Brahms among friends

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This work identifies patterns of listening, performance, and composition among Johannes Brahms's close friends, exploring how these influenced the creation and reception of his music in intimate genres like song, sonata, trio, and piano miniature. Central to this exploration is the technique of allusive musical borrowing, where brief passages from familiar works are woven into new compositions. For the specific listeners Brahms understood best, these borrowings became charged gestures, altering the meanings of his music and the interpretive strategies it invited. The study employs primary documents, original manuscripts, music-analytic comparisons, and performance experiences to support ten case studies examining the interplay between Brahms's small-scale works and the musicians who engaged with them before publication. Key figures include violinist Joseph Joachim, singers Amalie Joachim, Julius Stockhausen, and Agathe von Siebold, as well as composers Heinrich and Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, and pianists Emma Engelmann and Clara Schumann. For these musicians and Brahms himself, allusive music addressed various emotional needs and interpersonal goals. Each case study aims to reconstruct the perspectives of historically situated agents and restore overlooked aspects of their communicative landscapes, serving as a foundation for both musical and historical analysis.