Brahms's Violin Sonatas

Notation in Johannes Brahms's sonata scores tells violinists and pianists far more than merely what pitches to play and how long to play them--if read carefully, these scores reveal an immense amount of expression, both of musical and human essences. Joel Lester's Brahms's Violin Sonatas magnifies key passages from these scores, revealing in clear and accessible language how the composer built his themes and musical narratives and how, ultimately, Brahms's music came to sound Brahmsian. Through close readings and annotated musical examples, Brahms's Violin Sonatas guides practitioners to read scores with care and to develop their own informed interpretation of the pieces, eschewing the notion of a single "correct" interpretation of the historical score. By exploring not only the sonatas' musical elements, but also their relationship to important events in the composer's life, Lester shows how subtle components can communicate the gestures, moods, personalities, and emotions that make Brahms's music so compelling. A companion volume to the author's award-winning 1999 study Bach's Works for Solo Violin: Style, Structure, and Performance (OUP), Brahms's Violin Sonatas is a clear and practical guide to understanding and performing Brahms's music in the present.

Joel Lester is Professor Emeritus at the CUNY Graduate Center and The City College of New York. A scholar, violinist, and administrator, he was also Dean of Mannes College of Music from 1996 until 2011. He is the author of Bach's Solo Works for Solo Violin (OUP, 1999), Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century, and Analytic Approaches to 20th-Century Music.

Acknowledgements
Preface: Brahms, Musical Scores, Musical Meaning, Musical Expression
Part I: Brahms's Notes
Chapter 1: It Sounds like Brahms
Chapter 2: Shaping Brahmsian Themes
Part II: Brahms's Musical Narratives
Chapter 3: First-movement Sonata Forms
Chapter 4: The Middle Movements
Chapter 5: The Finales
Chapter 6: Brahms and the Violin: The Early Violin Sonatas
List of Works Cited
Index