Johannes Brahms | Autograph manuscript signed of the songs 'Sehnsucht', op.14 no.8, and 'Trost in Tränen', op.48 no.5, 1858

Johannes Brahms

Autograph manuscript signed of the songs 'Sehnsucht', op.14 no.8, and 'Trost in Tränen', op.48 no.5, for voice and piano, FORMERLY IN THE CELEBRATED COLLECTION OF LOUIS KOCH

boldly notated in dark brown ink, with scarcely any corrections, on up to three three-stave systems per page, SIGNED AND DATED AT THE END ("Detmold, / Im Winter 1858 / Joh. Brahms."), with autograph titles ("Sehnsucht. (Volkslied.)"; "Trost in Thränen. von Göthe."), the songs beginning, respectively, "Mein Schatz ist nicht da, ist weit über'm See" and "Wie kommt's, daß du so traurig bist, da alles froh erscheint?", the second verse of the second song written above the melody, the third and fourth verses written out after the end, 26 and 23 bars, respectively

3 pages, and one blank, oblong 4to (27.1 x 34cm), nine-stave paper, Detmold, winter 1858, a few small tears to margins and hinge, some splitting to vertical fold, light browning to edges, light damp-staining at lower and outer edges, not affecting text

A STUNNING MANUSCRIPT OF TWO COMPLETE BRAHMS SONGS, AS YET UNPUBLISHED IN THE NEW JOHANNES BRAHMS COMPLETE EDITION.

Brahms was one of the greatest, as well as most prolific, lieder composers of the nineteenth century, publishing in all 190 solo songs (many more remained unpublished), the earliest dating from May 1851 (the effervescent 'Heimkehr', op.7 no.6) and the latest from May 1896 (the sublime Vier ernste Gesänge, op.121, for bass and piano).

Both op.14 no.8 and op.48 no.5, contained in the present manuscript, date from 1858, a year which saw a flood of lieder compositions, some of which, it has been suggested, were inspired by Brahms's feelings for the twenty-three-year-old singer Agathe von Siebold whom he had met in the summer. The rest of the eight Lieder und Romanzen, op.14, also date from that year (nos.2, 'Vom verwundeten Knaben', and 3, 'Murrays Ermordung', from January; nos.1, 'Vor dem Fenster', 4, 'Ein Sonett', and 7, 'Standchen', from September; and nos.5, 'Trennung', and 6, 'Gang zur Liebsten', together with the present no.8, 'Sehnsucht', from the autumn).

Like most of the songs of op.14, 'Sehnsucht' is a folksong setting. The melancholic wistfulness of the text (beginning 'My darling is not here, is far across the sea') drew from Brahms music of haunting simplicity. An unusual feature of the autograph is the two-sharp key signature (F sharp and C sharp), although the key of the song (E minor) would ordinarily require only a single sharp in the key signature (the first edition of op.14, in October 1860 by J. Rieter-Biedermann, indeed prints the song with only one sharp). A second autograph of the song (together with autographs of nos.5 and 7, and also of op.48 no.5) survives in the Glinka Museum, Moscow; a third autograph is lost. Brahms later arranged 'Sehnsucht' for three women's voices (c.1859–1862); the whereabouts of the autograph of this arrangement are currently unknown.

The Sieben Lieder op.48 were assembled for publication by Brahms in the summer of 1868, the majority of the songs, however, originating much earlier, as is the case with no.5 here. They take their texts from a variety of sources. 'Trost in Tränen' sets a Goethe poem (published in 1804) whose theme is grief and the consolation to be found in tears. Schubert had made a fine setting of the poem in 1814, one which Brahms was no doubt aware of. Both Schubert's song and Brahms's version here are strophic settings of similar length (Schubert's is in fact one bar longer), in the key of F, in 6/8 time, and with alternating major- and minor-key sections, the latter section containing the melancholic response of the young man addressed in the poem. Brahms's setting stands out, however, by its somewhat richer harmonic palette and one particular feature - a greater independence of the piano part: unlike Schubert, Brahms effects the key modulations in the song (from major to minor, and then at the end from minor to major) by means of two short passages for piano alone. But it was perhaps to veil the underlying similarities of the two settings that Brahms transposed the song down a semitone to E major in the first edition (published by N. Simrock, Berlin, in November 1868), with the resulting extra sonic intensity conferred upon the music by that key.

PROVENANCE:

Formerly in one of the most stupendous collections of autograph music manuscripts ever assembled by a private individual, that of the Frankfurt jeweller Louis Koch (1862-1930) (no.308).

LITERATURE:

Dr. Georg Kinsky, Manuskripte - Briefe - Dokumente von Scarlatti bis Stravinsky. Katalog der Musikautographen-Sammlung Louis Koch (Stuttgart, 1953), pp.287-289; Margit L. McCorkle, Johannes Brahms. Thematisch-Bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis (1984), pp.43-48, 188-195; TNG, iv (2001)