Brahms' choral writing is derived from his study of early-Baroque contrapuntal technique, undertaken initially at the library of his native city of Hamburg and intensified after meeting the Schumanns at Düsseldorf. Thus, Brahms' choral works, especially his a cappella pieces, are more akin to examples from the early eighteenth century than to those of the nineteenth. To composers of Schumann's generation, a cappella writing was something new and modern, growing in popularity at a time when Germany was in the midst of its Handel craze. To this "new" idiom Brahms applied what he had learned in his study of very early Baroque and Renaissance counterpoint. Thus, we find numerous strict canons in these choral works. It seems that between 1855 and 1865 Brahms became canon-crazy.

Brahms composed motets throughout his life, beginning with those of Op. 29, through Op. 110, written in 1889. The two motets of Op. 29, for five-voice mixed choir (there are two bass parts), date from the summer of 1860, the year after Brahms founded a women's chorus in Hamburg.

The first of the two Motets, "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her" (The Holy One Is Come To Us), sets a text by Paul Speratus (1484 - 1551). After a repetitive, homorhythmic introduction, canonic entries begin in the tenor part, followed by the altos a fourth above, the sopranos an octave above and finally the basses a fifth below. The motet continues in the manner of a fugue, with episodes featuring snippets of the subject separating returns of the canonic opening. At times Brahms increases the quarter notes of the subject to half- or whole notes, using the melody as a cantus firmus.

"Schaffe in mir, Gott" (Create in Me, Lord) features a text drawn from Psalm 51. Occasionally referred to as an "epigrammatic motet" because of Brahms' repeated use of particular motives, "Schaffe in mir, Gott" surrounds a central canonic section in G minor with segments in G major, the second of which is also canonic. A driving Allegro section introduces yet another four-voice canon that becomes more freely contrapuntal with each passing measure.

© All Music Guide