Thematic and tonal imagery in Brahms's Ballade in D Minor, Op. 10, No. 1

American Music Teacher, Dec, 2004 by llen Rennie Flint

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The Mother's theme begins in the key of D minor, but shifts abruptly, in measure 5, to a tonicization of the key of the subdominant, G minor. The Mother's opening utterance then returns (in measures 6-8) to D minor by way of modified sequences of the "Edward" motive and concludes with a half cadence. The parallel phrase structure of this opening period reflects the poetic repetition of the Mother's question, "Why does your sword so drip with blood?" The half cadence in the tonic, measure 8, which is approached by way of an extended modified sequence of the "Edward, Edward" motive, affords a musical realization of the Mother's question, "And why are ye so sad, O?"

The tonal plan of Edward's first answer, tonic (B-flat major) to subdominant (E-flat major), parallels the tonal plan of the Mother's opening query, tonic (D minor) to subdominant (G minor). Additionally, the key schemes of the Mother's theme and of Edward's theme are inextricably linked insofar as Edward's first key is B-flat major, the relative major of G minor. Thus, Edward attempts to shift the somber mood and sinister quality of the Mother's dreadful question to a mood of peace and tranquility.

Whether we know, at the outset, the story of Edward and the real significance of the blood on his sword, we sense in the poem that Edward's first answer is a lie. In Brahms's setting, we know Edward's first answer to be a lie from his first deceitful utterance, a B-flat major chord, one which provides a deceptive resolution of the Mother's final questioning half cadence in D minor. The phrasing of Edward's theme gives the listener further proof of the deceitful nature of his answer as, in his five-beat motive set in a 4/4 meter, he "trips" over his own words and barely has time to catch his breath between phrases (see Example 2). The poetic rhyme of the single-syllable word "O" that ends both the Mother's question and Edward's answer, is given musical realization in the cadential rhyme of Edward's answer, since his musical answer ends with a variant of the half cadence in D minor that closed the Mother's first question. Whereas the half cadence in measure 8 presents a full triadic sonority, complete with third, Edward's half cadence is "hollow"; the dominant chord in measure 13 is missing the third and contains only the open fifth and octaves. It is as if Edward's cadence is a sneering imitation of the Mother's cadence and his concluding musical gesture as empty as his lie.

Just as a son descends from the mother, so Edward's theme descends from that of his Mother. The musical relationships between the two themes are most apparent from a detailed study of the bassline of Edward's first theme. (6) The bassline of Edward's theme is derived directly from the treble of the Mother's theme, as shown in Example 4a. Here, one can see that the bassline of Edward's theme divides easily into two one-measure subphrases. The first subphrase is a modified inversion of the first measure of the Mother's theme, motives a and b and the first note of motive c, excluding the anacrusis but including the grace note. The ascending three-note scale figure of the Mother's theme has, in Edward's theme, been replaced by a rhythmic variant of the Mother's upper neighbor figure that includes the grace note. The second subphrase of Edward's theme presents a tonal sequence of the motives c and d of the Mother's theme. These thematic relationships are illustrated in Example 4a. The treble voice of Edward's theme is a modified inversion of its own bassline, and thus, by extension, it too is a variant of the Mother's theme. The minor modifications and relationship of the bass and treble voices of Edward's theme are readily apparent from a study of Example 4b. The rhythm of Edward's opening statement in five-beat groupings finds its rhythmic and metric parallel in the first five beats, including anacrusis, of the Mother's theme (see Example 1). These motivic relationships clearly underscore the familial relationship between Mother and son.