On Metre in the Rondo of Brahms's Op. 25

Abstract

The rondo from Brahms's Piano Quartet Op. 25 projects a number of different metres which may be organised into various metric spaces modelled on those of David Lewin and Richard Cohn. Although this organisation does not yield the multiple pitch-time analogical mappings proposed by Lewin and Cohn, it may be fruitfully applied to many works of Brahms and other composers. I argue that a movement's centrally located metre (the work's `logical' metric tonic) tends also to be its primary metre (the work's `rhetorical' metric tonic), and outline a new method for hearing contiguities in certain metric spaces. I conclude by designing a metric space tailored for the metres of the Op. 25 rondo, in which the refrain's `tonic' metre is centrally located in three dimensions.