Brahms, Four Serious Songs, op. 121

The composer Gerd Zacher has written about a phenomenon in the last of the Four Serious Songs, op. 121: "appearances of the major ninth chord always feature the vowel 'i'." From this Zacher makes some observations about a subtle highlighting achieved through "a scalar microtone series." See the reference and abstract at the end of this post.

The ninth chord is especially prominent in setting the word "Liebe." See the first page of the score below. Note that the ninth, F4, is resolved internally but is repeated. To the circled notes: shifting the affect, Brahms uses the minor V9.

Here are the recurrences of the passage. The first repeats the figure from the opening page, the second attaches even more prominence to the ninth by giving it to the voice (C4) and stretching it out to nearly four beats.

Here are two more instances, from the subsequent section. The first is striking because it's unexpected in context, and because the ninth Ab3 isn't resolved, nor is the chord, which changes to an inverted Ab dominant 7 over the pedal Gb. The second is a common type of internal resolution but stands out because the ninth is not only in the voice but is also placed in a cadence.

The last statements are in the final section. The first gives, in its higher alternate note, the only ninth in the song with a direct resolution: G5 to F5 as V9/V goes to V7. The second is in the final cadence, again in the voice, a common figure I call ^6-down-to-^7; note that the ninth is given unusual prominence by this means and is not resolved (for that, one would have to take the Bb3 in the left hand on beat 2 of the next bar). The two boxes with dotted lines are the only two cases in which "Liebe" is not adorned with a dominant ninth.

Reference:

Gerd Zacher, "Komponierte Formanten," Musik-Konzepte 65 (1989): 69-75.

Abstract (from RILM): In the last of Brahms's Vier ernste Gesänge, appearances of the major ninth chord always feature the vowel "i". He lends strong support to the ninths of these chords in the region of the "i" formant. In the registers that Brahms uses here, the partials are separated by semitones. The difference between the equal temperament of the piano and the natural tuning of the partials produces nuanced vibrations that can be arranged as a scalar microtone series. The aural result is a highlighting of the particular tone (such as in setting the word Liebe). (NB: I had access only to the abstract, not to the article.)