At the core of Brahms's contrapuntal style was the canon, where voices overlap with the same material, sometimes at different speeds, inverted, or even overlaid with a second, independent canon.
Composition History
The Fest- und Gedenksprüche Op 109 (Festival and Commemoration Sentences) were dedicated to Dr. Carl Petersen, the Mayor of Hamburg, to celebrate Brahms finally being made a Freeman of the City.
Compositional Technique
Brahms rarely used the instruction "espressivo" but included it in 'O bone Jesu' (Op 37) to ensure that the technical ingenuity of the music did not hinder musical interpretation.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Brahms's motets, with their austere style, are best understood in the context of their musical ancestry: 16th-century Netherlands polyphony, Venetian antiphonalists, and J.S. Bach.
Composition History
The Two Motets Op 29 were premiered in Vienna on April 17, 1864, as part of a concert that also featured Brahms and Carl Tausig performing the two-piano version of the F minor Piano Quintet, Op 34.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Despite their specific dedicatory purpose, Brahms viewed the Fest- und Gedenksprüche Op 109 as general pieces for national days of commemoration, making them stylistically less cerebral than his other motets.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Brahms, a master of counterpoint, once asked his friend and mentor Joseph Joachim if his technically sophisticated motets were "good music," apart from their ingenuity.
You might also enjoy...
Pärt: De Profundis; Górecki: Totus Tuus - 20th Century Choral Masterpieces
Kenneth Leighton: Crucifixus & Other Choral Works
Singer Pur - Pilger auf Erden. Vokale Pfade durchs 19. Jahrhundert
Twentieth Century British Choral Music
British Choral Music Of The Twentieth Century
Easter From King's (2021 Collection)
Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Copland: In the Beginning; Barber: Agnus Dei
Christmas! Noël! Weihnachten!
Brahms: Works for Unaccompanied Choir
Mariengesänge des 19. Jahrhunderts
Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Geistliche und Weltliche Chormusik
