World Premiere: Dec. 26, 1880
Last HSO Performance: Nov. 16, 2014
Instrumentation: Flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, timpani, strings
Duration: 13’

Many of Brahms’ works were produced in pairs: the Piano Sonatas, Op. 1 and Op. 2; the Piano Quartets, Op. 25 and Op. 26; the String Quartets, Op. 51; the Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120; even the first two Symphonies, the sets of Liebeslieder Waltzes and the Serenades. These twin pieces seem to have been the result of a surfeit of material — as Brahms was working out his ideas for a composition in a particular genre, he produced enough material to spin off a second work of similar type. Though the two orchestral overtures, Academic Festival and Tragic, were also written in tandem, they have about them more the quality of complementary balance than of continuity. Academic Festival is bright in mood and light-hearted in its musical treatment of some favorite German student drinking songs. The Tragic Overture, on the other hand, is somber and darkly heroic. Of them, Brahms wrote to his biographer, Max Kalbeck, “One overture laughs, the other weeps.” And further, to his friend and publisher, Fritz Simrock, “Having composed this jolly Academic Festival Overture, I could not refuse my melancholy nature the satisfaction of composing an overture for a tragedy.”

Brahms never gave any additional clues to the nature of the Tragic Overture. Despite the attempts by many writers to find extra-musical references in this Overture, it was almost certainly not inspired by any specific literary work or personal bereavement. (Extensive sketches which date from nearly a decade earlier were used for a large portion of the exposition and seem to preclude this latter possibility.) Brahms had long been an admirer of classic drama and literature, and he used some of his first earnings as a composer to purchase volumes of Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Plutarch and Goethe. This Overture may have been the outcome of a long involvement with the writings of those masters, coupled with the strong influence of the ethos and music of Beethoven’s Overtures for Coriolan and Egmont. Brahms’ intention that the work be general rather than specific in nature is underlined by the provisional title he gave to it during its composition: “A Dramatic Overture.” He settled on Tragic Overture, according to his correspondence, because neither he nor his friends could devise anything more suitable.

Philip Hale regarded this composition as one of Brahms’ greatest works because of “its structure and depth of feeling. There is no hysterical outburst; no shrieking in despair; no peevish or sullen woe; no obtruding suggestion of personal suffering. Commentators have cudgelled their brains to find a hero in the music: Hamlet, Faust, this one, that one. They have labored in vain; the soul of Tragedy speaks in the music.”

The Tragic Overture is comparable in form and expression to the first movement of a symphony. Its sonata structure commences with a stern summons of two chords immediately preceding the austere arching main theme in D minor. Brahms’ characteristically dark orchestral sonority, emphasizing low strings and low woodwinds, does much to supply the solemn mood of the work. The first theme gives way to a hushed transitional section employing the sepulchral sounds of trombones and tuba over a quivering string accompaniment. A contrasting theme is presented in the relatively tranquil tonality of F major by violins, but the stormy disposition of the opening is not kept long at bay. The compact development restores the tempestuous mood. The recapitulation is a considerably altered version of the exposition’s musical events, which here receive further exploration of their expressive potentials. The sense of heroic struggle which forms the dominant emotional world of the Tragic Overture remains undiminished to the end.

©2023 Dr. Richard E. Rodda