The Theme by Schumann

Theme
Ziemlich langsam (Rather slowly)
F-sharp minor
2/4 time

The theme for Brahms's set of sixteen variations. In Schumann's original, 

from his Bunte Blätter, Op. 99, the final sixteen bars are repeated.

The theme clearly divides into three parts:
bars 1-8
       9-16
       17-24.

Part 1 features a four-bar, plaintive melody which spells Clara's name (C-B-A-G#-A). This "Clara's theme," the predominant melody of the entire set, is repeated, this time with the harmony shifting and ending in the related major key, A.

Theme, part 1, bars 1-8

The "Clara" theme, with B representing L and G# representing R

Part 2 is in C-sharp minor. It consists of a two-bar pattern, a cry, appearing three times in rising intensity, each time more urgent. Julian Littlewood, in his careful study of Op. in The Variations of Johannes Brahms (Ch. 9)  aptly names this section "the cry."

Part 2 ends descending and diminuendo, as did Part 1.

Theme, Part 2, bars 9-16

Part 3 returns to the Clara theme, first presenting it, slightly altered in the first two bars, in A major. The following two bars repeat the ending of Part 1. The closing four bars almost repeat the ending of the first statement of the Clara Theme (bars 3-4) but with a stronger sense of closure given by an F-sharp-minor cadence.

Theme, Part 3, bars 17-24

Schumann repeats Part 2-3. Brahms, however, takes the theme with no repeat.

A quarter-note rest separates the theme from the Variation 1.

Schumann had used "Clara's theme" several times before Bunte Blätter, Op. 99, for example, in the B major Trio, Op. 8 and in the C Minor Piano Quartet, Op. 60. It was also featured in the first movement of his Fourth Symphony in D minor, Op. 120, which, before he revised it, Schumann called his "Clara symphony"[1].Brahms kept the autograph of Schumann's Clara symphony as a treasured possession. Like Schumann, Brahms, too, used the Clara theme several times, not only in this set of variations but also in the Finale of his First Symphony (in the 'Alphorn' theme), in the Piano Quartet in C minor, and in the Intermezzo of the G minor Piano Quartet [2].

Clara's theme appears throughout this variation set, in the treble, the bass, and in canon.

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1. See Eric Sams, "Brahms and His Clara Themes," Musical Times 112 (1971), 432-4. From Schumann's diary: "Meine nächste Symphonie soll Clara heissen" (Eric Sams, "Codes and Cyphers in Music," Radio script, 1880, http://ericsams.org/index.php/on-cryptography/329-code-and-cypher-in-music

2. Michael Musgrave, The Music of Brahms, 1985, pp. 139-41.