Brahmsian Articulation: Ambiguous and Unfixed Structures in Op. 38

Abstract

The analysis of the structural repercussions of musicians’ strategies has traditionally focused on their handling of timing and dynamics, not only because of the correlation found in performances between hierarchical phrase structure and coordinated decreases in both parameters —usually referred to as phrase arching (Gabrielsson 1988) or phrase-final lengthening (Todd 1985; Repp 1990—but also because of these parameters’ easier quantification. However, other parameters, including articulation, can play equally significant roles in the emergence and potential perception of musical structures. The processes of performance and inference are, moreover, so unique to each musician and/or beholder that revisions of traditional approaches to musical form have become necessary. To explore this phenomenon, I study both the score and five recordings of the finale from Brahms’s first cello sonata, op. 38. The junctures where the transition and the recapitulation start are indeterminate. In addition, the piece employs procedures typical of both the sonata and the fugue to produce a formal hybrid that poses significant quandaries to both performers and analysts. Focusing on the selected musicians’ manipulations of articulation, this article aims to determine whether this parameter might, along with timing and dynamics, be relevant in the emergence and perception of formal relations. The study also addresses the ways in which formal ambiguity can be materialized, concealed, and created in performance, ultimately investigating how musical form can, on the basis of its performance, be considered as multivalent.