| Theme |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| CODA |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|
What to Listen For: This movement is in the old Baroque form of a passacaglia or chaconne. Basically, that means it's a set of variations on a short, chordal theme. In this case, the theme is 8-bars long and heard right away. There are 30 variations, followed by a 59-bar coda. Listen for the way in which Brahms creates a rich variety of musical ideas above and around this simple theme. Also, listen to how some variations seem to blend together to make larger units. For example: * 4-6 become an extended waltz * 8-9 are a matched set * 12-15 are all twice as slow (like a slow movement within the movement) * Note that #16 (exactly half-way through the 30 variations) acts like a sort of recap, as the theme is again in the original tempo and quite loud. 17-18 are unified by continuous string tremolos * 19-20 go together, with 19 adding triplets * 26-28 flow together as the last bit of calm *Note that Variation #30 is extended by 4 bars to introduce the big: CODA - in the coda, there's no longer the constant presence of the theme's structure, though the music still often falls into 80bar phrases. The coda can be divided into 7 sections of the following measure lengths: 8-12-8-8-8-4-11 |