The Hunt, the Requiem Idea, and the Brahms Horn Trio Op. 40
In a 2005 article in The Journal of Musicology, Daniel Beller-McKenna explores the Requiem Idea to establish the ways Brahms and Schumann express the situation of death in a cycle of dissolution and renewal. The article culminates with an examination of Brahms’s Horn Trio Op. 40. Beller-McKenna identifies the Trio as being “pregnant with funeral overtones,” yet concludes that although the Trio expresses the mournful, it does not partake in the Requiem Idea. He even dismisses the quotations of the fourth-movement hunting theme in the third movement since “they do not transcend in the present moment, when it counts. This is not a consoling or redemptive gesture, then, but rather a peek at other, brighter times to come.”
While Beller-McKenna’s article is valuable as a whole, I contend that his evaluation of the Horn Trio is a misreading that overlooks the cultural meanings of the hunt. In particular, his suggestion that the fourth movement represents “brighter things to come” ignores the sinister elements in the music and the well-established associations of the hunt. To address this misreading, I identify the references to the hunt in the Trio and connect them to the cultural meanings conveyed by the Waldhorn and the hunting idiom as they were understood in the late nineteenth century. I draw on a rich body of hunting associations established in the visual arts, music, and literature as well as contemporary reactions to the Trio. Ultimately, I establish dramatic connections between the third and fourth movements of the Trio to show how they form a unit that clearly transcends the present moment to express the Requiem Idea. This approach of connecting the Trio to its social contexts allows for a richer understanding of the Requiem Idea and the musical topic of the hunt.
In a 2005 article in The Journal of Musicology, Daniel Beller-McKenna explores the Requiem Idea to establish the ways Brahms and Schumann express the situation of death in a cycle of dissolution and renewal. The article culminates with an examination of Brahms’s Horn Trio Op. 40. Beller-McKenna identifies the Trio as being “pregnant with funeral overtones,” yet concludes that although the Trio expresses the mournful, it does not partake in the Requiem Idea. He even dismisses the quotations of the fourth-movement hunting theme in the third movement since “they do not transcend in the present moment, when it counts. This is not a consoling or redemptive gesture, then, but rather a peek at other, brighter times to come.”
While Beller-McKenna’s article is valuable as a whole, I contend that his evaluation of the Horn Trio is a misreading that overlooks the cultural meanings of the hunt. In particular, his suggestion that the fourth movement represents “brighter things to come” ignores the sinister elements in the music and the well-established associations of the hunt. To address this misreading, I identify the references to the hunt in the Trio and connect them to the cultural meanings conveyed by the Waldhorn and the hunting idiom as they were understood in the late nineteenth century. I draw on a rich body of hunting associations established in the visual arts, music, and literature as well as contemporary reactions to the Trio. Ultimately, I establish dramatic connections between the third and fourth movements of the Trio to show how they form a unit that clearly transcends the present moment to express the Requiem Idea. This approach of connecting the Trio to its social contexts allows for a richer understanding of the Requiem Idea and the musical topic of the hunt.