Ihr habt nun Tranrigkeit

A German Requiem
Johannes Brahms
Margaret Price, soloist

This piece begins with a solo line in the strings. The line is very legato, very quiet, very connected, reminds me of a lullaby. The solfege in the beginning is something like s-l-d-t-l-s. This introductory phrase sets the is mirror in the first phrase, where the solo soprano line enters. Like the introductory phrase, this one ends in a PAC. The repetition of moods in the introductory line and soprano line give the piece a connected feel, like together it is all one phrase. The first phrase has a lot of res and ts, giving it more of a sad sound. With the soprano line there is a continual accompanient of solo clarinet or flute, also played very soft and quiet, that serves as a way to emphasize the mood without having to use contrast. It also leaves room for build up. The phrases begin to crescendo more, with longer duration of re and ti, to create more tension. Although the majority of the cadences are PAC, compare to the rest of the phrase they are soft, and brief. This acts as a way to connect with the next phrase, which begins much in the same way the previous one ended, soft and briefly, and the listener is able to pick up immediately on the contrast in the beginning of the third or fourth phrase, which begins on a loud ti. It emphasizes the pull to do, and creates a tension that, because of the loud dynamic and continual builiding in the accompanient, creates a sense of danger. The harp in the previous phrase plays on each beat, and so more of a meter and tempo has been established also. This phrase also is accompanied by the strings, and ends in a HC, which acts as a way to keep building. The intervals in the soprano start to get farther apart, and so any ti or re is emphasized even more, with more crescendo. In the next phrase, the high winds have descending scalar patterns, where the last note of the pattern jumps to a note above the starting note of the previous pattern. This creates a climbing feel, and is accompanied by the soprano lines do-sol, then an octave higher, the sol getting cut off ubruptly compared to the previous phrases. This is also significant because the entire piece gradually there have been intruments and crescendos, but this is only high winds and the solo line. Although it is a very brief part of the phrase, it is significant because of the irregularity of it compared to what the listener is used, although it does not feel out of place. In the next phrase, the choir enters to accompany the soprano line, and crescendos more, again building up. The piece by this time has gone from lullaby-like to victorious sounding, and stable. There are several parts of this piece that make use of little contrasts, inorder to keep the mood but signal that something else is going on, that are effective in creating the feeling of a wide range of emotions in the listener, from uncertainty, to happiness, to saddness, to strength. The rest of the piece sort of goes up and down, building up and then transistioning to a happier theme. The lack of repettition and parallel periods gives it a feeling of continuance, like it is an orature. Most of the cadences are either PAC or HC, to either create a continual transistion, build up tension, or both. The listener as a whole is not exposed to a lot of blatent deceptiveness, and the piece has a nice, slow, but continual feel to it. The only time the piece returns to a theme previously stated is somewhere in the middle, where it returns to the high wind and solo line duet, and repeats from there to a PAC at the end. There is not one main central theme, it is like a continual story.