Editing Johannes Brahms (section)

====Textures====
Brahms was a master of [[counterpoint]]. "For Brahms,&nbsp;... the most complicated forms of counterpoint were a natural means of expressing his emotions," writes [[Karl Geiringer|Geiringer]]. "As Palestrina or Bach succeeded in giving spiritual significance to their technique, so Brahms could turn a [[canon (music)|canon]] in motu contrario or a canon per augmentationem into a pure piece of lyrical poetry."{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=159}} Writers on Brahms have commented on his use of counterpoint. For example, of Op. 9, ''Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann,'' Geiringer writes that Brahms "displays all the resources of contrapuntal art".{{sfn|Geiringer and Geiringer|1982|loc=210}} In the A major piano quartet Opus 26, [[Jan Swafford]] notes that the third movement is "demonic-canonic, echoing Haydn's famous minuet for string quartet called the 'Witch's Round{{' "}}.{{sfn|Swafford|2012|p=159}} Swafford further opines that "thematic development, counterpoint, and form were the dominant technical terms in which Brahms&nbsp;... thought about music".{{sfn|Swafford|2012|p=xviii}}

Allied to his skill in counterpoint was his subtle handling of rhythm and meter. Bozarth speculates that his contact with Hungarian and gypsy folk music as a teenager led to "his lifelong fascination with the irregular rhythms, triplet figures and use of rubato" in his compositions.{{sfn|Bozarth and Frisch|2001|loc=§1, "Formative years"}} The [[Hungarian Dances]] are among Brahms's most-appreciated pieces.{{sfn|Gál|1963|pp=17, 204}} Michael Musgrave considered that only [[Stravinsky]] approached the advancement of his rhythmic thinking.{{sfn|Musgrave|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780710097767/page/269 269]}}

His use of counterpoint and rhythm is present in ''A German Requiem'', a work that was partially inspired by his mother's death in 1865 (at a time in which he composed a funeral march that was to become the basis of Part Two, "Denn alles Fleisch"), but which also incorporates material from a symphony which he started in 1854 but abandoned following Schumann's suicide attempt. He once wrote that the Requiem "belonged to Schumann". The first movement of this abandoned symphony was re-worked as the first movement of the First Piano Concerto.