Mendelssohn ID?

[steve jones]

Any Mendelssohn fanatics knocking around? I have a tricky one to id (well, probably not but Iv not managed to find it).

Its a piece in the 2001 - 2002 ABRSM Gr6 List B3. 'Song without Words', Andante in F Major.

I cant find an Op number for the life of me, and as Im after a recording this is proving a problem!

Thanks

[vladhorwz]

I love mendelssohn.  I believe the piece you are referring to is Book 4 no. 4 op 53, but it could also be book 7 no 1 op 85, but that one is not really Andante.

[hodi]

i'm a mendelssohn freak
i have 6 cd's with his complete piano works
 as well as 40 cd's with almost all of his non-piano works (2 cd's are songs without words)
any mendelssohn u need tell me

[steve jones]

Thanks fellas (and hodi, I might hold you to that  ).

This is were it gets tricky, the piece is neither Op53 No4, or Op85 No1 (although it starts very similarly to this one).

The text mentions that this 'Lied ohne Worte' was entered into the album of Fraulein Doris Loewe in 1841.

Piece is about 2mins long (29 bars).

[bernhard]

There is no opus number to this one. It was never published in Mendelssohn's lifetime ot even posthumously. My guess is that it would probably still be in manuscript form if some ABRSM scholar had not find it somewhere in the archives of the British Museum and decided to use it in the exams. 

I don't know of any recording of it - except for the ABRSM exam pieces CD - even Martin Jones's "complete" Mendelssohn Piano Music (Nimbus) does not have it.

In regards to the "album" to which it refers, in Mendelssohn's time it was fashionable for society ladies to keep “autograph albums”. These were notebooks where artists of their acquaintance could contribute souvenirs of their art. So, an autograph album could have a small poem from a famous (or aspiring to be famous) writer in one of its pages. In another page a painter may jot a little sketch. And musicians frequently wrote in them small piano pieces, composed especially for the lady in question. A piece of piano music composed for an autograph album was commonly called an “Album leaf”.  These were usually brief and of no great musical importance. Although titles as a "Song without Words", this is, technically speaking, an "Album leaf". Most likely, Mendelssohn didn;'t think high enough of it to pbether publishing it or giving it an opus number. The only album leaf Mendelssohn published was the "Albumblatt in Em" op. 117.

Almost all romantic composers wrote "Album leafs" for friends and acquaintances

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[steve jones]

Ahhh, well that explain why I cant find any info on this little fella!

Thanks Bernhard, I shall have a good hunt for that CD. Not sure if the 2001/2002 pieces are still available, but it cant hurt to have a look.