Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Variations on a Theme by Paganini

Abstract

In May 1854, Clara Schumann gave birth to her seventh child with her husband Robert, who was at the time an inmate at an insane asylum near Bonn. She was not permitted to visit him, so her only source of solace and companionship during her recovery was the young Brahms. As a gift, he began to bring her variations on Schumann's Albumblatt in F sharp minor from the Bunte Blätter, a piece which Clara herself had used as the basis for a set of variations (her Op. 20) in the previous year. Brahms' efforts to this end were eventually collected as the Schumann Variations, Op. 9.

Brahms' sixteen variations are grouped into two sets; the first eight are in F sharp minor, the remainder in various related keys. As an homage to Schumann's intensive counterpoint studies in 1840, Brahms devotes four of the variations (Nos. 8, 10, 14, and 15) to contrapuntal treatment. Brahms makes further allusions to the music of Schumann, referring in the ninth variation to Schumann's Albumblatt in B minor, in the tenth to the String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 41/1, and in the fourteenth to the "Chopin" movement from Carnaval. In a sort of double homage in the tenth variation, Brahms quotes a theme from Schumann's Op. 5 Impromptus, which Schumann had in turn borrowed from Clara's Romanze. In sum, Brahms' effort constitutes a highly imaginative and effective set that combines the composer's structural instinct and skill for thematic and motivic manipulation with Schumann's love of quotation and allusion. Brahms' works for piano open and close his career as a composer. In his earliest sets of variations, especially those of Op. 9, the melody is of primary importance, and Brahms clings to it while freely changing the harmony. His later studies of Beethoven, however, led to his transformation of the melody into something new, adhering to the theme's basic phrase structure and harmonic pattern. As had Bach in his "Goldberg" Variations and Beethoven in the "Diabelli" Variations, Brahms, in the Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Händel, Op. 24, constructed a sprawling masterwork based on a very simple idea. Brahms' intended his earlier variations, such as Opp. 9, 2,1 and 23, for private audiences, but composed the Händel Variations and the later Paganini Variations, Op. 35, with the concert hall in mind. Composed in 1861 and published in 1862 by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, the Handel Variations were first performed by Brahms in Hamburg on December 7, 1861. The set is also one of the works with which Brahms introduced himself to Vienna in a concert of November 29, 1862.

Brahms may have been attracted by the utter simplicity of Handel's theme and the challenge it posed. The melody is the Air from the third movement of the first suite in B flat major of Handel's Suites de pièces de clavecin of 1733. (Handel himself wrote a set of variations on this same Air.) Brahms certainly recognized the harmonic potential suggested by the theme's sequential structure, re-harmonizing recurrent notes. At several points, Brahms pairs the variations such that the second "varies" the material of the first. Donald Francis Tovey recognizes a larger grouping in variations 14-18, which he describes as "aris[ing] one out of the other in a wonderful decrescendo of tone and crescendo of Romantic beauty." Brahms did not at all abandon the past in his Handel Variations. A strict canon forms the basis of variation 6, and variations 5, 6 and 13 constitute the traditional ventures into the tonic minor. We hear a Hungarian rhapsody in No. 13 and a fast Siciliana in 12/8 in No. 19. Such distinct character is also to be found in the "music box" variation (No. 22) and the chromatic fantasia atmosphere of No. 20. The closing fugue, with a subject derived from the original Air, is a study in the free use of Baroque counterpoint. With this set of pieces, Brahms placed himself squarely in the tradition of nineteenth century piano étude composition. His use of Paganini's Twenty-Fourth Caprice as inspiration is telling because both Liszt and Schumann had made arrangements of Paganini caprices for the purpose of piano studies. For Brahms, this was a political statement. First of all, the Caprice he chose to set had its own set of variations attached that Liszt had transcribed literally. But, by writing two new sets of Variations, Brahms set himself up as opposed to the virtuosic school represented by Liszt. Second, by choosing a Caprice that Schumann did not transcribe, by creating two separate books (Schumann's Paganini transcriptions were published as two separate sets), and by using the designation Studien (like Schumann) rather than Étuden (like Liszt) Brahms showed himself to be allied to both Schumann and a continuation of his aesthetic.

The inspiration for the Paganini Variations came from lengthy conversations on piano technique with the great virtuoso Carl Tausig. Brahms jokingly referred to these Studies as his "finger exercises," but in fact, he created a unique and formidably difficult style of piano playing that he never again approached in his pianistic output. From the technical standpoint, the principal problems are those of double-note technique and rhythm. Brahms seemed less interested in fluent finger work than in complex arpeggiations and difficult chord configurations. In a way, Brahms technique is more a technique of the wrist, arm, and back than of the fingers. Musically, the principal problem arises in the division into two books. Both sets begin with a statement of the theme and have full-blown Finales. Also, both sets are similar enough in organization and style to become musically (if not technically) monotonous when played back-to-back. Unfortunately the best of the Studies are strewn between the books; therefore, a performance of one or the other inevitably leaves out some of the most interesting material. There is no clear-cut solution to this dilemma, and most pianists simply play both books, eliminating the statement of the theme for Book II. These two books of variations are neither as complex nor sophisticated as the Handel or Schumann Variations, but are still magnificent creations, and create an idiomatically Brahmsian piano style that has never been surpassed in difficulty or originality.