Hearing and Seeing Brahms’s Harps

Abstract The harp might more readily conjure images of celestial beings than the music of Brahms, who wrote for the instrument in only three of his works: the German Requiem, Nänie, and the Op. 17 songs. Rather than scoring for the harp itself, Brahms more frequently resorted to techniques that simulated the sound of a harp. This chapter reconsiders how and where we hear the harp in Brahms’s music, arguing that Brahms’s use of real and implied harps demands acts of interpretation from the listener. This involves a consideration of the symbolism of Brahms’s harps as they relate to two different concepts: transfiguration and monumentality. The chapter concludes by exploring the relationship between Brahms’s harps and Max Klinger’s Brahmsphantasie, itself a monument to Brahms, that harnesses the symbolism and the iconography of the harp to convey Klinger’s response to Brahms’s music.