You Reap What You Sow: Some Instances of Rhythmic and Harmonic Ambiguity in Brahms

Abstract

Of all composers of the common-practice era, perhaps none has been associated with musical ambiguity more than Brahms. Several recent essays nevertheless question the usefulness of ambiguity as an analytical concept. This article defends the efficacy of ambiguity through analysis of metrically and harmonically bivalent passages from the composers' C-minor Piano Quartet, Double Concerto, Clarinet Trio, G-major String Quintet, and B-minor Rhapsody. The analyses proceed from contradictory readings of opening materials to later statements that develop precisely those characteristics that give rise to the initial double meaning. In each case, the result is an enormous tonal delay whose resolution corresponds with liquidation of the contradictory characteristics, as the movements finally achieve the clarity absent from their ambiguous openings.