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The Horn Trio in E♭ major, Op. 40, by Johannes Brahms is a chamber piece in four movements written for natural horn,^[1] violin, and piano. Composed in 1865, the work commemorates the death of Brahms's mother, Christiane, earlier that year. However, it draws on a theme which Brahms had composed twelve years previously but did not publish at the time.^[2]

The work was first performed in Zurich on November 28, 1865, and was published a year later in November 1866. The Horn Trio was the last chamber piece Brahms wrote for the next eight years.^[3]

Brahms chose to write the work for natural horn rather than valve horn despite the fact that the valve horn was becoming more common. The timbre of the natural horn is more somber and melancholic than the valve horn and creates a much different mood.^{[citation needed]} Brahms himself believed that the open tones of the natural horn had a fuller quality than those produced by valves. Nineteenth-century listeners associated the sound of the natural horn with nature and the calls of the hunt. Fittingly, Brahms once said that the opening theme of the first movement came to him while he was walking through the woods. Brahms also learned natural horn (as well as piano and cello) as a child, which may be another reason why he chose to write for these instruments following the death of his mother.^[4][5]

Notwithstanding Brahms's love for the sound of the natural horn, he did specify that the horn part could be played by a cello^[6] and it was indeed published with a transposed cello part. Much later in 1884 Brahms also reworked the part for viola.

The work is divided into four movements:

In the first movement, Brahms emphasizes the simplicity of the opening theme by abandoning the structure of sonata form^[7] in favour of three slow sections offset by two shorter, more rhapsodic segments. Brahms also deviates from classical practice by adopting a slow–fast–slow–fast order of movements, perhaps looking back to the old sonata da chiesa form.^[a][9]

The Scherzo represents a lighter side of grief; since the work as a whole simulates the stages of mourning, the Scherzo serves as the reminder of happy memories.^{[original research?]} As in the first movement, Brahms uses the pitches of the E♭ overtone series to establish the theme. (This theme is found in some variation in every movement, most directly in the Finale.) The playfulness that the tempo suggests offers a break from the slow and somber surrounding movements. The contrasting trio section uses transposed material from a small unpublished piano piece (Albumblatt) which Brahms had written twelve years earlier, in 1853.^[2]

The Adagio mesto opens with four measures of solo piano in the low register of the instrument; this sets up the solemn, contemplative mood of the movement that is emphasized by the entrance of the violin and horn. Daniel Gregory Mason held the Adagio from the Horn Trio to be one of Brahms's most impassioned and heartfelt slow movements.^[10]

The Finale contains the main theme that is present in the previous three movements, but it is prominently displayed in E♭ major in a lively tempo.^[11] The joy felt in the Finale symbolizes the recovery at the end of mourning.^{[original research?]}

In 2006 hornist Radek Baborák took part in the premiere of Miloš Bok's arrangement of the work as a concerto for horn (or viola, or cello), violin and orchestra.^[12][13]

• Horn trio
  • Trio for horn, violin, and piano (Banks)
  • Trio for horn, violin, and piano (Berkeley)
  • Horn Trio (Holbrooke) – an early twentieth-century work composed as a companion to Brahms's Horn Trio
  • Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (Ligeti)

Notes

Sources

• Donat, Misha (1998). Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): The Complete Trios – The Florestan Trio, Stephen Stirling (horn), Richard Hosford (clarinet) (PDF) (CD). Hyperion Records. CDD22082. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
• Drinker, Henry S. (1932). The chamber music of Johannes Brahms (PDF). Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott.
• Garrett, Joshua (1998). Brahms' Horn Trio: Background and Analysis for Performers (PDF) (DMA). The Juilliard School.
• Geiringer, Karl (2009). Brahms: His Life and Work. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80223-2.
• Mason, Daniel Gregory (1933). The Chamber Music of Brahms (PDF). New York: The Macmillan Company.
• Needham, Alex (13 February 2012). "Brahms Piano Piece to Get Its Premiere 159 Years After Its Creation". The Guardian.
• Swafford, Jan (1999). Johannes Brahms: A Biography. London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-33372589-1.
• Wilson, Conrad (2005). Notes on Brahms: 20 Crucial Works. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-2991-0.

• Brahms Horn Trio, Op.40: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• "Brahms' Trio in E-flat Major for Piano, Violin & Horn - La Jolla Music Society SummerFest 2014". YouTube. 17 October 2014. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.