Brahms's Variations on a Hungarian Song, op. 21, no. 2: "Betrachte dann die Beethovenschen und, wenn Du willst, meine".(Critical Essay)

Among all the tools we have to understand Brahms as a variation composer, the most important is the music itself. In this context, his Variations on a Hungarian Song, op. 21, no. 2, has been woefully underexplored--and this despite a tantalizing array of unica.(1) It is Brahms's only freestanding variation set based on a folk melody. It presents unique evidence of how the young Brahms struggled to impose macroformal order on a large variation group. Its brilliant coda is Brahms's first known encounter with the variation finale. It is also Brahms's first thoroughgoing attempt to employ the Hungarian idioms for which he was later to become celebrated.(2) Furthermore, the Hungarian Song Variations have a unique manuscript history that has up to now been largely unexplored. Although multiple settings of the theme are preserved in Brahms's hand, they have never been assembled and compared. Moreover, Brahms's single, heavily revised autograph of the completed variations can now be compared with an earlier Abschrift, made in August 1856 by Clara Schumann, that came to light only in 1981. The sources have much to reveal about the work and the work itself much to reveal about Brahms as a variation composer.(3)

Because op. 21, no. 2, has been so little discussed in the literature, my priority here has been to create a stable informational environment in which to evaluate its significance for Brahms as a variation composer. This includes, of course, exploring the manuscript sources of the theme and its variations and examining discussions of the work in Brahms's correspondence. I believe that it is also important to consider another collection of "sources"--those works to which Brahms clearly alludes in the course of the variations. This collection may be quite incomplete as it depends on my knowledge of the variation literature and on my way of hearing allusion in Brahms's music. At least, however, most of these allusions are so plainly drawn as to be uncontroversial, and they are important because they help establish a larger referential context for the piece. I do not choose to explore their possible psychological or autobiographical implications but focus strictly on their technical importance as a small pantheon of works that influenced Brahms's applications of variation procedure and form in this work.

I

To begin with, why variations on a Hungarian song? After all, virtually all of Brahms's freestanding variation sets--the Handel Variations, the Paganini Variations, the two sets of Schumann variations, the Haydn Variations--were written on themes borrowed from past masters. His only other freestanding variation work, op. 21, no. 1, was based on a theme of his own. For Brahms to lavish attention on a nondescript Hungarian folk melody seems, in this context, massively incongruous.

Michael Struck has explored the immediate origin of the Hungarian Song Variations, showing that they were composed late in 1856, as an offshoot of Brahms's counterpoint studies with Joseph Joachim.(4) In a packet of contrapuntal exercises dated 30 April 1856, Joachim had included a single variation on an Irish Elfenlied. When Brahms asked to see more variations, Joachim responded with a packet dated the following 16 June. Brahms sent a critique of these additional variations in a reply of 22 June. Although this exchange led Joachim to develop his variation exercises into a serious composition, he ultimately left the work unfinished and unpublished.(5) Brahms was led into fresh thinking about variation composition, however, and, after Joachim had left off work on the Elfenlied variations, composed his own set on a Hungarian song. This he sent to Joachim at the end of 1856.

Struck notes several points of contact between Joachim's and Brahms's variations. Both works are based on short folk songs with a strong national identity. Both were "cyclically conceived," with their variations grouped into large sections by key and tempo. Most to the point, both can be seen as homage compositions. In his eleventh variation, Joachim quoted the opening of the Andante of Brahms's op. 5 piano sonata, while Brahms's choice of theme, in Struck's view, honored Joachim's Hungarian heritage.

Nevertheless, Brahms's selection of the Hungarian song as a theme also needs to be placed in a wider context. What kinds of themes were commonly used for variations at mid-century? How did Brahms's choice fit into this general scheme of things? Adolf Hofmeister's Handbuch der musikalischen Literatur is especially well suited to provide this kind of perspective. The period covered by Hofmeister's first Erganzungsband (1844-51) corresponds approximately with Brahms's period of composition and piano study with his Hamburg mentor, Eduard Marxsen; that covered by the second (1852-59), with the composing of his first ten published opera as well as several pieces published later, including op. 21.(6) Hofmeister lists 1,506 composers of solo piano works in this second period. Among these, 142 published one or more sets of freestanding variations.(7) Of these 256 works, themes from the opera literature appear 62 times and reflect the immense mid-century popularity of Verdi as well as an enduring affection for Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Weber, and Meyerbeer. Nearly as numerous are the 54 folksong variations.(8) The types of folk song most frequently encountered are Tyrolean (9), Hungarian or Bohemian (8), Russian (6), German (5), Russian-Bohemian (4), and Swiss (4). Variations on original themes, by contrast, were relatively rare, 14 in number. (Twelve variation sets were on unidentified themes, some of which could also be original.) Other variations were based on patriotic songs, such as "God Save the King," popular genre pieces, such as mazurkas or polkas, or popular songs, such as "The Last Rose of Summer" or even the American "Yankee Doodle." These statistics reflect larger currents in piano literature. Rondos and character pieces were often based on themes from operas or on folk material, while original compositions, such as sonatas, scherzos, or groups of character pieces, were somewhat less common.