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Brahms: Symphonist
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
This long-awaited book situates the symphonies in their biographical context, offers text-critical investigations, presents matters of performance practice and gives an analytical overview of each work.
In Brahms: Symphonist, the late Robert Pascall offers new revelations about Brahms symphonies resulting from a life-long pursuit of Brahms scholarship. Completed shortly before his death, Pascall's book brings together four scholarly perspectives. First, it situates the symphonies in their biographical context narrating their genesis, performance history and reception. Second, the book offers text-critical observations, by investigating the relationships between sketches, manuscript sources, publications and arrangements made by the composer or by others in his lifetime. Third, matters of performance practice are presented: how were the symphonies performed in Brahms's lifetime, what performance values did Brahms espouse, what were the practicalities of performance, and what legacy as conductor did Brahms pass on to succeeding generations? Finally, the book gives an analytical overview of each work. One of the book's highlights is a reappraisal of the materials for Brahms's unfinished Fifth Symphony, situating them in relation to the broader question of Brahms's 'retirement' from composition. Brahms: Symphonist will be required reading for students and scholars of nineteenth-century and Romantic music, Johannes Brahms aficionados, as well as those interested in the development of the nineteenth-century symphony.
In Brahms: Symphonist, the late Robert Pascall offers new revelations about Brahms symphonies resulting from a life-long pursuit of Brahms scholarship. Completed shortly before his death, Pascall's book brings together four scholarly perspectives. First, it situates the symphonies in their biographical context narrating their genesis, performance history and reception. Second, the book offers text-critical observations, by investigating the relationships between sketches, manuscript sources, publications and arrangements made by the composer or by others in his lifetime. Third, matters of performance practice are presented: how were the symphonies performed in Brahms's lifetime, what performance values did Brahms espouse, what were the practicalities of performance, and what legacy as conductor did Brahms pass on to succeeding generations? Finally, the book gives an analytical overview of each work. One of the book's highlights is a reappraisal of the materials for Brahms's unfinished Fifth Symphony, situating them in relation to the broader question of Brahms's 'retirement' from composition. Brahms: Symphonist will be required reading for students and scholars of nineteenth-century and Romantic music, Johannes Brahms aficionados, as well as those interested in the development of the nineteenth-century symphony.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Robert Pascall
ROBERT PASCALL (1944-2018) was a distinguished musicologist with a lifelong devotion to Brahms, from his student years at Oxford (where his teachers included Egon Wellesz and Jack Westrup) to the crowning glory of his career: new critical editions of the Brahms Symphonies published by Henle Verlag between 1996 and 2012 as part of the complete edition of the composer's works. He served as professor of music at the universities of Nottingham and Bangor, and in 2009 he was appointed honorary professor of music philology at Cambridge. In the same year he was made an honorary member of the Royal Musical Association.
Reviews
Completed on his 74th birthday and just months before his death in 2018, renowned musicologist Robert Pascall's posthumously published Brahms: Symphonist represents the culmination of nearly five decades spent in intimate dialogue with Johannes Brahms' symphonic legacy. In the interplay between historical documentation and analytical insight, Pascall has created not merely a reference work, but an essay of sorts on the nature of symphonic achievement itself. Also featuring press reviews of performances of the time, diagrams and facsimiles of musical sketches and score excerpts, Brahms: Symphonist should be considered an essential addition to the library of anyone serious about understanding the composer's symphonic achievements and their place in musical culture.
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Offers a concise yet insightful exploration of Johannes Brahms's four symphonies, situating them within the context of 19th-century musical culture and the composer's career. Drawing on his authority as a leading Brahms scholar, Pascall shows how the symphonies embody both reverence for tradition and striking originality. Essential.
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A thoroughly researched and well‑documented compendium of information on the early histories of this essential symphonic repertory. It also provides particularly new and interesting perspectives on Brahms's work on a fifth symphony. The volume should be of great interest and value to any serious musician or scholar engaged with the symphonies of Brahms.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
v -
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List of Illustrations
viii -
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Foreword
xiii -
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Preface and Acknowledgements
xv -
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Bibliographic Abbreviations
xx -
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Prologue: The Back Story
1 -
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1 The First Symphony
14 -
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2 The Second Symphony
86 -
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3 The Third Symphony
147 -
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4 The Fourth Symphony
218 -
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Ausklang – Epilogue
296 -
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Appendix: A Note on Arrangements
311 -
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Bibliography
317 -
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Index
337
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
May 20, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9781805435310
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781805435310
Keywords for this book
Johannes Brahms; Brahms symphonies; performance practice; text-critical investigations; nineteenth-century music; Romantic music; unfinished Fifth Symphony; symphony genesis; performance history; manuscript sources; Brahms scholarship
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
