An Annotated Bibliography on the Three Violin Sonatas of Brahms

An Annotated Bibliography on the Three Violin Sonatas of Brahms
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17 April 2017
An Annotated Bibliography on the Three Violin Sonatas of Brahms
Abstract
This is a paper on the intricate details of the Three Violin Sonatas of Brahms. The primordial factors of this research focused on the importance of the variation, the advantages or disadvantages of the Sonatas, and how it was created by explaining the history of this musical origin. Nonetheless, the founder of the violin sonatas is also introduced and discussed in the various subsections of this paper to clearly show the character and the reason for the beginnings of the Brahms Violin Sonatas. A brief description is also included in this paper regarding the improvement, evolvement of the composition and movement of the Sonatas through time, its effect in the field of music, the listeners and the audiences. Over twenty annotated bibliographies by a number of authors and musicians are also included to give additional background and information on the Brahm Sonatas. In addition, a brief introduction on the importance of the field of music is examined, reviewed and considered to further show the significance of how the Sonatas started and the purpose for its origination as made by the founder and author Brahms Johannes. Likewise, the influence of the Violin Sonatas in education, theatre, orchestra performances are also narrated in the several annotated bibliographies in this paper to place emphasis on the relevance of the musical composition.
Music education is a priority for the society, community and national development. It branches into the other fields of sciences and learning within the scope of the academic subjects. Music has gained popularity and prominence in different countries and regions and is a source of income, jobs and livelihood for most. This is by reason of that rationale that individuals are trained in the acquisition of various skills that teaches them to be self-reliant and become productive as a result. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the power and value of music education through the Three Violin Sonatas of Brahms.
Introduction
Project’s Title and Scope
The field of education with music at its core refers to the process of studying and training students the importance and the moral fiber of music. This field of learning plays several roles and serves various purposes such as overseeing the different cultures and literature of different disciplines including but not limited to music’s effect on science, medicine, education, culture, behavior and life in general. Music has similarities with the study of language such as the appreciation or recognition by an individual with such knowledge affects how one lives in real life. Music influences behavior and culture, it affects governments and kingdoms, it even relays a message, whether political, spiritual or intellectual to its listeners. The numerous genres of music classify an individual, a group or organization. It unites or divides. The culture of a country is expressed through music, the history and past of a state or regime is told through harmony and melody. “History must start from the great and obvious divergences between the fates of language and of music” Wellesz E. (1969). Likewise, According to author and editor Wellesz that “Archaic and classical music was transmitted orally with its words.”
Furthermore, the world of music is broad with a diversity of sounds, harmony, musical instruments, genre, classification and a variety of cultural history and background. However, this paper will focus only on the musician and composer Brahms Johannes who was brilliant, skilled and talented to create the highly acclaimed Three Violin Sonatas of Brahms, which has gained a worldwide reputation and respect from both audience listeners and well known musicians and
artists. A list of research papers with authors known to be experts in the field of music has contributed to the collation of data and information for this study. A glimpse and understanding of the author, creator, and composer of the violin sonatas will give the reader an in-depth knowledge of how the sonatas were brought to life. “The importance of learning music through the consistent training of a student cannot be overemphasized. Its value influences other disciplines of learning since it is also a fact that music increases learning.” Nwaneri C. M. (2012). In addition, “music has the power to enhance ideas and wisdom in the field of Math, field of science and arts, History and culture, and other foreign languages” Morrison (1994). Thus, amazingly, music encompasses other fields of learning like history, culture, research, science, voice and instruments. Likewise, music also involves “organology, musicology, musicianship, performance and several others which can actually assist in improving the student’s academic and social skills” Nwaneri C. M. (2012). In the 20th century, numerous unique approaches were developed to further raise the bar of excellence in terms of teaching music, over which there was a widespread impact in the music industry and even the learning field of music. In addition, Brahms composed several amazing works for orchestra, with “several symphonies, a Violin Concerto, violin and cello concerto, and the German Requiem” Oron A. (2006).Scientific studies further prove that hundreds of neuroscientists in different countries are involved in “studying the various influences of music on the process and function of the brain and its structure resulting to their work obtaining media attention. Music affects the various regions of the brain, thus, concluding that listening and composing music is a brilliant experimental idea to expose the functions of the brain” The Royal Conservatory (2014).
The State of Research on the Three Violin Sonatas of Brahms
This research has been very extensively studied in scope and numerous written works and literature have contributed to this paper. However, more of the literary pieces focused on the life and history of Johannes Brahms rather than on the three violin sonatas. Future researchers might face difficulty in finding research materials and articles specifically on the violin sonatas of Brahm. It would likewise help if research is made not only through online research, but also reading books in the library of music in different universities of public libraries for a larger gathering of data and information.
Method of Research
Methods used for the completion of this paper and for a broader research process were through data collection, online research and study, interviews of professors engaged in teaching music and students enrolled in music schools.
How the Bibliography is Organized
The Annotated Bibliography is organized alphabetically and has started with the narration and a brief background of the life of the author and composer Johannes Brahms. As his life story is discussed, information and details on the Three Violin Sonatas are later on introduced and emphasized for more learning and additional knowledge on the musical compositions and platforms of music. A series of reading materials and literatures on this specific topic is included for direct and expanded study and knowledge acquisition. Brahms originally made the G major Op 78 violin sonata 1 from the year 1878 to 1879. This first movement also defined as the Vivace ma non troppo starts in G major, in its sonata form. While the second movement is in Eb major and in ternary form whilst the third movement, called, Allegro molto moderato is G minor in rondo and G major in coda.
Annotated Bibliography
The founder and composer of the Three Violin Sonatas is Johannes Brahms. A brief background study of his life and musical history is enumerated and discussed below through a collection of several reading materials, literature and research work followed by a definition, summary and description of the Brahms Violin Sonatas, its importance in the field of music and how it is being used in musical performances and theatrical presentations on stage and during orchestra concerts.
(1) Biography.com (2017). Johannes Brahms. A&E Television Networks.
Access April 15, 2017. Web.  HYPERLINK "/people/johannes-brahms-9223886" /people/johannes-brahms-9223886
As a German composer, Johannes Brahms wrote symphonies, highly sophisticated chamber music, piano symphonies, and choral concords. Johannes was born in Hamburg, Germany in the year 1833 and was considered to be a master the master of symphonies composed in sonata style during the 19th century. He was recognized as one of the heroes in the exemplary classic music of the renowned Joseph Haydn and Beethoven. Johannes learned music in his early age just like his father who was a double bassist in the Philharmonic Society of Hamburg. He learned how to play piano at the age of seven. Surprisingly, when he grew up to be a teenager, he has already accomplished many musical feats and earned money at local inns and brothels to support his family’s tight financial condition. By the year 1880s and '90s, his musical talents and skills continued to grow whereby his work also included the A minor Concerto, D minor violin sonata and No. 3 Piano Trio. As an exemplary musician, he was able to finish the F Major String Quintet and G Major String Quintet.
(2) Botstein L. (2009). Time and Memory: Concert Life, Science, and Music in Brahms’s Vienna. Princeton University Press. p 8- 24 Web http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9019.pdf
Johannes Brahms goal in life was to upgrade and reach a level of excellence in the field of music. He articulated such a broadening concern for the “lowering standards in musical compositions”. He recognized that the present generation became engulfed in lexica, and concert guides that came from different genres that has been succesful in the 1880s and 1890s. Likewise, Brahms wholeheartedly worked and composed all his musical artistry for his audience and used several genres. Brahms’s convictions and concerns focused more clearly with past models which were faulty such as, “that music defined as an independent stage of human experience only focused on the individual’s experiences, referring to the emotions and thoughts that people show in the course of history.” He believed that, “the improvements in science work hand-in-hand with various musical technique and aesthetics.” Correspondingly, the very essence of Brahms’s formal programs, those in sonata form were created for the purpose of building on the truth, similarly in the manner that an educated person of Brahms’s generation is anchored on “accurate hypotheses which may be amended, elaborated, or change the truth.”
(3) Clements A. (2001). Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas. The Guardian News. Web /culture/2001/jul/27/artsfeatures.classicalmusicandopera
According to author and writer Clements of the Guardian News that “Brahms was cynically critical about his violin sonatas”. At the age of 20 in the year 1853, he was able to compose his first musical symphony and by the year 1879, he produced the No 1, G major Sonat, Op78.
According to historical facts, the G major was written for Joseph Joachim, whom Brahms shared his monumental violin works and compositions. Brahms also composed the second Sonata seven years later, in A major, Op 100, and followed by the D minor Sonata Op 108, which was only completed after two years. The D minor Sonata Op 108 had a mood that is “very diverse and unique from its first sonatas, and it is also created based on a larger scale, consisting of four harmonious movements instead of three. Thus, the D minor Sonata is said to be more of a work specifically created for public hearing rather than the privacies of the works in G and A” Clements (2001). Later on, all the Sonatas were heard in succession in a disc showing the brilliance in Brahms's improvements through the sonatas, triptych.
(4) Earsense (2017). Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78, Re...