Brahms and Schoenberg: A Shared Structure of Nostalgia

Cynthia Gonzales, Texas State University

Frisch (1993) proves Brahms' influence on Schoenberg's 1890s compositions by comparing surface-level features: melody, harmony, texture. I propose to explore a background structure shared by Brahms' 1874 song "Heimweh II" ("O wüsst ich doch den Weg zurück"), Op. 63 no. 8 and Schoenberg's 1905 song "Alles," Op. 6 no. 2. The significance of the songs' shared structure is multifaceted. First, "Alles" was composed after the years typically associated with Schoenberg's "Brahms fog." Second, the analytical similarity occurs at the background level, not only the foreground: the descending Urlinie in each song invokes modal mixture (Examples 1 and 2). And third, the text of each song features an adult's nostalgic longing for childhood and yearning for hopefulness. That both Schoenberg and his musical mentor Brahms invoke model mixture in the background structures of their respective songs "Alles" and "Heimweh II" might be trivial, were it not that the lyrics of both songs address the topic of nostalgic longings for childhood, and that these yearnings remain unfulfilled. This opens the door to re-examine the Brahms-Schoenberg connection.

Gonzales Example 1
Gonzales Example 2