In our recent post about Mozart’s clarinet quintet, we saw that great composers’ creative process starts with themes, which are developed with techniques, while the personal experience is the final ingredient.

Brahms manifested the desire to write his clarinet quintet after hearing Mozart’s. He chose a similar structure in four movements:

• 1st Movement: Allegro (fast and bright). B minor, 6/8 time.
• 2nd Movement: Adagio (slow with great expression) – Più lento (slower), Large ternary form A-B-A. B Major, 3/4 and 4/4 time.
• 3rd Movement: Andantino (moderately fast) – Presto non assai, ma con sentimento (very fast, but with feeling). D Major, 4/4 and 2/4 time.
• 4th Movement: Con moto (with mocement), Theme and Variations with coda. B minor, 2/4, 3/8, and 6/8 time.

The main theme of the quintet is B minor, and the clarinet. But when Mozart gave the clarinet a soloistic role throughout, Brahms limits it to some moments, like the middle of the second movement. The clarinet is otherwise more like a “first among equals”. When Mozart’s clarinet looked outwards, Brahms’ often seems to look inwards. “The soothing nostalgia and utter beauty of many passages do not banish that ever-present background of not just melancholy, but repressed despair.” (musicologist Kelly Dean Hansen)

First movement: exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda (conclusion)

Exposition of theme 1

Exposition of theme 2

Development

Recapitulation, theme 1

Recapitulation, theme 2

CODA of First movement

Second Movement : Ternary A-B-A

Section A

Section B, in the “Hungarian” or “Gypsy” style

Transition back to Section A

Third Movement : Intermezzo, then Scherzo with exposition, development and recapitulation

Intermezzo

Scherzo, exposition theme 1

Exposition theme 2

Development

Recapitulation theme 1

Recapitulation theme 2

Fourth movement : con moto. Theme and variations.

Main theme, B minor

Variation 1, featuring the cello

Variation 2, echoes of the “Gypsy” middle section in the 2nd movement

Variation 3, featuring the firat violin

Variation 4, B Major, echoes of the Intermezzo in the third movement.

Variation 5, featuring the viola

Coda: recalling the main theme of the first movement, and merging with the main theme of this 4th movement.

Credit for the musical analysis: Hansen, Kelly Dean. “Listening Guides to the Works of Johannes Brahms.”