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tone of the opening itself. I don’t particularly see, on the other hand, why we need to view the whole first movement as a programmatic description of events. It seems more likely that Schumann’s disaster inspired the opening and its tragic tone, gentler contrasts to that came naturally into the movement, and from there on “abstract” formal principles and expressive contrast took precedence. At the same time, I’m convinced by Musgrave’s refutation (in “Frei aber Froh: a Reconsideration”) of Kalbeck’s equally famous surmise that Brahms had a frei aber froh (“free but happy,” F-A-F in pitches) motto to match Joachim’s F-A-E / frei aber einsam. There is no convincing evidence that Brahms used F-A-F as a deliberate pattern with any consistency.

12. Gal 111.

13. MacDonald 101.

14. MacDonald 102.

15. Siegfried Kross (“Brahms and Hoffmann” 199–200) proposes a Kreisler connection for the Latin phrase noted in the second movement. All are speculations. Brahms here, as doubtless elsewhere, managed to insert a private reference in the score that, for a change, stayed private. For other speculations about Schumann connections in the second movement, see Reynolds.

16. Rosen “Plagiarism” 91.

17. Gal 115.

18. Kalbeck I, 292.

19. Litzmann Life 148.

20. Litzmann Life 150.

21. Bickley Joachim Letters 8/27/1857.

22. May 225.

23. Litzmann Life 152.

24. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 10/11/1857.

25. Bickley Joachim Letters 11/27/1857.

26. May 226.

27. MacDonald 50.

28. Hancock “Early Choral Music” 126.

29. Kalbeck I, 314.

30. Kalbeck I, 315.

31. Bickley Joachim Letters 1/3/1858.

32. May 232.

33. Stephenson 20. Kalbeck’s listing of the family residences has them in Fuhlentwiete from 1859.

34. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 2/28/1858.

35. Bickley Joachim Letters 3/12/1858 and Christiane’s report on Joachim in Stephenson 79–80.

36. Litzmann Life 159. In light of Clara Schumann’s and Theodor Kirchner’s later relationship, it is striking that in this letter she goes out of her way to talk about her affinity for Brahms: “It was a special providence that let me find so true a friend in that dark time, a friend whom I admire as much as I am devoted to him.” It is as if she was making certain that Kirchner knew the extent of her connection to Brahms, come what may.

37. Litzmann Life 159.

38. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 6/25/1858.

39. Ehrmann 66.

40. Brahms Briefwechsel IV, 50.

41. S. Drinker 13.

42. Geiringer Brahms 57.

43. Schauffler 138–9.

44. TC

45. Schauffler 226.

46. E. Schumann 4.

47. Geiringer Brahms 58.

48. MacDonald 51.

49. Burk 364.

50. S. Drinker 15.

51. Brahms Briefwechsel IV, 67.

52. Brahms Briefwechsel IV, 68.

53. Hancock “Early Choral Music” 126.

54. Keys 31. Likely Brahms is referring not to the original nonet (there may also have been an octet version) but to the small-orchestra version of the D Major Serenade as the “mongrel,” and began working on the full-orchestra arrangement around this time. According to the Hofmann Zeittafel, the full-orchestra version was finished in February 1860. The fact that the later D Major versions and the A Major Serenade overlapped in composition makes for confusion in the chronology.

55. Kalbeck I, 339.

56. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 11/8/1858.

57. Litzmann Life 165.

58. Schumann/Brahms Letters 12/20/1858. Clara is writing from Vienna.

59. Kalbeck I, 293.

60. Stephenson 83.

61. Jacobsen 43.

62. Bickley Joachim Letters 1/28/1859.

63. May 246.

64. May 247.

65. Bickley Schumann/Brahms Letters 8/5/1859.

66. Bickley Schumann/Brahms Letters 2/2/1859.

67. Dietrich/Widmann 117–18.

68. Schauffler 267–8.

CHAPTER NINE

1. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 3/26/1859.

2. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 3/29/1859.

3. Keys 35.

4. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 3/31/1859.

5. May 269.

6. S. Drinker 23.

7. S. Drinker 56–7.

8. S. Drinker 44.

9. Schauffler 270.

10. Geiringer Brahms 63.

11. Hancock “Early Choral Music” 126.

12. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 8/28/1859.

13. S. Drinker 23.

14. S. Drinker. Except where otherwise noted,