String Quartet Cello,String Quartet,Viola,Violin - Level 2 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1416344 Composed by Johannes Brahms. Arranged by James M. Guthrie. 19th Century,Chamber,Contest,Festival,Historic,Romantic Period. 9 pages. Jmsgu3 #998025. Published by jmsgu3 (A0.1416344). Brahms composed this short piano piece in 1853, when he was around 20 years old, as a contribution to a guest album. It was recently rediscovered and published in an Urtext edition. The piece has a pastoral, four-bar central theme featuring parallel thirds in the hands, giving it an orchestral character. The B section becomes more transparent, with the parallel thirds disappearing. Brahms later reused the theme of the Albumblatt in the Trio section of the Scherzo movement of his Horn Trio Op. 40, composed around 12 years later. This reworking shows the composer expanding on his original idea and making it richer and more satisfying in his mature work. The Albumblatt is considered an early, relatively simple composition compared to Brahms' three piano sonatas written that same year. However, it is still a valuable example of the young composer's genius. The main editorial issue is the unexpected piano marking in measure 47, which seems out of place for achieving a melodic climax and may have been a mistake by Brahms.
