Brahms, Liebeslieder-Walzer, op. 52, n3

The third number in Brahms's opus 52 is brief, a duo for tenor and bass, for whom the slightly obnoxious text offers that a fellow would have become a monk if it were not for the charms of women.

Here is the piece in a piano reduction (not by Brahms but obviously based very closely on his piano four-hands version). All in all, a simple rising line from ^5 in the first strain, repeated to end the second.

Here is the texted version with solo piano accompaniment. The tenor might be said to trace a line from ^3 downward, so long as one is willing to understand ^7 in the penultimate bar as a substitution for ^2--not unreasonable. It is, however, telling that Brahms—far from emphasizing the voice parts in his own piano versions of the piece—dropped them.