The story of the Frei aber froh motive and its significance in Brahms's music is not valid but is instead the invention of Max Kalbeck. The examples of the F-A-F motive which Kalbeck points to are not persuasive. The Frei aber einsam motive (associated with Joachim) is of course valid and appears in the scherzo movement of the F-A-E sonata as well as in correspondence between Brahms and Joachim and in Des Jungen Kreislers Schatzkästlein (the notebook in which the young Brahms noted down his favorite literary quotations).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: David C. Birchler