The Interaction of Poetic Text and Music in Opus 49 by J. Brahms
Authors: Stanishevska Olena 
Published: November 2019

Introduction. In scientific literature dedicated to J. Brahms, much attention has been paid to a song genre. The researches note that J. Brahms’s songs can be regarded as a continuation of genre-specific features of Austro-German Lied, which retains the purity of the generic semantics in the composer’s works, without involving typically operatic means of vocal intoning, or approaching the so-called “poem with music”. J. Brahms’s songs do not allow the singer to demonstrate the full range of his/her voice, to reveal his/her artistic temperament, to show the technical skill. Absorption in a special emotional aura of J. Brahms’s songs requires a variety of timbre-intonational resources of a singer, his/her ability not to lose the sense of the whole while detailing the melodious overture. Of particular interest is the issue of music and words correlation in J. Brahms’s songs. As a rule, the composer is considered to be the immediate successor of F. Schubert rather than R. Schuman in his orientation to musical embodiment of a generalized poetic image. At the same time, this issue requires more detailed study, since the composer was very sensitive to the poetic text, in particular, from the point of view of coordinating the intonation-phonetic features of German language and vocal intonation. Theoretical Background. Recent research and publications analysis. Opus 49 by J. Brahms seems to be in the shadow of musicological thought and performing practice. It should be noted that a very famous opus part is “Lullaby”, which is mentioned in the monographs of K. Tsareva (1986), M. Druskin (1959), and K. Geiringer (1965). In the literature being considered the abovementioned opus is not completely covered, thus determining the relevance of our article. There are references to individual songs in different sources, but incidentally, in the context of different issues. Objective is to study J. Brahms’s opus 49 in the aspect of the interaction of poetic word and music, verbal and musical intoning. Methods: 1) historical method, allowing to comprehend the selected material in the perspective of the development of Austro-German song of the XIX century; 2) intonational method, which involves the study of vocal melody in terms of phonetic-tonic links; 3) genre method, caused by the features of chamber vocal lyrics; 4) stylistic method, corresponding to a specific opus consideration in the general context of the composer’s creative work. Results and Discussion. The composer did not have any tendency to the songs cyclization, however, the vocal miniatures, assembled in one opus, appear to be lyrical notes, self-contained but united by poetic motives and nature of the author’s expression. Many researchers see a cyclic organization of his particular vocal opuses. For example, I. Mykhailov (1987: 19) proves the existence of cyclic principles at different compositional levels in composer’s songs: separate “melodious pairs”, a number of songs with the texts by one poet inside the opus, a whole vocal opus with the texts by different authors. According to I. Mikhailov, the cyclic connection of songs is emphasized by several compositional techniques: thematic one, i.e. the unity of the musical material; the continuity of songs alternation, which is sometimes manifested in the absence of a piano introduction of the next song. In opus 49, the author chooses different poetic sources – poems by P. Heyse, L. H&#246;lty, A. F. Schack, and J. Wenzig. The composer refers to one of the samples of the famous collection by Joachim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano “The Magic Horn of a Boy”. Given the anthological principle of poetic texts selection, no transparent storyline in opus 49, such as “A Beautiful Miller” by F. Schubert or “Poet’s Love” by R. Schumann, there is no reason to regard it as a cycle. However, the opus’ songs are arranged in a certain semantic sequence. Owing to the fact that three songs (“Sunday Morning”, “To a Violet”, “Longing for the Sweetheart”) are united by homogeneous poetic motifs, one can regard them as forming a microcycle within the whole. The second micro-cycle of the opus is represented by No. 4 and No. 5 (“Lullaby” and “Twilight”). In interpreting the poetic text, J. Brahms adheres to the principle of emotional and musical generality, once detailing the text, if at all. Here, he succeeds F. Schubert. However, he uses the technique of keywords, distinguishing them in two ways: rhythmically (with syncope) and through intrinsic chants; the composer also uses different types of intoning. Following the tradition of the 19th-century Austro-German song, the composer regards the genre as an alliance of two full members: the vocalist and the pianist, with the part being an instrumental generalization. The intonational image of the whole in vocal music arises at the crossing of two texts – poetic and musical. German has intonation difficulties owing to a large number of consonants. Problems, encountered by the singers in intoning German language, are compensated by the consonants and vowels, which are most favorable for correct sound formation, allowing to achieve the required quality. The soft consonants and vowels should be regarded as the ideal vocal sound, that is, a model for other phonemes in musical-poetic text. While creating vocal melodies of Opus 49 songs, J. Brahms cares the phonetics of a German text in the singing to be comfortable for the performer. Conclusions. J. Brahms uses such principles and techniques of literary original musical embodiment as preservation of the holistic image, created by the author of the poems, on the one hand, and its detailing on the other. In the second case, the composer resorts to all means of musical expression: motive-thematic, texture-register, rhythmic, harmonious, texture ones. The prospects of the research lie in studying the interaction of verbal and musical intonation in other vocal works of J. Brahms, as well as in chamber-vocal music of late romantics.