Rhythmic Displacement in the Fugue of Brahms's Handel Variations: The Refashioning of a Traditional Device

In recent years we have come a long way in appreciating the complexities of rhythm in tonal music.¹ This development is in part an outgrowth of our enhanced understanding of the complexities of tonal music itself: for example, our awareness of hierarchical structure as postulated in the theories of Heinrich Schenker. Tonal structure and rhythmic structure are closely intertwined. In a loose, informal sense, one may even say that tonal structure implies rhythmic structure, for such tonal entities as motives, linear progressions, phrases, and so forth carry with them a durational component at any given level.