Mendelssohn Songs Without Words Op 30 No. 1

[raindropshome]

Hi All,

Was just wondering anyone knows how to get background information when Mendelssohn composed this series of Songs Without Words. All I know is this opus was published in 1835.

Any clue will be good.

Thanks

[invictious]

Mendelssohn wanted to one-up Schubert's Lieder series so Mendelssohn went about composing the music for each song first. Turns out he was having difficulty putting words to the music because it turns out Schubert had used up all the poems for the words for the Lieder. To avoid the trouble, Mendelssohn just transcribed everything for solo piano and removed the vocal part. Thus, that was the birth of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words. Little did he know, he could have used French or Italian.

[visitor]

Hi All,

Was just wondering anyone knows how to get background information when Mendelssohn composed this series of Songs Without Words. All I know is this opus was published in 1835.

Any clue will be good.

Thanks

internet search must only be working for me this morning. 27 seconds of effort yields
Musicology:
Songs without Words, Book 2, Op.30
Key: F#-
Year: c.1830-34
Genre: Other Keyboard
Pr. Instrument: Piano
1.Andante espressivo in Eb
2.Allegro di molto in Bb-
3.Adagio non troppo in E
4.Agitato e con fuoco in B-
5.Andante grazioso in D
6.Venezianisches Gondellied in F#-

Felix Mendelssohn was not a newcomer to the piano miniature when he published his Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 30, in 1835. In addition to a number of other short works for solo piano bearing various generic titles, Mendelssohn had composed one earlier set of six lyrical piano character pieces (Op. 19) which were first published by London's premier music publisher Novello in 1832 under the title "Original Melodies" (and a few months later in Berlin by Simrock under the title "Romanzen für's Pianoforte"), and which became immediately popular in Europe's salon culture. Opus 30 was the first group of Mendelssohn's piano character pieces to be published with the original title Lieder ohne Worte, a designation that raises tantalizing aesthetic issues by presuming to cross the line between absolute and program music and suggesting the frustration of generic expectations.

The contrapuntal textures, simple, lyrical melodies, and elaborations of Classical phrase structures and forms in the Op. 30 Songs without Words reveal Mendelssohn's musical upbringing in the great Classical traditions. The inner voices in Op. 30, No. 1 combine in a single strand of gentle arpeggio figuration between the harmonic foundation of the bass and the lyrical tune. Like No. 1, the second piece in the set is also a variation of the ternary form idea. The classically balanced antecedent-consequent period that begins the piece modulates from B flat minor to the relative major (D flat major), foreshadowing the large-scale tonal progression from B flat minor to B flat major over the course of the piece. In Op. 30, No. 3, the identical introduction and coda feature delicate arpeggios and bookend an unassuming modified ternary form movement. The repose of this piece is broken by the minor mode and ceaseless sixteenth notes of Op. 30, No. 4. Indeed, although the opening phrase of this piece begins as a classic antecedent phrase, the following phrase cannot find rest in its tortuous extensions and cadential evasions, and modulates to the relative major key. By including an A section in which two themes are introduced and a brief developmental B section before the modified reprise of the A section, Mendelssohn combines elements of ternary and sonata forms. The D major tonality of Op. 30, No. 5 links it to the preceding piece. Filigree thirty-second notes buzz beneath the melody. Mendelssohn entitled Op. 30, No. 6 "Venetianisches Gondellied," as he had Op. 19, No. 6 and as he would Op. 62, No. 5 in 1844. Although in his earlier and later Venetian gondola "songs" the 6/8 meter functions as a straightforward indicator of the genre, in Op. 30, No. 6, Mendelssohn frustrates generic expectations through metric ambiguity. The accentuating chords in the eighth-note accompaniment blur the line between 6/8 and 3/4 time. Additionally, the right-hand melody, which, in the A-section, studiously avoids the tonic pitch, floats incongruently over the metric confusion of the accompaniment. In the coda, ponderous chordal syncopations in the right hand exaggerate the metric conflict, temporarily subverting any clear sense of meter.

[raindropshome]

Thanks. That's most helpful. What would you say then, is a good poem for Contemplation OP 30 No.1? I don't mean to fit word to word into the music, just mean as a general idea, what poems would you recommend as a side study for this piece? I had people saying my playing has no sensitivity and no subtlety,    so I want to change that.

[j_menz]

Then perhaps you should look inside the music, rather than outside it. 

The latter may be valid if there was a clear external inspiration for a piece, but that does not seem to be the case here.

[raindropshome]

Thanks. Wish me luck.

[goldentone]

Your finding, Visitor, on Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words does strike a chord, but does it strike inner accord and inspiration?  The variations on classical structure Mendelssohn employs may only be glimmerings, but they do signify a progression from previous conceptions, which would have bored Chopin, as composers would break out of the classical mindset couched away from freer expression.  

The question is, was Mendelssohn merely toying with the rules, or was it born of intention, a foreshadow of the pent-up imminent romantic era?  Necessity, as the maxim goes, is the mother of invention. Form, or function, must be reckoned with to carry out the need of the epoch.  The normal antecedent-consequent interference provides mystery there which would agree with a teasingly postponed cadenza of Rachmaninov in his 2nd concerto, which in my mind reverberates within greater dimensions.  

We go from classicism's self-conscious restraint, to the very conscious surging of emotion at the height of romanticism's more involuntary power.  And when you think about it, this daring evolution occurred in a very short time by music's historical standards.  This enterprising leap would take a very confident composer.  The psychology of composing does fascinate me, and yet there are always parts of the soul that are equally desired to be kept "classical."  

One wonders if such spontaneous evolution would cause a genuine outcry in older steeled souls.  That anachronism could redefine the politics of society.