His friend, the Swiss pastor and poet Josef Victor Widmann [de] (1842–1911), lived in Bern and they visited each other.

He was also visited by the poet Klaus Groth and the young German contralto Hermine Spies.

[1] He found himself so invigorated by the genial atmosphere and surroundings that he said the area was "so full of melodies that one has to be careful not to step on any".

Motifs from three of the songs Brahms wrote that summer with Hermine Spies's voice in mind[1] appear fleetingly in the sonata: "Wie Melodien zieht es mir leise durch den Sinn", Op.

105/1 ("Like melodies it steals softly through my mind"; words by Klaus Groth) makes an appearance in the second subject of the first movement.

For French musicologist Georges Kan, this is the location of the little phrase in Vinteuil Sonata which Swann listens to in 'In Search of Lost Time' by Marcel Proust.

[1][2] Brahms's friend the poet Josef Widmann later wrote a poem to be accompanied by the sonata.