BRAHMS AS EDITOR AND COMPOSER: HIS TWO EDITIONS OF LANDLER BY SCHUBERT AND HIS FIRST TWO CYCLES OF WALTZES, OPERA 39 AND 52 (DANCE; AUSTRIA)

From his earliest days in Vienna, Brahms played a leading role in contemporary efforts to preserve the memory and music of Schubert. He was a passionate collector of the composer\u27s autographs, copied manuscripts he could not obtain for himself, and even saw a number of pieces into print. Of the several first editions for which Brahms could claim responsibility, perhaps the most striking--both based on autographs in his own rich library--are the 12 Landler, D 790 (1864), and the 20 Landler, D 366 and D 814 (1869). Notably, both sets of dances inspired an immediate artistic response: at about the same time when each was published, Brahms composed a cycle of dances of his own--the Waltzes for Piano Duet, op. 39 (1865), and the Liebeslieder Waltzes, op. 52 (1869). This study assesses the significance of this interaction between editorial and compositional endeavors. Although matters of text-criticism and the question of Schubert\u27s influence on the later composer are addressed at some length, the focus remains on the relationship between the two spheres of Brahm\u27s activity. But this involves influence too. Indeed, Brahm\u27s two editions of Landler were influenced very much by the same artistic sensibilities--in this case, a desire for tonal and motivic coherence among numbers--that shaped his own cycles of waltzes. That is, Brahm\u27s editorial decisions reflect his compositional stance and critical Anschauung. The study thus offers a commentary on Brahms the musicologist--who was profoundly influenced by Brahms the composer: the work of both men came out of the same shop