and the monumental character of the 􀂿 rst group of variations resumes.
Variation 16 sounds like a recapitulation—like a return from some contrasting
place. However, the ground bass theme has been constant throughout,
cycling back around every 8 measures. The lesson, which Brahms learned
from Bach, is that the musical sameness and rigor of a passacaglia does not
preclude a great composer from creating a sense of departure and return by
providing groups of variations with certain shared characteristics.
The movement—and the symphony—conclude with a magisterial coda
following variation 30. Most minor-mode symphonies—Beethoven’s ninth,
for example—mark a trajectory of darkness to light, of struggle capped by
victory, and conclude, cathartically and triumphantly—in major. However,
Brahms’s fourth-movement coda brings this symphony to its conclusion in
the tonal darkness of E minor. Brahms, who saw himself as the last exponent
of the German symphonic tradition, does not surrender to convention at the
end of his Fourth Symphony—his 􀂿 nal symphony.