From their first meeting in May 1853, Brahms and internationally famous violinist Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) became the best of friends. For several years the two collaborated on the study of composition, orchestration, and counterpoint, and Joachim's string quartet played through some of Brahms' chamber music. In late 1854, Brahms embarked on a period of compositional study with the goal of mastering the art of classical polyphony, sharing his work with Joachim. Among the surviving studies from this period are two Gigues, WoO 4, and two Sarabandes, WoO 5 composed in 1855. All four pieces demonstrate Brahms' assimilation of J. S. Bach's contrapuntal style. The two Sarabandes, WoO 5, were first published in 1927 as part of Johannes Brahms sämtliche Werke (Johannes Brahms: Collected Works). Their first known performance took place in Vienna on January 20, 1856.

The sarabande developed during the sixteenth century in Latin America and Spain as a sung dance. During the Baroque era it became an instrumental dance in triple meter, the examples from France and Germany being slow with an accented dotted note on the second beat. They are generally in binary form with each part consisting of a four- or eight-measure phrase. In both France and Germany a sarabande was nearly always one of the movements in a dance suite.

Brahms' Sarabandes maintain some of the characteristics of the Baroque models, particularly the binary form. The first of the two, in A minor, is in two parts, the first of which is an eight-measure phrase that moves to the dominant and is repeated. Although they are not dotted, the notes on the second beat of the measure are longest notes in the melody. The stress on the second beat continues in the second half, but here the notes are dotted and the rapid, ornamental figurations are reminiscent of Baroque keyboard writing. The piece ends on an A major chord.

The melody moves from hand to hand in the first phrase of the second Sarabande, in B minor. Eight measures long, the first phrase closes on the dominant, and Brahms follows this with a much longer second phrase constructed of the same motivic material as the first, but tending throughout toward B major.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.