second theme notated as fits better, which Brahms used in the development of the first movement. Within inner metric analysis of the second movement the continuous motion prevents a differentiation of the weight, whereas the isolated analysis of the theme shows metric coherence, which is characterized in the second part by a phase shift.

5 Conclusion

The metric structure of Brahms’ Second and Third Symphonies have been studied by means of notes’ onsets. Thereby discrepancies between inner and outer metric structure described precisely the often mentioned ambiguities in Brahms’ Œuvre, such as the occurrence of regularities in the inner metric weight corresponding to the hierarchy of a different time signature than the notated one. Furthermore the results of inner metric analysis depend to a great extend on the chosen contexts (e.g. segments, instrumental parts), thus demonstrating the very diverse compositorial layers created by anomalous contrasting and counter-balancing of elements.

Inner metric analysis considers the onsets of notes whereas melodic or harmonic features are neglected. As the discussion concerning the third movement of the Second Symphony (p. 710) illustrates, the melodic shape may mediate metric accents in situations where inner metric analysis does not. Insofar melodic and harmonic information may contribute further insights into the analysis of metric structure. Nevertheless the presented approach gains promising results, whereas the consideration of great data bases, such as an entire exposition, are of great importance. The limits of punctual analysis are part of the critics Frisch (1990) mentioned regarding Schönberg’s approach: »... the analyses never advance beyond the level of the individual theme, making no attempt to show how the shifting bar lines might affect the larger framework or dimension of a piece.«²⁵

The analysis of large contexts permits the investigation of metric characteristics of themes and associated segments, as in the case of the second movement of the Second Symphony. In Fleischer (2003) the analysis of the entire first movement of the Fourth Symphony gained interesting results regarding the comparison of corresponding parts in exposition, development and reprise.

Brahms’ compositions in many cases are characterized by discrepancies between inner metric structure and the metric hierarchy given by the time signatures. Therefore metric coherence very often cannot be found. The observed discrepancies correspond in many cases to observations made by music theorists (such as the phenomenon of metric displacement and great weights on >weak< beats) and hence may serve as precise descriptions with the method of inner metric analysis.

We have discussed some of the examples in detail concerning the question which local meters are mainly responsible for the occurence or disturbance of metric coherence. This has been done by varying the parameter . Further developments of the software tool (a Java application JMetro has been designed in our research group KIT-MaMuTh and has been implemented by Chris Dyer and Monika Brand) now allow the listing of all local meters considered in the metric weight. Thus we