Schumann's "Clara theme," found in various pieces such as his Bunte Blätter, Op. 99 (1841), on which both Clara and Brahms wrote sets of piano variations. According to Jan Swafford, "Schumann used the notes C-B-A-G♯-A (often transposed) to outline the musical letters of Clara's name: C l A r A (B standing in for l, G♯ for r)." In Brahms's piano quartet, the same melody of the "Clara theme" is retained in Brahms's main theme, as it is spelled E♭-D-C-B-C.

After the first statement of the theme, the piano plays octaves on B♭. The opening motives, again played by the strings, becomes more chromatic and unsettling, until finally coming to rest on the dominant of C, G major. The viola and violin play pizzicato octaves on E-natural before the strings cascade down the C harmonic minor scale that ushers in the first theme, stated forte. After a brief development of this theme, an ascending gesture based on sixteenth-notes alternating between the notes of a minor second serves as the transition to the second theme in the relative major of C minor, E♭ major. This second theme is an uplifting eight-measure theme stated initially in the piano alone. Brahms then uses the technique of theme and variations to construct four variations on this theme, each eight measures long. A short idea based on the opening theme closes the exposition, which is not repeated.

The development section begins by restating the theme from measures 32-35 in E♭ minor. This moves to B major for a new fortissimo idea (perhaps a variation) based on the same theme. The quartet's opening sighing motives become developed in an E minor passage that incorporates a triplet figure on the second beat of the measure, and eventually the previous B major idea is restated identically in G major. The second theme from the exposition is then treated in imitative (quasi-canonic) counterpoint in C minor. After the beginning of the third contrapuntal treatment of this theme, a dominant pedal is sustained in octaves on G. This resolves unexpectedly to an A♭ major chord that is quickly brought down to C minor by the opening sighing motive in the piano.

The sighing motive indicates the beginning of the recapitulation. Rather than affirming the tonic of C minor, however, Brahms takes the recapitulation in a different direction: the opening section again ends on a dominant pedal on G with the violin and viola playing pizzicato octaves on E-natural, but the E-natural is used to turn the music to E minor. Chromatic descent is employed to bring the music to a half-cadence on D, leading to the second theme in G major. This is perhaps the only sonata form movement in the minor mode in which the recapitulation features the second subject in the key of the major dominant. The second theme is first stated by the viola, which is then followed by three new variations (the first being played by the violin, the second and third by the piano), and one of the same variations as the exposition. A fifth variation leads to a short digression in C major but becomes chromatic and ends with a development the first theme, coming to a cadence on C. This is followed by a brief coda that expands on the first motives heard in the piece. Nevertheless, the key of C minor is arguably not clearly established by the recapitulation (the key signature of C minor is present at the end of the movement for less than two complete pages). The movement ends with a clear tonic-dominant-tonic cadence, stated piano. The expansive and exploratory nature of the movement, along with the quiet closing dynamic, helps make the conventional final cadential progression appear mysterious.