Expressive Intersections in Brahms: Essays in Analysis and Meaning ed. by Heather Platt and Peter H. Smith (review)

Abstract

Expressive Intersections in Brahms: Essays in Analysis and Meaning. Edited by Heather Platt and Peter H. Smith. (Musical Meaning and Interpre- tation.) Bloomington: Indiana Univer- sity Press, 2012. [viii, 305 p. ISBN 9780253357052. $44.95.] Music exam- ples, illustrations, bibliography, index.In the first chapter of Expressive Inter- sections, editors and contributors Heather Platt and Peter Smith outline their princi- pal approach to Brahms analysis, arguing that . . a more thorough understanding of music emerges when issues of meaning are considered in conjunction with those of structure-indeed that these aspects of the aesthetic experience are in- separable (p. 4). Indeed, this beautifully crafted and diverse volume makes great strides toward proffering a much-needed revision of the tired but persistent image of Brahms as a conservative formalist whose output resides principally in the domain of so-called absolute music. To this end, Expressive Intersections features essays that of- fer analyses of structure and expressivity not only in the realm of texted works, but also identifies expressivity through struc- tural analyses of instrumental works.Part 1 lays out some principal issues re- lated to interpretation of meaning in Brahms. Chapter 1 summarizes each of the essays and establishes the need for more analytical work of the type offered in this volume. Steven Rings's essay, which ap- pears as chapter 2, begins with an insightful analysis of the Intermezzo in A (op. 118, no. 2), in which Rings shows that the dra- matic crux of the work aligns with the greatest culmination of (technical processes that may seem to be located re- motely from the surface). Following this compelling introduction, Rings produces evidence in the form of correspondence between Brahms and Clara Schumann, and also between Brahms and Elizabeth von Herzogenberg, that, at times, the presence of obvious artifice appeared to draw criti- cism from his friends-or at the very least, that the lack of such artifice was to be con- sidered a virtue. Rings summarizes the issue thusly: the music affecting because of its artifice or in spite of it? (p. 26), eventually concluding that, in music, expres- sive narratives often align with technical processes that occur beneath the surface, and that these hidden processes make the music a source of continued fascination and discovery for the educated musician (Kenner).Part 2 deals with the intersection of struc- ture and expressivity in texted works. Chapter 3's intriguing essay by Yonatan Malin offers an analysis of the first song from artist Max Klinger's Brahms Fantasy, a bound volume aligning five of songs, chosen from different pub- lished collections and ordered by Klinger, with a variety of images that, according to the artist, were not intended to be illustra- tions as such (cited in Expressive Intersections, p. 54). Malin begins with inspired analyses of both the poem and the song, and then looks at how Klinger's artwork interprets setting, much as music interprets the poetry. Malin's ultimate ana- lytical observation is that several pivotal mu- sical resolutions occur at the precise point in the score where Klinger has printed birds flying out of the score and into an ac- companying graphic; Malin draws parallels among these various processes relating to what he perceives as a sort of circularity in- herent in the poem, the song, and Klinger's artwork. The essay concludes with Malin's evocative reading of connections among the remaining songs in Klinger's cycle.Heather Platt's essay Brahms's Madchen- lieder and Their Cultural Context, provides a compelling account of depic- tion of women in his lieder. As Platt points out, this topic has been overlooked by Brahms scholars, despite the fact that more than twenty percent of lieder set poetry that is understood from a female perspective. …