Johannes Brahms

• Born: May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany
• Died: April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria

Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn in E-flat Major, Op. 40

• Composed: 1865
• Premiere: November 28, 1865 in Zurich, at the Second Quartet Soiree for the Zurich Orchestra Society
• Duration: approx. 30 minutes

Johannes Brahms certainly had an affinity for the horn. Brahms’ father, Johann Jakob, played the flute, horn, violin and double bass and taught the young Johannes to play the horn. Prominent horn passages are ubiquitous in Brahms’ orchestral works, showing up in, for example, his symphonies nos. 1 and 2, Piano Concerto No. 2 and First Serenade. But, in his chamber works, Brahms employs the horn only once—in the 1865 Horn Trio, Op. 40.

A central part of Brahms’ life was walking, especially when he needed to think out musical ideas, and he particularly enjoyed walking in nature. In the summers of the 1860s, Brahms visited Lichtental, near the summer “hot spot” and spa town of Baden-Baden and located in the Black Forest. Summers in Baden-Baden were filled with a who’s-who of 19th-century European literature, music, art, science and upper-class nobility. But perhaps it was the draw of Clara Schumann, who in 1862 (six years after her husband Robert’s death) had purchased a home in Lichtental, that kept Brahms returning summer after summer to this spa town.

In the summer of 1865, Brahms rented the attic apartment at Lichtental No. 8 (or Das hübsche Haus auf dem Hügle, “the pretty house on the hill”) from the widow Clara Becker, which would be his summer home for near a decade. Brahms penned several letters describing these lodges and the joy of being able to “look over all the mountains and paths from Lichtental to Baden.”

It was here during the summer of 1865 that Brahms composed his Op. 40 Horn Trio. Albert Dietrich, a friend of Brahms’, recalled a moment while on a walk with Brahms, “near Baden-Baden on the wooded heights between the fir trees,” when Brahms showed Dietrich “where the theme of the first movement of this composition first occurred to him.” September 27, 1865 was the first documented rehearsal of this work, which is presumed to have taken place at Clara Schumann’s Lichtental residence.

The joys of Brahms’ 1865 summer were dimmed by the passing of his mother in February of 1865. His brother, Fritz, sent a telegram stating that their mother, Christiane, had suffered a stroke, and “if you want to see our mother once again, come immediately.” Unfortunately, Brahms arrived in Hamburg too late—Christiane had already passed. Many scholars and biographers believe Op. 40 to be a work to commemorate the life of his wonderful mother.

Brahms expressly wrote this trio for “natural” horn and wrote to the publisher that the instrument “Waldhorn” (i.e. natural horn) be written on the title page: “I ask that you place Waldhorn instead of Horn on the first page. Thus Pianoforte, Violin and Waldhorn (or Violoncello).” In 1884, he wrote to the publisher again to say, “My Horn Trio should actually get a viola part instead of the violoncello part!… It could expressly say on the title page: Horn or Viola!” Brahms’ wishes are still (mostly) honored today by publishers, with the trio being sold with parts for all three possible variants: horn, viola and cello. However, Brahms’ wish for “Waldhorn” to appear on the title page has mostly gone by the wayside.

—Tyler M. Secor