- Biography
- Octet
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Hebrides Overture
- Italian Symphony
- Scottish Symphony
- Violin Concerto in E Minor
- Elijah
- Songs without Words: ‘Spring Song’
Biography
The opening to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto has a beautifully understated lyrical romanticism about it that makes it among the most popular of all concertos for any instrument.
Mendelssohn only lived for thirty-eight years, but during that short time he composed a significant number of the enduring popular classic favourites, including the Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) and the Violin Concerto, all of which are regularly performed in concert halls around the world.
Felix Mendelssohn was the son of a wealthy banker and received an extremely high-powered education from the very finest teachers in Paris and Berlin, including the poet Goethe.
His mother, Lea, taught him the rudiments of music and he was soon hailed as being another Mozart.
The talent he demonstrated both on the piano and as a composer and improviser certainly invites comparison between the two.
His talents were developed by an immense amount of hard work and application: his father insisted on his getting up at five o’clock every morning to start work.
Mendelssohn composed his now famous Octet for double string quartet at just sixteen years of age, and a year later produced the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Not satisfied, however, with a career just as a composer, he studied philosophy at the University of Berlin and continued in his search for knowledge, all the while mixing in the highest academic and artistic circles.
He became friends with the poet Heine, and later with other composers such as Chopin and Robert Schumann.
He went to England in the spring of 1829 and Sir Walter Scott took him on a voyage to Scotland and the Hebrides, where he found the inspiration for the overture of the same name.
From this time he was composing some very fine music indeed and by 1833 he had completed four symphonies, a couple of string quartets and the first volume of Songs Without Words for solo piano.
He was naturally prolific and his music has a youthful spontaneity and freshness about it quite unlike that of any other composer of his generation.
Mendelssohn was also keen on conducting and travelled all over the world, working with many of the finest orchestras in performances of his own pieces and those of others that he admired, including Bach, Handel and Beethoven.
He got married whilst in France in 1837 to a beautiful young French girl, ten years his junior.
They had five children, and the strain of this, coupled with his intensely busy schedule as a conductor and composer, led to his poor health; he was always under par and was reputed to have been a pretty sickly sort chap.
Mendelssohn’s music found favour with the Prussian and British royal families, and the composer very much enjoyed giving private performances at Buckingham Palace in England and for Frederick Wilhelm lV in Berlin.
He wrote a lot of piano music – a couple of concertos and four volumes of the Songs Without Words – and apart from the symphonies and the famous overtures he also wrote two excellent oratorios, St Paul in 1836 and Elijah ten years later.
It was following a splendid performance of Elijah in Berlin that Mendelssohn returned to Leipzig suffering from complete exhaustion: he had a series of fits and died on 4 November 1847.
His music displays the unique qualities of warmth and romanticism whilst at the same time retaining the clarity of texture and tunefulness of the early classicists.
His music is very appealing and is now finding something of a resurgence in popularity.
Octet
Octet for Strings in E Flat Major Op. 20
1825, Chamber Music
Amazingly, Mendelssohn was only sixteen when he wrote this piece for two string quartets. His youthful enthusiasm can be heard in each of the four lengthy movements, which sound as if the young composer has only just discovered the joys of music and wishes to share them with the world.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture
1827, Orchestral
Mendelssohn was, amazingly, only seventeen years old when he wrote the Overture to one of his favourite Shakespearean comedies, yet he did not write the other four parts (Scherzo – Intermezzo – Nocturne – Wedding March) until nearly twenty years later. In a letter to his sister, Fanny, when he was young, Mendelssohn said:
‘I have grown accustomed to composing in our garden; there I completed two piano pieces . . . Today or tomorrow I am going to dream there the ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. This is, however, an enormous audacity . . .’
The Overture is indeed the most famous part of all the incidental music the composer wrote for Shakespeare’s play, and is best summed up by Mendelssohn himself when he wrote:
‘It follows the play closely . . . so that it may perhaps be very proper to indicate the outstanding situations of the drama in order that the audience may have Shakespeare in mind . . . I think that it should be enough to point out that the fairy rulers, Oberon and Titania, appear throughout the play with all their people . . . at the end, after everything has been satisfactorily settled, and the principal players have joyfully left the stage, the elves follow them, bless the house and disappear with the dawn. So the play ends, and my Overture too.’
A great fan of Shakespeare, Mendelssohn was keen to supply music for the whole play and composed much background music – some complicated, some merely a single note to emphasise a word or gesture.
The Overture captures many aspects of the play, from fairy music played on high violins to the braying of Bottom when he has an ass’s head.
The Scherzo provides a bit of orchestral magic, with shimmering strings and laughing woodwind chords, while the Intermezzo has a more agitated feel, coming in at the end of Act II, where one of the men has fallen in love with the wrong woman.
At the close of the next act, the Nocturne maintains a sleepy mood, as the lovers in the play have fallen into a magic sleep, hauntingly represented by a solo horn.
The final Wedding March is full of grand and regal splendour, particularly effective in a large theatre.
Hebrides Overture
The Hebrides Overture (‘Fingal’s Cave’) Op. 26
1830, Overtures
As his letters and paintings testify, Mendelssohn was a keen and sensitive observer of the outside world.
In July 1829 he travelled to Scotland with the writer Carl Klingmann and was profoundly stirred by the country’s sombre beauty and romantic history. At some point during this holiday Mendelssohn took the steamer from Oban to the island of Mull, where he spent the night before embarking for Staffa and Iona. From Mull he wrote to his family, saying:
‘So that you can understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides have affected me, the following came into my head here . . .’
and he went on to quote the opening of what was to become the Hebrides Overture.
The initial idea was thus conceived before Mendelssohn visited Staffa, with its famed Fingal’s Cave, and his original title for the overture, ‘The Lonely Island’, may well refer to Mull. He certainly disliked the title ‘Fingal’s Cave’, which his publishers gave the work after it had reached its final form in 1832.
One of the greatest of musical seascapes, the overture re-creates the sounds and rhythms of the ocean, its swellings and ebbings, its violent storms and mysterious shimmering calms. Particularly magical is the way in which the second main theme is brought up by the clarinets and fleetingly recalled by the flute in the last few bars.
Italian Symphony
Symphony No. 4 in A Major Op. 90 (‘Italian’)
1830, Symphonies, Orchestral
Mendelssohn was often criticised for being too happy and too rich, and many have wondered what kind of music he would have produced had he been a poor, tormented and passionate artist like Mozart or Berlioz. However, his talent is undeniable, and his Italian Symphony is a masterpiece as well as being, according to the composer himself ‘ . . . the jolliest piece I have ever done’.
In 1830 the twenty-one year old Mendelssohn travelled into Italy and found the country instantly inspiring. In letters home he said that he felt like a young prince making his entry into a country full of festive air, and if the listener retains this notion while listening to the symphony he will agree that it is truly reflected in the music.
The first movement (Allegro vivace) opens with a call to adventure by the violins over a background phrase from the woodwinds, after which the music enchantingly unfolds like the Italian landscape unfolding before the young composer.
The mock sluggishness of the second movement (Andante con moto) was inspired by a religious procession it is known Mendelssohn witnessed in Naples, and is cleverly achieved by plodding strings and chanting woodwinds.
The third movement (Con moto moderato) is a graceful exercise and is often compared with the composer’s Overture for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
This sets up the listener nicely for the finale, in the form of an old Italian dance, which reflects the hectic fun of the Roman carnival experienced by Mendelssohn during his four-month stay in the capital.
Scottish Symphony
Symphony No. 3 Op. 56 (‘Scottish’): 2nd Movement
1833, Symphonies, Orchestral
‘We went into the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved. There is a little room to be seen there, with a winding staircase leading up to it. . . . The adjoining chapel is now roofless; grass and ivy grow abundantly in it; and before the ruined altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything around is broken and mouldering, and the bright sky shines in. I believe I found the beginnings of my ‘Scotch’ Symphony there today.’
This is what Mendelssohn, on holiday in Scotland, wrote in his diary on 30 July 1829, and later in the day jotted down the opening bars of what was to become one of his greatest works.
It is set in the traditional four movements, yet, interestingly, Mendelssohn specifically directed that they be played without a pause to prevent any applause between them.
Violin Concerto in E Minor
Violin Concerto in E Minor Op. 64: Allegro molto appassionato
1844, Concerti, Orchestral
In July 1838 Mendelssohn wrote to his old friend Ferdinand David, saying:
‘I would like to write you a violin concerto for next winter. One in E minor keeps running through my head, and the opening gives me no peace.’
Like many other great composers, Mendelssohn had a specific performer in mind when he wrote his concerto, and therefore consulted him frequently. One of the leading virtuosos of the day, Ferdinand David was much admired by other musicians, including Mendelssohn’s friend Robert Schumann.
The concerto was only finished six years after its inception during a family holiday Mendelssohn took in the summer of 1844. The composer had a reputation for being a perfectionist and would often make minute alterations until they were to his, and David’s, liking; changes were even made after the work had been sent to the publishers.
It was first performed in March 1845, though Mendelssohn was too ill to attend its debut.
The solo violin opens the concerto with a passionate melody upon which the rest of the movement is based. In order to give a feeling of radiance, the first solo is played entirely on the E string, the highest and most brilliant string on the instrument.
The second, slower movement (Andante) follows without a pause from the first, and is introduced by a single bassoon note held over from the final chord of the preceding section. It is soon joined by other instruments to supply the backing for the simple, yet profound violin solo.
Again with no pause, we are led straight into the finale with an increase in pace (Allegretto non troppo; Allegro molto vivace) that allows the violin to dance through and dominate the closing bars, full of melodic verve and rhythmic drive.
Elijah
1846, Choral
A dramatic oratorio in the style of Handel, Elijah tells the story of the prophet of the same name taken from the Old Testament. The work is full of powerful choruses.
Songs without Words: ‘Spring Song’
Songs without Words No. 6: ‘Spring Song’
1832, Keyboard Works
The ‘Songs without Words’ are an inspiring set of lyrical piano pieces that seem to explore moods rather than themes. The most famous are ‘Spring Song’ and ‘The Bee’s Wedding’. They have been arranged for various instruments, including flute and harp.