Brahms' Waltz Op. 39, No. 5: A Listener's Guide

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) arranged the 16 piano waltzes of his Op. 39 from his own original four-hand piano version of the set. Through recitals, recordings, and private studies, these waltzes have remained popular among classical music enthusiasts.

Here is a listener's guide for Op. 39, No. 5.

Character
The meter is 3/4, and the key is E major. The metronome marking is a dotted half note (one full measure) at a moderately fast 42 beats per minute, or 126 quarter notes per minute.

This waltz also carries the tempo indication Grazioso, Italian for "graceful, smooth, elegant." It is, however, a poignant gracefulness, characterized by the incessant use of accented dissonances on the first beats of many of the measures in the piece.

Form
The form is binary (in two sections): AB.

The first section, A, begins with a phrase, a, moving from the tonic (I) to a half cadence on the dominant (V), preceded by its own dominant seventh (V7 of V). The phrase then repeats. Thus, A = aa, with 16 measures.

The second section, B, opens with a brief (4-measure) transitional phrase, b, over a dominant pedal. Phrase c, moving from I back to I, is a modified return of material from section A. Section B then repeats. Thus, B = bcbc, with 28 measures.

Therefore, the overall form in terms of 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 - V
Aa (8 measures), I - V
Bb (4 measures), V - V
Bc (10 measures), I - I
Bb (4 measures), V - V
Bc (10 measures), I - I

What to Listen For
Aa. After a quarter note upbeat on the tonic chord, this phrase is dominated by two musical features. (1) During the 8 measures, the top line steadily rises from B (the dominant) to the B an octave higher. (2) Meanwhile, the middle and lower lines, in reinforcing thirds or tenths, continually-in fact, in every single measure of the phrase-present a downward step from the first beat to the second beat, five of those eight times as a dissonance (specifically, an appoggiatura) to its resolution.

Bb. This seemingly inconsequential 4-measure phrase, with the outward function of returning to the opening key and thematic material, actually serves an important structural purpose. It begins on the third beat of the final measure of the repeat of phrase Aa. Its top note is D-natural, forming a sudden B-minor chord after the B major (V) of the previous two beats in the measure.

The D-natural serves at least two purposes. (1) By following D-sharp, becoming an appoggiatura, and then and falling to C-sharp, it introduces the down-by-step motive to the top line. (2) It provides a link to a major structural use of the D-natural in phrase Bc.

Bc. This phrase is extended to an unusual 10 measures primarily through the use of the D-natural briefly utilized in phrase Bb. The first 4 measures of phrase Bc are a repeat of the first 4 measures of Aa, except for the eerie sense of expectation created in phrase Bc by anchoring those 4 measures with a dominant pedal.

Suddenly, on the last beat of the 4th measure, the D-natural returns, this time not to form a B-minor chord but to serve as the seventh in a dominant seventh of the subdominant (V7 of IV). The next 4 measures revolve around the IV chord and its dominant, with an inner part, on the first and second beats of every single one of those 4 measures, repeatedly hammering the D-natural to C-sharp move as an appoggiatura to its resolution.

The final 2 measures of phrase Bc finish the piece with a traditional V-I cadence. However, Brahms adds one more brief but ingenious Brahmsian touch: on the first and second beats of the very last measure, the melody line presents one final reiteration of the down-by-step dissonance resolution, but this time, and for the only time, in the form not of an appoggiatura but of a suspension (a nonharmonic tone created by holding over a tone from the previous chord). This little touch not only slows down the rhythm to indicate the end of the piece but also, in typical Brahmsian fashion, tickles the listener's brain with "the same" and "not the same" simultaneously.
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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.