It's Like A Car Wreck - Brahms Ballades, op 10.

When I think of car accidents, I think of two things. One, my own driving record - which, while less than outstanding, does not contain any accidents where I am at fault, and two, the automatic human response to anything which they can ascribe a prescribed set of emotions. It is interesting to me the types of responses that a car accident can get. Everything from the neighborhood kid that is like 'whoa totally awesome look at the smashed metal' to the introspective soon-to-be mother who wonders what it will be like to protect her child from a world so full of violence, even though that violence might be accidental. Some rubberneck, some feel compelled not to look at all, but most lie somewhere in between, experiencing for themselves a little bit of meaning that they need to discover, and therefore do.

I feel like this set of Ballades is similar to a car accident in this sense. Each ballade has a strength of character and conviction, whether it's the melancholy and nearly over-exuberant conversation found in the "Edward" ballade, or the explosive intermezzo. Brahms, even in these early works, demonstrates a remarkable ability to capture intense human emotions, and then lavish in the result that comes from juxtaposing them. Because of that juxtaposition, and the ability to recognize the elements of either side, we each understand sections of these works similarly. But, I would venture to guess that the synthesis that happens when sections are taken together, or the group of pieces is taken as a whole, would hit each person very differently - something that is often not true, but that in this case is perhaps one of the more compelling features of these shorter works. They are concise, they happen quickly, and they have a lasting impact. Brahms - a car crash? Absolutely.