Day Fourteen: Analysis of Brahms 3

Brahms transforms this chordal music into one of the most exciting and thrilling symphonic climaxes of the 19th century.

This post is part of 14 Days of Harmony, a free course for musicians who want to deepen their understanding of harmony, and learn how to develop their connection with sound as a result. You can view the entire course here.

Always start with the biggest overview. 

When analyzing a piece, always try to keep the larger perspective in mind. In the moment of hearing the music, do so with your full spirit and attention and try and forget all of the rules. When going back to learn the piece at a deeper level, try to connect the details to the bigger picture, as we saw how to do in our last lesson.

The Brahms movement that we're looking at is a large piece of music, so we'll practice keeping a larger perspective by focusing on just the first minute of the last movement. We won't get too bogged down with details, and we're only applying what we know to try and hear the piece in a new way. 

Take a listen first, you can follow along with the full score as well, and then we'll dive into the analysis.