Voice Leading and Disruption in Brahms's Intermezzo in E Major, Op.116 No.6

Abstract

The opening bars of Brahms's Intermezzo in E major, Op.116 No. 6, feature a series of descending motions countered by rising chromatic lines in the inner voice, and disrup tions of varying degrees of subtlety accrue significance as the Intermezzo unfolds. This article examines the multiple disruptions occurring throughout Op.116 No. 6 through voice-leading analysis and the identification of several melodic disjunctions. Two disruptions arise in the A section, both of which result in the implication of 5 in the upper voice; despite the intensity of this impulse toward 5, resolution is purposefully avoided The first disruption is initiated by neighbor motion in the upper voice that fails to resolve as a typical neighbor tone would. The second disruption results in an even stronger implication of 5 in the upper voice. These abandoned trajectories resonate be yond the boundaries of the otherwise tonally closed A section, and through enlargement of a foreground motive from the Intermezzo's opening, the work's coda not only fulfills the basic requirement of tonal closure, but also completes the linear trajectories begun in the A section.