Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates the operation of musical narratives especially rhythmic-metric narrative and their connection to musical expressivity. In JohannesBrahms's scherzo-type movements, the opening material undergoes transformation, and the relationship of the initial music to its subsequent versions creates a musical narrative. The book uses the term narrative to capture the sense that these discrete events cohere into a larger framework, and that this framework is essential to understanding the full meaning of individual events. The variety of rhythmic-metric narratives and their interaction with all other parameters of the music create a range of expressive trajectories in Brahms's scherzo-type movements. The book concludes that recapitulates the various kinds of inter-movement relationships to which the scherzo-type movements contribute, makes some generalizations about their musical narratives, and revisits some of the broader theoretical issues raised in this introductory.