Three Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117 (Brahms)

1892 piano pieces by Johannes Brahms

The Three Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117, are a set of solo piano pieces composed by Johannes Brahms in 1892. They show Brahms' interest in lullaby; in particular, Brahms told a friend that they were "three lullabies of my grief".^[1] They consist of:^[2]

No. 1 in E♭ major, Andante moderato
No. 2 in B♭ minor, Andante non troppo e con molta espressione
No. 3. in C♯ minor, Andante con moto

The first intermezzo is among Brahms' most popular piano compositions. It is prefaced in the score by two lines from an anonymous Scottish ballad, "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament", translated to German by Johann Gottfried Herder:

Schlaf sanft mein Kind, schlaf sanft und schön!
Mich dauert’s sehr, dich weinen sehn.

Original:
Baloo, my babe, lie still and sleep;
It grieves me sore to see thee weep.

History

Brahms composed the three Intermezzi of Opus 117 in the summer of 1892 while staying in Bad Ischl.^[2] In June of that year he asked his friend, the musicologist Eusebius Mandyczewski, to send him manuscript paper so that Brahms could "properly sketch" the three pieces.^[3] In September 1892 Clara Schumann learned of the existence of the pieces from her student Ilona Eibenschütz and wrote to Brahms requesting he send them to her.^[4] He obliged her request, sending her the completed pieces on 14 October 1892.^[5]

Reception

These Character pieces were described by the critic Eduard Hanslick as "monologues", which Brahms' biographer Walter Niemann describes as "thoroughly personal and subjective" and striking a "pensive, graceful, dreamy, resigned, and elegiac note".^[1]

To Niemann, the middle section of the second intermezzo seems to portray a "man as he stands with the bleak, gusty autumn wind eddying round him".^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Niemann, Walter; Phillips, Catherine Alison (1969). Brahms. Cooper Square. pp. 237–239, 241–242. ISBN 978-0-8154-0310-4. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
^ ^a ^b Brahms, Johannes (2013). Eich, Katrin (ed.). Three Intermezzi op. 117. Kiel, Germany: G. Henle Verlag. pp. V. ISMN 979-0-2018-1042-3.
^ Geiringer, Karl (2006). On Brahms and His Circle. Essays and Documentary Studies. p. 254.
^ Litzmann, Berthold (1927). Clara Schumann — Johannes Brahms. Briefe aus den Jahren 1853–1896 (Hildesheim ed.). pp. 487f.
^ Schumann — Brahms Briefwechsel, vol. 2. p. 470.

External links

Three Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Detailed Listening Guide using the recording by Martin Jones

Johannes Brahms

List of compositions

Orchestral works