Brahms ballade

The piano texture is...

Dense, rarely reaching above the treble stave

Similar to intermezzo the structure is..

A set of compact ternary structures in an overall A B A form with a contrasting more gentle B section

Harmony at the beginning of the piece..

Emphatic V7-1 progression, which establishes tonic key (G minor).
Followed by a succession of strong root position chords outlining the circle of fifths
End of bar 4 moves to dominant (D major)

Rhythm of the beginning

Staccato quavers and dotted ryhtms

Texture at the beginning

Classic Brahms, bass plays bold octaves low in the register
chordal accomplement is close triads often travelling low in register

Motif A at the begging is ....

Three note rising scale pattern, dissonant triple appogutira in the begging bar

How is motif A developed

Immediately inverted in bar 2 and then altered to turn around at the start of bar 3 to create a falling 3rd

Describe the falling 3rd in the opening bars

It's treated like a decending sequence whilst the rising quavers from the motif are augmented ryhtmically into a crochet quaver pattern and then in minims to create a five bare phrase which decends through every pitch of the melodic minor scale ( irregular phrasing for Brahms is classic btw)

At the begging of the price for every bar apart from bar 2 and up until the forceful decent to the low d which moves the harmony to the dominant the bass is.....

Playing in contrary motion

There's another circle of fifths at the start and the 7ths in the chords help to ...

Propel the harmony into the a perfect cadence in the tonic ( tierce de picadie)

How does he create reflection in the reduce de picede in bar 10

A tentuo ( holding tone) Falling 7 the

New section within the A section at the end of bar 10 is in what key

E flat major (submediant) this is a tertiary modulation as uses G as the linking pitch

The section in bar 10 is hesitant why?

Low melodic tesitura and p dynamic and repeated first inversion harmony undermining the strength of the downbeat

The key of the piece is

G minor

After the nice gentle tierce de Picarde with the falling 7th tentuo and the hesintant feel
We move to bar 14 the inverted motif is heard again harmony is lifted to F minor and in bars 15-16

A sequence of decending triple suspensions in rapid harmonic rhythm where the strong beats are weakened by the ties in the middle voices resolving ahead of the main melody and the rising bass ( follows a full circle of fifths)

Bars 17- 22 repeates the triple suspension phrase but starting with a root ...

E flat chord and a stronger mover towards F minor through a secondary dominant chord in third inversion

Bars 23-32 are a repeat of the first ten bars although there are differences in accentuation ...

Crescendo and weightier left hand chords an extra quaver in the anacrusis of the melody sitting a third higher. The move to F major is replaced with D minor bar 29

The quaver chords have been almost incessant up to this point but in bar 37 the codetta before the B section the harmony is distilled through ....

A long upper and lower tonic pedal

The codetta before the b section shows how Brahms transforms the original chordal pattern into the...

Falling 3 rd motif

B section has a subdued and reflective mood in B major the melody rises and falls in an archetypal classic shape in regular 4 bar phrases the diatonic melody is based on ..

Motif a in fragments

What pedal is used in the b section and what phrasing

Una corda (sustain) and legato phrasing

The melody of the b section is in what intervals ?

3 rds and 6ths

Metrically stable bass notes on the beat of the b section and the texture is

Three parts with arpeggio acconplaninebt spanning shapes of two octaves

Before b section there are b natural pedal notes, before that how does Brahms get there in the harmony from g minor ?

Bar 31 Teri de picarde as he goes to G MAJOR then after that wen we start hearing the b pedal that's just first inversion of G maj chord

Slurs in b section cause

Rhythmic displacement in the motif

Fist 2 bars of b section The chords are 1 outline with chord 4 in between in b section hints at a ..

Plagal cadence

Plagal cadence is

An unfinshed cadence that defines the key

In the b section it moves to F sharp major for phrase b which is the what chord? And there's also a unclear what?

Dominant and unclear circle of fifths full of inversions

You always get a deciding melodic sequence over a ...

Circle of fifths

Overall section b has clear modulations to related keys which underpin the phrase structure along with brief modulations and secondary dominants the phrases for each key r

Phrase a - B major
Phrase b - F sharp major (dominant)
Phrase c - D sharp minor ( relative minor of f sharp maj)

Overall the harmony in the b section like the a section is very functional lots of perfect cadences and circle of fifths but is enriched with chromatic notes and chord extensions and...

Secondary dominants and suspensions