Extreme Meter Changes and Tempo Giusto in Some Songs by Brahms

Abstract

This article examines how changing time signatures correspond with metric dissonance and the flux in metric consonance in Brahms’s songs, with a particular focus on expressive dimensions and Brahms’s relationship with historical metric modes. “Unbewegte laue Luft” is an extreme case of metric dissonance, juxtaposing meters of antithetical metric relations to underscore equally antithetical poetic meanings. Meters in “Wir müssen uns trennen” maintain duple relations but explore metric depth and the relative strength of different metric levels, showing consonant metric flux resembling century-old metric practices such as tempo giusto and changing Taktteile. By demonstrating how dissonant and consonant meter changes set up different degrees of temporal contrasts, this article explores notated meter changes as text-setting tools and how eighteenth-century metric theory can enrich our understanding of these tools.