Black Holes and Snowy Mountains

The third movement of Brahms’ Clarinet quintet.

III. Andantino

Ternary form

A warm, sweet melody is introduced immediately by the clarinet featuring a 3-note motive that alternates between two pitches. The clarinet is joined by the first violin (0:16) in the theme. Theme one is shared again between the violin and clarinet in each of the next two phrases before the violin and clarinet echo each other’s four-note ascents (0:53). An ascent that travels through the string instruments leads to a repeat of theme one motives in the clarinet at 1:05, accompanied by a high singing violin. A soft tutti chord ends the opening section (1:20).

The middle section begins with a quiet, near-eastern tinted violin melody itself based off of the opening three-note alternating motive accompanied by bouncing lower strings. Rapid clarinet and violin runs (1:33) and a low moving bass melody from the clarinet characterize the second phrase of the middle section. A syncopated clarinet melody accompanied by pizzicato strings (1:44) climbs upward before descending. The first violin plays a somewhat rounder, more connected version of this melody before a bright, playful alternating melody in the high strings bounces to prominence over another clarinet bass line. A triplet descending line from the clarinet at 2:22 leads to a partial repetition by the strings before they begin to ascend with bubbly ascending clarinet runs. Alternating motives sequence throughout the quintet in the proceeding section contrasting with the heavier, more confident dotted rhythms.

Theme two is reprised in the strings starting at 3:00. The opening motive of theme two is played by the low strings and clarinet (3:17) before upward-sequencing descents in the violins amidst pizzicato strings lead to a violin rise and fall. The bright theme two returns at 3:43 for a brief moment before triumphant-sounding ascents in the strings and clarinet slow down into a final repetition of the first section at 4:09. The movement ends on a soft tutti chord.

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If you are interested in listening to a recording, I recommend Stanley Drucker’s 2001 recording on Elysium Records. Unfortunately this recording is prohibitively expensive, but I’ve linked to it anyways. As a suitable alternative, consider David Shifrin and the Emerson String Quartet’s 1999 recording on Deutsche Grammophone. You can buy this recording from Amazon by clicking on the image below. You can also buy this recording from the iTunes Music Store by clicking on the button below.

This article is part of the Music 365 series. To find out more about this project, please visit the project homepage. If you enjoyed this summary or otherwise found it helpful, consider Stumbling it using the button below.

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Posted under: Culture by HP at 06/9/09 1:15 PM