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

EDWARD (1)

   1 "Why dois your brand sae drap wi'
      bluid,
        Edward, Edward?

   Why dois your brand sae drap wi' bluid?
      And why sae sad gang yee, O?"
   "O, I hae killed my hauke sae guid,
        Mither, mither,
   O, I hae killed my hauke sae guid,
      And I had nae mair bot hee, O."

   2 "Your haukis bluid was nevir sae reid,
        Edward, Edward,
   Your haukis bluid was nevir sae reid,
      My deir son I tell thee, O."
   "O, I hae killed my reid-roan steid,
        Mither, mither,
   O, I hae killed my reid-roan steid,
      That erst was sae fair and frie, O."

   3 "Your steid was auld, and ye hae gat
      mair,
        Edward, Edward,

   Your steid was auld, and ye hae gat
      mair,
      Sum other dule ye drie, O."
   "O, I hae killed my fadir deir,
        Mither, mither,
   O, I hae killed my fadir deir,
      Alas, and wae is mee, O!"

   4 "And whatten penance wul ye drie for
      that,
        Edward, Edward?
   And whatten penance wul ye drie for
      that?
      My deir son, now tell me, O."
   "Ile set my felt in yonder boat,
        Mither, mither,
   Ile set my feit in yonder boat
      And lie fare ovir the sea, O."

   5 "And what wul ye doe wi' your towirs
      and your ha',
        Edward, Edward,
   And what wul ye doe wi' your towirs
      and your ha.'
      That were sae fair to see, O?"
   "Ile let thame stand tul they doun fa',
        Mither, mither,
   Ile let thame stand tul they doun fa',
      For here nevir mair maun I bee, O."

   6 "And what wul ye leive to your bairns
      and your wife,
        Edward, Edward?
   And what wul ye leive to your bairns
      and your wife,
      When ye gang ovir the sea, O?"
   "The warldis room, late them beg thrae
      life,
        Mither, mither,
   The warldis room, late them beg thrae
      life,
      For thame nevir mair wul I see, O."

   7 "And what wul ye leive to your ain
      mither deir,
        Edward, Edward?
   And what wul ye leive to your ain mither
      deir?
      My deir son, now tell me, O."
   "The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir,
        Mither, mither,
   The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir,
      Sic counseils ye gave to me, O."

   EDWARD (2)

   1 "Why does your sword so drip with
      blood,
        Edward, Edward?
   Why does your sword so drip with
      blood?
      And why are ye so sad, O?"
   "O, I have killed my hawk so good,
        Mother, Mother,
   O, I have killed my hawk so good,
      And I had no other but he, O."

   2 "Your hawk's blood was never so red,
        Edward, Edward,
   Your hawk's blood was never so red,
      My dear son, I tell thee, O."
   "O, I have killed my red-roan steed,
        Mother, Mother,
   O, I have killed my red-roan steed,
      That was so fair and free, O."

   3 "Your steed was old, and ye've got
      more,
        Edward, Edward,
   Your steed was old, and ye've got
      more,
      Some other grief ye bear, O."
   "O, I have killed my father dear,
        Mother, Mother,
   O, I have killed my father dear,
      Alas, and woe is me, O."

   4 "And what penance will ye pay for
      that,
        Edward, Edward?
   And what penance will ye pay for that?
      My dear son now tell me, O."
   "I'll set my feet in yonder boat,
        Mother, Mother,
   I'll set my feet in yonder boat,
      And I'll sail o'er the sea, O."

5 "And what will ye do with your towers
      and your hall,
        Edward, Edward,
   And what will ye do with your towers
      and your hall,
      That were so fair to see, O?"
   "I'11 let them stand till they fall down,
        Mother, Mother,
   I'll let them stand till they fall down,
      For here never more I'll be, O"

   6 "And what will ye leave to your
      children and your wife,
        Edward, Edward?
   And what will ye leave to your children
      and your wife?
      When ye sail o'er the sea, O?"
   "The whole wide world, let them beg
      through life,
        Mother, Mother,
   The whole wide world, let them beg
      through life,
      For them never more will I see, O."

7 "And what will ye leave to your own
      Mother dear,
        Edward, Edward?
      And what will ye leave to your own
      Mother dear?
      My dear son, now tell me, 0."
   "The curse of Hell from me shall ye bear,
        Mother, Mother,
   The curse of Hell from me shall ye bear,
      Since counsel ye gave to me, O."

One rarely associates the term "programmatic music" with the compositions of Johannes Brahms. Early in his career, however, Brahms wrote the short and intensely compelling Ballade in D Minor, Op. 10, No. 1, which he subtitled "Edward." I first encountered this musical jewel some twenty-five years ago in my undergraduate piano literature class. My classmates and I met twice weekly in the cramped studio of Carl Pfeiffer, a brilliant pianist and inspiring teacher, who led us with painstaking detail through all the standard piano repertoire, pointing out stylistic, technical and pedagogical features of each piece discussed. As he worked his way through the copious repertoire of Brahms, Pfeiffer turned to the last page of the so-called "Edward" ballade and sternly told us to take careful note of the articulation and dynamics of the eighth-note triplet pattern in the final measures of the piece. "Never," he said, "use pedal here, and play it as quietly as you can, with just a light staccato. It should sound like blood dripping." Then, he moved to the piano and demonstrated: "See, it should sound like this--drip, drip; drip, drip." After a few giggles from the members of the class, Pfeiffer continued with the second ballade of the Opus 10 set.

I gave little thought to this piece again after the class was over until about ten years ago. At that time, I had a most precocious fourteen-year-old student who needed a bit of musical relief from her Bach and Beethoven. She had just finished a Chopin nocturne, and I thought she was ready to tackle some of the technical difficulties and contrapuntal intricacies of Brahms's pianistic style. I intended for her to work, in the next semester, on the famous Brahms Ballade in G Minor, but I needed something shorter and slightly less substantial that would provide a good introduction to Brahms. After all, I didn't want the poor girl to burn out, and she still had some substantial work ahead of her on the Beethoven. I needed a piece that would be both a technical and musical challenge to her (she definitely did not want to learn anything that she termed "a baby piece"), but which would be immediately accessible to her romantic nature. So, I combed through my beloved volumes of Brahms's works and found my notes on the "Edward" ballade from Pfeiffer's class. A bit more research and I knew I'd found the answer. The legend upon which the ballade is based is just ghoulish enough to appeal to a teenager whose favorite pastime was watching horror movies, and Brahms's rendering of the story is truly eerie and spine tingling. In the end, Angela loved the work and went on to perform the piece with flair and sensitivity.

After my work with Angela, the ballade went on the shelf again until just a few years ago, when I decided to play the piece myself. As I began to study the piece, I let my imagination run wild, and working from Pfeiffer's "drip, drip," and what I remembered of the legend, I began to weave a storyline for the piece. Finally, I decided that more research was needed and found, to my amazement, that Brahms's musical rendering of the legend is not a loose and superficial nod to the legend of Edward, but a deep and stirring psychological profile in music of a truly disturbed and disturbing family. While the piece is terrifically powerful in purely abstract musical terms, my research and analysis of the work and of the Scottish poem gave me a sense of the greater depth of the piece and a renewed awe at the genius of Brahms)

In the medieval Scottish ballad "Edward," we meet two members of what, in contemporary jargon, might be termed a thoroughly dysfunctional family: the Mother, a conniving, domineering and self-centered woman, and her deceitful, deranged and murderous son, Edward. We know from the ballad that Edward is a nobleman, for he owns a sword, a hunting hawk and horses, as well as "towers and a hall." We know, too, that his Mother depends heavily on him for her very well-being, as do his wife and his children.

Brahms encountered this ballad in Johann Gottfried Herder's widely read and highly respected anthology, Stimmen der Volker (compiled in 1778-1779 and revised 1807) and cited the source of the program in the prefatory remark found in the score: "Nach der schottischen Ballade [after the Scottish ballade] 'Edward.'" As the Brahms biographer Malcolm MacDonald states, "[He] was the first composer to make systematic use ... of" the literature of preserved [Germanic] folksong and folk music" in his compositions. (4) The four ballades in the Opus 10 set were composed in the summer of 1854 and marked a decisive turning point in Brahms's development as a composer inasmuch as they foreshadowed the groupings of short, lyrical, character pieces that were to become a hallmark of his mature style of piano composition. The intricate and innovative contrapuntal techniques found in these pieces, and especially in the "Edward" ballade, also are early indications of Brahms's mature writing. The first of these pieces in the Opus 10 set clearly is a programmatic work in which nearly every structural feature--from formal structures, contrapuntal devices, key schemes and thematic material--is drawn from the legend and the poetic structures of the Scottish ballad upon which it is based.

We sense the tragedy of the poetic ballad and the noble lineage of its characters in the very opening measures of the musical rendering. A pall of grief and despair hangs in the air and is depicted in the dark and brooding key of D minor, the quiet dynamic level, the lugubrious andante tempo and the spacing of the chords of the Mother's first query. Edward's noble status is afforded musical expression in the stately hymnlike texture and majestic quality of the harmonic progressions of his first two musical answers and in the eighth-note triplet iterations of a single D-major chord (measures 27 and following), which call to mind regal brass fanfares often associated with royalty.

Throughout his career, Brahms favored three-part form as the primary organizational type for his ballades. The "Edward" ballade is no exception and falls into three large and clearly defined sections, which are shown in Figure 1. The pattern of cadential structures of the three sections, however, causes the formal plan of this ballade to be more closely related to an expanded rounded binary form than to the familiar ternary forms of other romantic composers such as Robert Schumann. The first section (measures 1-26) corresponds to the first two stanzas of the poem, while the second (measures 27-58) provides a kind of sonata-like development of thematic material found in the first section. The third and final section corresponds, primarily, to the final stanza of the poem and musically presents an elaborated return of material from the first section.

By way of the thematic material and formal structures in the first section, we can follow quite easily the dialogue between the Mother and Edward, since Brahms presented clearly defined themes for each of the characters. Example 1 illustrates the first statement of the Mother's theme (measures 1-3). Note the spacing of the chords in the Mother's theme, with their "plaintive thirds at the top and the 'archaic' fifths at the bottom of the texture." (5) The descending fifths in two-note slur patterns (measures 2-3) also should be noted; this motive traditionally has been associated with the Mother's refrainlike utterances, "Edward, Edward," and, indeed, should be played with exactly that inflection.

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Edward's first deceitful answer, an excerpt of which is shown in Example 2, appears in measures 9-13. Note the stately, homorhythmic setting of Edward's theme, as well as the odd five-beat metric groupings of the abbreviated phrases, which are discussed later.

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The phrase structures of the thematic material in Section I parallel the poetic form of the first two stanzas. As shown in Figure 2, the first two poetic stanzas are "set" as two double period structures that are divided in half and distributed in alternation among the two "characters." See Example 3 for a reconstruction of the Mother's theme as a double period structure. A similar reconstruction may be performed on Edward's theme, with like effect. By dividing the double periods and alternating them with one another, Brahms ingeniously portrays the opening dialogue between Mother and son, which in the poem also are presented as double period structures.

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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.

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There may yet be another, perhaps subtler, connection between the two themes. We need not "read" or understand these musical relationships in a simple chronological fashion. One of the most powerful factors in the musical rendering of an intricate drama is that relationships, motivations and events may be condensed structurally. That the guiding motivation of Edward's theme lies in the melodic and rhythmic structure of the Mother's theme, may indeed point a musical finger at the underlying motivation for Edward's damnable act.

The harmonization of the contrapuntal lines of Edward's theme in a somewhat anachronistic homorhythmic texture with octave doubling of the bassline, calls to mind the well-known stately four-voice settings of Lutheran chorale tunes by J.S. Bach. With such a forthright setting, Edward immediately asserts his noble status and, no doubt, hopes to dupe his Mother. It is, of course, all bluster.

In the Scottish ballad, the Mother obviously does not believe her son's first answer, and she queries him again and again. Edward's second answer, "O, I have killed my red-roan steed," yet another lie, is a variant of his first lie, "O, I have killed my hawk so good." This web of lies is aptly communicated in Brahms's setting by the invertible counterpoint that forms the basis of Edward's second musical statement (see measures 22-26 and Example 5).

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Yet another variant of Edward's first theme is presented in measures 44 and following. Edward's final, truthful, answer, "O, I have killed my father dear," explodes at the end of the third stanza of the poem and in the music at the anacrusis to measure 44. Here, the musical answer is registrally at its most widely spaced, with octave doublings of both of the contrapuntal lines, as shown in Example 6. This outburst is accompanied by a fortissimo dynamic marking, in clear contrast to Edward's earlier more controlled, but deceitful, statements, each of which is marked with a piano dynamic level.

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The unrelenting rise to this musical and poetic height of passion proceeds throughout the second section of the work. From measure 27 to the anacrusis to measure 44, the listener can trace, musically, Edward's increasing confusion and mounting hysteria. It also may be noted by those interested in such music-architectural details that the final and truthful answer, the point of greatest tension, occurs in the score at the point of greatest structural significance, measure 44, the Golden Mean.

The musical placement of Edward's truthful answer does not correspond, structurally, to the poetic placement of Edward's confession, which occurs quite early in the poem at the end of the third stanza. Brahms, however, delays the climactic point of the musical setting to create nearly unbearable tension at the approach to Edward's damning admission. In the second section of the piece, we find Edward becoming caught up, as it were, in his second lie and weaving, perhaps, an increasingly convoluted story about his red-roan steed. All the while, the Mother continues her insistent and incessant questioning.

The sudden shift of mode in Section II to the idyllic, pastoral key of D major recalls Edward's description of his "red-roan steed that was so fair and free." One need only recall Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op. 28, which he subtitled "Pastoral," to understand the tranquil, pastoral qualities of the key. The repeated eighth-note triplets of the widely spaced chords of this section conjure notions of nobility and also have, since the days of Claudio Monteverdi, been associated with the galloping of horses. One only has to call to mind the battle scene in Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and the triplet figures in Franz Schubert's Erlkonig for clear reminders of this stereotypical musical gesture. Throughout this section, Edward's "story" becomes increasingly fragmented as the thematic lines are repeated and restated in sequential figures in the bass register. The Mother's nagging, which becomes increasingly strident in the rising sequential patterns, is reiterated in the voicing of the eighth-note triplet figures. Edward's mounting hysteria is sensed quickly by the listener, as his theme, now stated in the middle register and incorporating the grace note figure of the Mother's theme, modulates rapidly and dramatically through an ascending pattern of keys from D major through E minor and F-sharp minor to cadence, momentarily, in B major in measure 37, thus paralleling the heightened stridency of the Mother's interjections. Yet, Edward cannot seem to stop his utterings and leave well enough alone; the modulations continue to rise through D major. A sudden turn to D minor at the anacrusis to measure 42 accompanies a restatement of the Mother's opening chord, now with octave displacements; that is, the bass is one octave lower and the treble one octave higher than the original statement. This restatement of the Mother's opening chord provides the vehicle for a sudden shift of tonality to B-flat major and Edward's final answer at the anacrusis to measures 44 and following. The tonal shift B-flat major also recalls the deceptive resolution at the beginning of Edward's first lie in measure 8.

Edward's progression toward madness is given final thematic realization in the transformation of the triplet figure, which begins the section as a regal and noble musical gesture of brass fanfares and galloping horses. In measure 43 and continuing to the end of the section, the triplet figure degenerates to a distorted pattern of stuttering that repeatedly interrupts Edward's confession (see Example 7). Edward's cry of despair, "Alas and woe is me," is afforded musical summation in the series of diminished chords that close the second section.

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Musically, Brahms spends little time depicting the dialogue of the fourth, fifth and sixth stanzas of the poem. Instead, the Mother's apparent concern for Edward's fate, for that of his holdings and for that of his wife and children is slighted, in the musical rendering of the story, in favor of the Mother's self-centered concern for her own future and Edward's closing revelation.

In the third and final section of the piece we hear, through a complete restatement of the Mother's theme in its original register, the Mother's repeated plea, "And what will ye leave to your own Mother dear?" The Mother's selfish question is accompanied by a fragmented triplet figure in the bassline, which conjures an aural sensation of the dripping of blood from Edward's sword. The fragmented triplet figure forms, musically, a canon at the octave with the Mother's theme in measures 59-64 (see Example 8).

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The Mother's pleadings are made all the more pitiful with the sudden shift of key to the minor dominant (A minor). It is as if this whining self-pity is the last straw for Edward, and with the fully diminished seventh chord in measures 64 and 65, Edward presents his Mother with a parting gift: "The curse of Hell from me shall ye bear." As if to underscore Edward's curse, the dripping of blood becomes more persistent as the fragmented triplet figure in octaves replaces the single notes in the bass. In measures 68 and 69, an A-major chord, the dominant of the key, is sounded, signaling the end of the piece. Yet, Edward is not finished, and he will have the final word. Before the dominant chord is resolved, the bass descends through a crescendo and settles momentarily, as if in anguish, on a wrenchingly dissonant f, the third of the tonic triad, and it is here, perhaps, that the reason for Edward's curse is revealed. This is, perhaps, the most horrifying of all the revelations in the poem and in the piece, for now we know that it was by his own Mother's counsel that Edward committed the heinous crime of patricide.

Figure 1. Tripartite formal plan of the "Edward" Ballade.

    Musical Section            Corresponding Poetic Stanza

Section I (mm, 1-26):      Stanzas 1 and 2 (the Mother's first
                           two questions and Edward's
                           deceitful answers

Section II (mm. 27-59):    Stanza 3 (the continuation of
                           Edward's second lie, the Mother's
                           question yet a third time and
                           Edward's revelation of the truth of
                           his murderous deed)

Section III (mm. 60-71):   Stanzas 4 through 7, especially the
                           last (the Mother's whining concern
                           for her own fate and Edward's final
                           damning revelation)

Figure 2. Comparison of the Poetic and Musical Formal Structures
in the "Edward" Ballade

               Stanza                     Theme/Motive

Why does your sword so drip with blood,   Motives a-d
                        Edward, Edward?   Motive e
Why does your sword so drip with blood,   Motives a b
                                          Motives a b
And why are ye so sad, O?                 Motive e extended
O, I have killed my hawk so good,         Edward's Theme
                        Mother, Mother,
O, I have killed my hawk so good.         Edward's Theme

        (And I had no other but he, O.)
Your hawk's blood was never so red,       Motives a-d
                        Edward, Edward,   Motive e
Your hawk's blood was never so red,       Motives a-b
                                          Motives a-b
           My dear son, I tell thee, O.   Motive e extended
O, I have killed my red-roan steed,       Edward's Theme
                         Mother, Mother   (inverted)
O, I have killed my red-roan steed,       Edward's Theme
                             (inverted)
         (That was so fair and free, O)

                Stanza                    Key-Cadence

Why does your sword so drip with blood,   d-       half cadence
                        Edward, Edward?   d-       half cadence
Why does your sword so drip with blood,   d        [??]subdominant
                                          g        [??]relationship
And why are ye so sad, O?                 d-       half cadence
O, I have killed my hawk so good,         B-flat-g [??]subdominant
                        Mother, Mother,
O, I have killed my hawk so good.         E-flat-c [??]relationship
                                          E-flat-d half cadence
        (And I had no other but he, O.)
Your hawk's blood was never so red,       d -      half cadence
                        Edward, Edward,   d -      half cadence
Your hawk's blood was never so red,       d        [??]subdominant
                                          g        [??]relationship
           My dear son, I tell thee, O.   B-flat-  half cadence
O, I have killed my red-roan steed,       B-flat-g [??]subdominant
                         Mother, Mother
O, I have killed my red-roan steed,       E-flat-c [??]relationship
                             (inverted)
                                          E-flat-g half cadence
         (That was so fair and free, O)

NOTES

(1.) The Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-Speaking World, edited by Albert B. Freidman. (New York: Penguin Books, 1976): 156-158.

(2.) Original translation by the author, October 1999.

(3.) Dumm, Robert, "A Performance Analysis--The Ballade in D Minor by Brahms," Clavier 41.2. (February, 2002): 24-28. As the title of the article suggests, Dumm's primary intent is to offer the reader practical suggestions for preparing the piece for performance. He presents the reader with an abbreviated, yet highly informative, formal and structural analysis and interesting background information on the composition of the piece. My article stems from a lecture-recital I first presented in 1999. The intent of the present article is to probe more deeply into the forms and structures of the pieces from a purely analytical perspective and to attempt to explain these forms and structures as projections of the unfolding drama of the poem itself and of the relationships between and psychological profiles of the two characters.

(4.) MacDonald, Malcolm, Brahms. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1990): 25.

(5.) Ibid., 84.

(6.) Durum, 25. Dumm has suggested that the bassline of Edward's theme represents the dead father. I would argue, however, that the father is no more present as a character in the drama than are Edward's wife and children, all of whom "exist" only as referents in the ballad. Analysis of the bassline shows there is a subtler rationale for the bassline and its structural components than the introduction of yet a third character.

Ellen Rennie Flint is associate professor of music in the department of visual and performing arts at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where she teaches courses in undergraduate music theory, aural skills and analysis, as welt as private, class and collaborative piano. She holds a B.A. degree in piano performance and M.M. and Ph.D. degrees in music theory.