Brahms' Waltz Op. 39, No. 9 - Listener's Guide

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) arranged his 16 piano waltzes of Op. 39 from his own original four-hand piano versions. 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. 9.

Character
The meter is 3/4, and the key is D minor. The tempo is a metronome marking of a dotted half note (one full measure) at 50 to 58 beats per measure, or a quick 150 to 174 quarter notes per minute.

Brahms provides the Italian term espressivo ("expressively") to indicate the general character of the piece. Despite handicapping himself with a repetitive rhythm and a thin texture, he achieves a rich expressiveness through the use of one melodic line to imply two lines.

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

Section A has one phrase, a, moving from a D minor chord, the tonic (i), to a D major chord, which, because of the immediately preceding chords, functions as the dominant of the subdominant (V of iv). The phrase then repeats exactly. Thus, A = aa, with 16 measures.

Section B has two phrases. The first phrase, b, hints at the key of E-flat major. The second phrase, c, takes the music back to the dominant (V) of the original key. Both phrases then repeat, but with a different ending in phrase c. Thus, B = bcbc', with 32 measures.

Therefore, the overall form with respect to phrases is aabcbc', and the total number of measures played is 48 (16 in A, and 32 in B).

With more details, the form is as follows:

Aa (8 measures), i - V of iv
Aa (8 measures), i - V of iv
Bb (8 measures), V7 of lowered II - V of iv
Bc (8 measures), iv - V
Bb (8 measures), V7 of lowered II - V of iv
Bc' (8 measures), iv - V

What to Listen For
This waltz is characterized mainly by a simple two-note rhythmic-melodic figure in the right hand: a quarter note on the third beat of a measure slurred to a quarter note on the first beat of the next measure. The piece opens with a quarter-note upbeat, and the first 6 measures all have that rhythmic-melodic figure. It similarly dominates the rest of the work.

Another important feature of this music is the thin texture. The right hand seldom plays two notes at the same time, and it never plays more than two. The top line does, however, create the aural illusion of two simultaneous melodic lines by moving back and forth between two different melodic outlines.

Aa. The principal musical events for the listener in phrase Aa are the two melodic outlines created by the upbeat quarter notes and the strong-beat quarter notes in the recurring two-note rhythmic-melodic figure that characterizes the whole piece. In phrase Aa, the upbeats outline a melody rising from D to B-flat and then descending back to the original D in the 8th measure. The quarter notes on the strong beats meanwhile outline a lower melody, moving from A up to D and then back down to F-sharp in the 8th measure.

Bb. This phrase develops the rhythmic-melodic figure in two ways. First, it colors the figure by running it through several measures of E-flat major (the lowered II). Second, it varies, and syncopates, the figure by tying the upbeat over the bar line on four occasions.

Bc. This phrase has two intriguing features.

(1) After each presentation of the rhythmic-melodic figure in the top line, the motive is imitated in a middle line but with a strong-weak rhythm. The result is a fascinating pseudo-four-part texture above the bass: two parts outlined at the top, and two parts outlined in the middle.

(2) For the first time in this set, a piece does not end on its tonic. It ends inconclusively on the dominant, an A-major chord, so that, in recital, this work can move quickly and smoothly to the next waltz.
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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.