Structural Coherence in the Variation Movement from Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 87

The variation form, despite its significant to Brahms, has often been neglected in favor of the sonata form. A Schenkerian perspective of the Andante con moto from Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 87 reveals the motivic and harmonic connections that occur on the surface and deeper levels. The salient features of the music arise from the deeper-level changes, and certain features do not become clear until one looks at the music from a broader structural view. My analyses will reveal how the music unfolds, with a sense of departure and return, to create an expressive and progressive narrative that spans the entire movement. This is achieved through the changes in the fundamental structure, as illustrated by the complete Schenkerian analysis: the first two variations are a foreground variation, the next two are middleground variation, and the final variation returns to the theme’s fundamental structure