Brahms’s Op. 23 is a rearrangement of his Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann for piano four hands. This is where there are two performers at a piano instead of the usual one.
Brahms’s Op. 24 is titled Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel for Piano. It contains the main theme, called an aria in the score, and 25 variations of this aria. At the end, there is a fugue the ends the piece. An average performance of this piece lasts about half an hour.
The aria begins this piece. It has a distinct baroque sound that is easily recognizable to have been written by Handel. One thing I find interesting is that Brahms keeps it like a baroque score, by only including ornament markings and no other performance markings. Dynamics, legato, etc. was something that was usually omitted by the composer, and was left up to performer interpretation.
The first variation is light and bouncy. Brahms marks it with a large forte, and includes a lot of staccato markings on many of the notes. He also makes puts emphasis on the off-beat, which gives the variation some dance to it. I also feel that he contrasts the theme by heavily marking the score with performance markings for most of the notes. The second variation goes in the complete opposite direction. It is marked both piano and legato. Brahms also introduces more chromaticism and cross-rhythms to contrast the aria. The third variation is different in that is combines both hands together to create on line of music. It has a unique sound that would be different than if it were played by one hand on the melody and the other on the accompaniment.
The fourth variation is bombastic variation with plenty of sixteenth notes and sforzandos. Brahms also includes many anacrusises by writing it in a way that each eighth note in the bass is preceded by a sixteenth note. The fifth variation is a character change from the previous ones, by being written in the relative minor key of Bb minor. It is also very expressive, like a song without words. The sixth variation is a two part canon. A canon is a type of piece that is contrapuntal, or has imitations of the theme. The first part of the variation has the canon beginning in the right hand. The second part of the variation has the canon beginning in the left hand.
The variation lifts the mood from the previous two, and is written like a fanfare. It is up beat, and seems to announcing the arrival of something. The eighth variation seems to be a continuation of the previous variation, with the same rhythmic motif of an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes. There is also a running sixteenth note line that lasts the entire length of the variation. I would find this difficult to play, because it crosses many voices. The ninth variation is very romantic. First off, he writes these large legato phrase markings, and demands a lot of sustain pedal. He also includes a large amount of chromaticism that cause the tonal center to be constantly shifting. The rhythm choice that he uses also makes it sound free, as he uses triplets in the right hand with descending chromatic octave eighth notes in the the left hand.
I honestly do not know how to define the tenth variation. It is unique in that the phrase shape starts from the top and goes down in arpeggios to the bottom. It is very enjoyable to listen to though. The eleventh variation is very melodic, and has three different lines. There are a quarter note, and eighth note, and a sixteenth note lines. I find it to be delicately written, as Brahms shifts effortlessly between major and minor chords. Variation twelve has a very classical feel to it. It has a very simple and light harmony in the left hand, as the right hand plays a single sixteenth note run. I think it sounds like something that Mozart would have written.The thirteenth variation is written at a much slower tempo, and is back into Bb minor. To me, this one sounds like a funeral march. It has long and expressive phrases that are very dramatic. It is also sounds reminiscent of Chopin’s piano works.
Variations fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen are all related. With an exception of the fourteenth, they all take at least one element from the previous variation. To me, fourteen sounds like it was influenced by Beethoven. This was not something unique, as Brahms has a very deep respect for the composer. Fifteen takes the sixteen note runs from fourteen, and brackets them with pairs of eighth notes. What is interesting about this is that Brahms has the phrase go across the bar line. This was a normal composition technique, and shows how useless the bar line is when determining phrases. Sixteen is based off of fifteen in that it has the sixteenth notes between eighth notes. This time though, there is only one pair of eighth notes, and they are staccato instead of legato. Seventeen takes the phrase shaping of the previous variation, and puts it into eighth notes that begin on the off beat. Eighteen then follows this up, by making it more ornate with sixteenth notes instead of eighth notes.
Variation nineteen is different from the previous variations in that Brahms changes the meter from duple into triple. This makes it feel more like a dance, which was another popular form of baroque composition. Variation twenty is slow and drawn out, with plenty of chromaticism. This variation seems like it takes more influence from Brahms’s contemporaries such as Richard Wagner. I would even go as far to say that it sounds late 19th-century or early 20th-century. Twenty-one contains many arpeggios that give it a virtuostic sound. Brahms writes sixteenth notes in the left hand, with triplets in the right hand. I think it sounds like something Franz Liszt would compose.
Variation twenty-two has a light, march-like style to it. While it has five voices going on at the same time, Brahms writes it high enough on the keyboard to give it minuet/musette quality. Twenty-three goes back into a triple meter while being marked vivace e staccato. In the phrases, there is a constant build up, with multiple climax points along the way. Eventually, it does it the high point, and leads into variation twenty-four. This one it like the previous one, except that he writes more legato runs. The set of variations ends with the twenty-fifth variation. It is written back into duple meter, and marked Fortissimo as its dynamic marking. All the chords are written as octaves, with and added third or fifth between them. This variation has fanfare quality to it, and I feel that it announces both the end of the variations, and the beginning of the fugue.
The fugue is the second chunk of Brahms’s Op. 24. A fugue is a type of contrapuntal piece that is based off of imitation that develops. It has a pretty rigid form, of where there is an exposition, followed by episodes, and then a development. The fugue was a popular compositional style during the baroque period, and several baroque composers such as Bach wrote plenty of them.
Brahms writes pieces that rely heavily on the perfection of their form. This contrasts the romantic character piece, which is often formless music. He might have had and inspiration to add a fugue to the end of the variations after studying counterpoint in his free time. What makes it unique is that Brahms utilizes romantic harmonies, which gives it a distinct romantic sound that is not in many other fugues.
I would definitely recommend Brahms’s Op. 23 and Op. 24. His Schumann Variations is a fun rearrangement that gives the piece a little bit different character from the added second part. While his Handel Variations and Fugue is a relatively short piece, it is deep in terms of content.