An Analytical Study of Brahms’s Piano Style: Focusing on the Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5

This study investigates the piano style of Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), a prominent German composer of the nineteenth century, through an analysis of his Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5, one of the most representative works from his early compositional period. The research aims to explore the formal structure, thematic development, harmonic language, rhythmic characteristics, and textural writing of the sonata, revealing Brahms’s integration of Classical compositional principles with Romantic expressivity. The study adopts multiple research methods, including musical analysis, which examines motivic development, rhythmic organization, and pianistic texture. In addition, the study incorporates polyphonic analysis to understand how Brahms weaves multiple independent lines, a version comparison method to examine differences in early drafts or editions, and harmonic analysis to highlight chord progressions and tonal centers. Furthermore, a comparison of these methods helps uncover the structural unity of the sonata. Performance considerations, such as voicing, articulation, and tempo flexibility, are also analyzed to provide practical guidance for performers. The findings suggest that Piano Sonata No. 3 not only demonstrates Brahms’s remarkable compositional maturity at an early age but also foreshadows key stylistic features of his later works, offering valuable insights for both music scholars and performers.