Brahms' Waltz Op. 39, No. 15 - Listener's Guide

The 16 piano waltzes that Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) put into his Op. 39 are still popular among classical music enthusiasts. Brahms himself arranged these pieces from his own original four-hand piano versions.

Here is a listener's guide for Op. 39, No. 15.

Character
The meter is 3/4, and the key is A-flat major. The tempo indication is a metronome marking of a dotted half note (one full measure) at a moderately quick 42 beats per minute, or 126 quarter notes per minute.

After the complexities and unwaltzlike characteristics of the preceding piece in the Op. 39 set, No. 15 returns to a simple waltz style. Brahms indicates the work to be played dolce ("sweetly" in Italian). Indeed, it is arguably the gentlest, most lyrical waltz in Op. 39. Many portions of the work sound like his famous Wiegenlied ("Cradle Song," or "Lullaby"), Op. 49, No. 4.

Form
Waltz No. 15 is a rounded binary form, AB.

Section A consists of a single 8-measure phrase, a, beginning on the A-flat-major tonic (I) and ending on the submediant (vi). The phrase then repeats. Thus, A = aa, with 16 measures.

Section B has two different phrases. Phrase b is 6 measures long and begins and ends on the dominant seventh (V7). Phrase c, a return to the thematic material of the first section ("rounding" the form), begins and ends on the tonic. Both phrases then repeat, with phrase c slightly varied. Thus, B = bcbc', with 28 measures.

Therefore, the overall form with respect to phrases is aabcbc', and the total number of measures played is 44 (16 in A, and 28 in B).

With more details, the form is as follows:

Aa (8 measures), I - vi
Aa (8 measures), I - vi
Bb (6 measures), V7 - V7
Bc (8 measures), I - I
Bb (6 measures), V7 - V7
Bc' (8 measures), I - I

What to Listen For
Aa. This 8-measure melody unfolds primarily from a single little motive, presented in the first measure and repeated in the second measure. The rhythm of the motive is a dotted quarter note followed by three eighth notes. That melodic rhythm occurs in 6 of the 8 measures in the phrase.

This melody has at least three significant elements, in addition to the 3/4 meter, in common with the composer's famous lullaby.

(1) Both melodies open with a back-and-forth (rocking) movement between two tones of the tonic chord.

(2) On four occasions (the first time in measure 3), the waltz melody moves down in quarter notes on the 4-3-2 degrees of the scale, with 5-4 grace notes between 4 and 3. The lullaby has exactly the same pattern in the well-known penultimate measure.

(3) Between measures 6 and 7 of both melodies, there is a poignant leap to an eighth-note leading tone followed by an eighth-note 6 and a quarter-note 5.

Bb. This 6-measure phrase simply develops the opening motive through a series of common chords: V7, I, V7 of IV, IV, V7 of V, V7.

Bc, Bc'. Phrase Bc repeats the first 6 measures of phrase Aa and then changes to close not on the original vi but on I. When phrase Bc is repeated (as Bc'), it is varied by being an octave higher and by using triplet-arpeggio versions of the weak-beat parts of the melody.
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Brahms, Johannes. Op. 39, Waltzes for the Piano. Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics, vol. 1260. New York: G. Schirmer, Inc.