“Organic unity” and Brahms’ Haydn Variations

Organic unity and organicism: a ‘myth’ according to David Montgomery, a ‘ruling ideology’ as

Joseph Kerman saw it, a now scientifically-ridiculed notion that has become a familiar criterion for the

aesthetic judgement and validation of Western music.1 The debate as to the relevance of the term has

frenzied back and forth since the 1970s, deemed by some to be a self-justifying analytical tool, for others it

has given birth to irreplaceable methods for uncovering hidden connections in a work. 2 This paper argues

neither for nor against unity, instead considering that even if unity is accepted as a worthwhile axiom for

analysis that the organic metaphor has become indeterminate and is more often than not used where it is

ambiguous, misleading and even irrelevant. From ‘seed’ to ‘germ’, ‘kernel’, ‘synthesis’ and ‘flowering’ to

terms not necessarily organic, but have become associated with the concept – ‘economy’, ‘coherence’ and

‘integrity’ – pervade our writing about music, from analyses to programme notes and even textbooks, as

Janet Levy has demonstrated. 3 By engaging with a case study of Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Haydn, this

essay seeks to question the appropriateness of the organic metaphor when discussing musical unity.

It is perhaps no coincidence that diverse organic theories from Schenker’s to Schoenberg’s have

both found justification in Brahms’ music. Works by Brahms are particularly well-suited for the discussion

of unity according to Michael Musgrave, who argues that ‘in few works of the tonal era is both all-pervasive

unity and tonal contrast manifest so greatly, or in so many endlessly subtle ways, as in the compositions of

Brahms.’ 4 The Haydn Variations emerged at the time of organicism’s peak in the 1870s and thus provides a

suitable glimpse at the artwork of this period. Almost exactly a century later, Donald McCorkle, attempting

to compile a comprehensive monograph of the Haydn Variations observes in the preface: ‘One might

suppose that the Haydn Variations would be profusely commented upon in the Brahms literature, and that

important analytical studies would be in abundance. But surprisingly, the relevant bibliography is no more

than very slim at best.’ 5 [continued…]

                                                            
1 Ruth A Solie, “The Living Work: Organicism and Musical Analysis”, 19th Century Music 4/2 (Autumn 1980), pp. 147-156, doi:
10.2307/746712.
2 Johnathan Cross, ‘Editorial’ Music Analysis 22/1 (March-July 2003), pp. 1-5.
3 Janet Levy, “Covert and casual values in recent writings about music”, Journal of Musicology 5 (1987), pp. 3-27.
4 Michael Musgrave, “Schoenberg’s Brahms” Brahms Studies: Analytical and historical perspectives (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), p.

130.
5 Donald McCorkle ed., Brahms: Variations on a theme of Haydn (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1976), p.viii

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