Skip to main content

  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Subscribers
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us

  • Login

  • Advanced search

  • Login
Advanced Search
  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Subscribers
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
Nineteenth-Century Music
Improvisational Idyll
Joachim's “Presence” and Brahms's Violin Concerto, op. 77
Karen Leistra-Jones
19th-Century Music, Vol. 38 No. 3, Spring 2015; (pp. 243-271) DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2015.38.3.243
Karen Leistra-Jones is assistant professor of music at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her research explores the culture of Werktreue performance in the second half of the nineteenth century, and her work has previously appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society. She was recently awarded a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her project entitled Curating the Musical Museum: The Brahms Circle and Modern Performance. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2011.
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
PreviousNext
Loading

Abstract

Boris Schwarz once characterized Brahms's Violin Concerto, op. 77, as an “intangible interplay between the art of Brahms and that of Joachim.” The celebrated violinist was not only the inspiration for this concerto; he also played a crucial role in its compositional genesis and early performance history. But while Joachim's compositional contributions to the concerto have been well documented, his importance as a performer is usually acknowledged only in vague terms. We sense that Joachim the performer is somehow “in” this concerto without being able to articulate how.

This article examines the intersections between Joachim's style and persona as a performer, the cultural meanings ascribed to performance, and specific formal and expressive features of the Violin Concerto. Particularly important was Joachim's perceived ability to present composed musical works as though they were being improvised, created on the spot through a mysterious fusion of Joachim himself with the mind and spirit of the composer. In the later nineteenth century, as the practice of improvisation began to disappear from the concert stage, improvisation could represent a lost ideal of spontaneous, unmediated subjective expression.

An analysis of the concerto's first movement shows that it thematizes tensions between two contrasting visions of creativity—one involving spontaneous inspiration and improvisation at an instrument, the other, the rigors of logical, planned out, and written composition. These expressive features take on additional meanings when considered in the context of Joachim's performances of the concerto, and they allow for a recovery of some of its historical meanings that resided not only in the notated score, but also in performed events.

Keywords
  • Johannes Brahms
  • Joseph Joachim
  • improvisation
  • Violin Concerto in D, op. 77
  • performance
  • © 2015 by the Regents of the University of California

Log in using your username and password

Enter your Nineteenth-Century Music username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

PreviousNext
Back to top

Vol. 38 No. 3, Spring 2015

19th-Century Music: 38 (3)
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
eTOC Alert

RSSRSS Icon

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Nineteenth-Century Music.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Improvisational Idyll
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Nineteenth-Century Music
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Nineteenth-Century Music web site.
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Improvisational Idyll
Joachim's “Presence” and Brahms's Violin Concerto, op. 77
Karen Leistra-Jones
19th-Century Music, Vol. 38 No. 3, Spring 2015; (pp. 243-271) DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2015.38.3.243
Karen Leistra-Jones is assistant professor of music at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her research explores the culture of Werktreue performance in the second half of the nineteenth century, and her work has previously appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society. She was recently awarded a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her project entitled Curating the Musical Museum: The Brahms Circle and Modern Performance. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2011.

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Improvisational Idyll
Joachim's “Presence” and Brahms's Violin Concerto, op. 77
Karen Leistra-Jones
19th-Century Music, Vol. 38 No. 3, Spring 2015; (pp. 243-271) DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2015.38.3.243
Karen Leistra-Jones is assistant professor of music at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her research explores the culture of Werktreue performance in the second half of the nineteenth century, and her work has previously appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society. She was recently awarded a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her project entitled Curating the Musical Museum: The Brahms Circle and Modern Performance. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2011.
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
View Full Page PDF
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Top
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

Similar Articles

FIND US Facebook Account LinkRSS Feeds LinkTwitter Account LinkInstagram Account LinkLinkedin Account LinkYoutube Account LinkEmail Link

Customer Service

  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Contact

UC Press

  • About UC Press

Navigate

  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Editorial
  • Contact

Content

  • Current Issue
  • All Content

Info For

  • Librarians
  • Authors
  • Subscriptions and Single Issues

Copyright © 2019 by the Regents of the University of California  Privacy   Accessibility