Brahms

F to End

F to G
Notice how Brahms builds to crescendo through instrumentation yet again. Now, instead of call
and response, we are introduced to the two melodic “teams” (clari + bassoon and the violins)
playing together (both in the melody and counter melody). Using the aforementioned, darker
sound of the lower string register, Brahms takes the voices up little by little before coming to
the diminuendo at 114. There, the violas and cellos simple climb up into nothing while the
basses sustain for just a bit longer. The flutes join the melodic material with the other
woodwinds in at F, until all the woodwinds “let go” of the melody and come down on sustained
notes, descending lower (quieter) in their register.

At G, we return to the call and response gesture with the strings entering first and the
woodwind couples following, plus an added response from the low strings!

116
Call: Violin I & II
Response: Clarinet & Bassoon
Response (2): Cello & Bass
117/118
Call: Horn & Oboe
Response: Horn, Flute, & Oboe
Response (2): Cello & Bass
119
Call: Violin I, II & and Viola
Response: Clarinet & Basson
Response (2): Cello & Bass
120/121
Call: Horn & Oboe
Response: Horn, Flute, & Oboe
Response (2): Trombones

At 122, the violins and violas dovetail into the woodwinds who play a reiteration of the initial
theme’s gesture. The bassoons gently rise up before stepping down chromatically up until 127.
The basses and cello pizz. underneath them, with one part of the divisi cellos sustaining the “C.”
With a last, grandiose gesture, the horns, trombones, cellos, and basses call a line, which is
repeated by the trombones, horns, bassoons, and clarinet II. The oboe cuts through these
voices one last time, getting one last solo moment before teaming back up with the flutes for
the end. Brahms adds some string support from the violin I & IIs on this last woodwind note, as
well giving the basses the final note (because they’d feel left out if the didn’t play).