Mendelssohn Week 2

Variations Serieuses, Op. 54

Theme - Simple form. Very sad/"serious". Seems as though it is filled with half-step chromatic descensions... a sighing motive.

Var I- A scalar figure is placed in the middle. This flowing figuration counters the staccato/shortened bass notes which displace the second half of the measure to a pick-up style leap.

Var II- The sixteenth note scales are varied to now be sextuplets which alternate between accompaniment and melody. The left hand returns to a flowing and solid figuration.

Var III- We know find the melody and accompaniment unified within octaves and chords. The sudden change back to 2/4 timing is very striking. This variation is more "straight-to-the-point" in terms of length and content. The character is more stern.

Var IV- We are now in the realm of staccato scales/arpeggio hybrids. I think we are now distancing considerably from the harmonies of the classical period.

Var V- Syncopated chords are the subject matter here. The expressive marking is "Agitato" and the dynamic indication is "piano", therefor Mendelssohn creates agitation with rhythm and tight harmonic clusters.

Var VI- Romantic composers must have realized that something that sounds easier than it is should be dramaticized and made into a virtuosic trait. It is unreasonable that in Beethoven and Schuberts works there are large leaps from chord to chord in awkward positions that the audience can't fully apprecitate. Here Mendelssohn utilizes this technique and makes it special.

Var VII- Here we replace the difficulty of awkward leaping chords with the difficulty of an extremely swift arpeggio with no rests on other sides.

Var VIII- An audience would probably associate the difficulty of this variation with the speed, not realizing how difficult double note playing can be. Mendelssohn lightens up on the left hand and exploits the right one.

Var VIV- Mendelssohn must have liked the technical difficulties of variation VIII enough to repeat it once more with the added difficulty of allowing the left hand to imitate.

Var X- We lay off the speed temporarily to switch gears to the area of counterpoint. Mendelssohn makes use of his fugal talents here.

Var XI- Here we are given a taste of the romantic tendency to put all melodic responsibilies in the outer fingers of the hand.

Var XII- The only thing that could be more difficult than repeated chords would be to overlap the chords between both hands with only a limited time and space to achieve the awkward change in position that awaits between each sonority.

Var XIII- Mendelssohn returns to the scrambled scale/arpeggio mixtures in this variation. The mixtures of steps and leaps are what give this music and the music of Chopin so much flare and exoticism.

Var XIV- This variation is nothing but beatiful. This is like the calm of the storm, with tightly woven sonorities that provide an intense feeling of comfort.

Var XV- This variation has the primary function of being a transition from the slow tempo back into the swift and unyielding technical variations.

Var XVI- Broken chords are a new found difficulty in this genre, Mendelssohn must have realized it when he set this towards the end.

Var XVII- This variation changes shape and intensifies to pull you toward the grand finale. It seems a bit like a recap of all the past difficulties.

Presto- The finale is full of syncopated intensity. Mendelssohn finds in himself the musical maturity and integrity to end softly when any moment could have yielded a grandiose climax-style ending.

Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op. 35/1

Prelude- Instantly striking to me is Mendelssohn's use of the left hand to create a bass-line as well as the tenor melody. I appreciate his original use of the figuration prelude style of composition. His use of an introduction is also very orginal, his manor of introducing the melody in a clear form and then spinning the accompanimental triplets into their full form, as if setting them in motion. His use here of the technique of starting a melody note as the beginning of an arpeggio and completing the melody in the left hand seems much akin to Franz Liszt's virtuosic traits (the illusion of three hands playing). His use of the V4/3 chord at the coda has haunting quality which I find striking.

Fugue- Mendelssohn was no doubt showing off with this fugue. The first two notes of the subject would be unthinkingly awkward to set to counterpoint for the following reasons...

1) The use of a large interval

2) The use of an interval of unusual quality (major 7th)

3) The use of notes that have little function in the key of e-minor (B-mediant, C-subdominant)

His admiration for the work of Bach is notable in his use of contrapuntal materials, such as the tritone in the 4th measure with the three-note repetition. This is an easily recognizable pattern within thick textures, as noted in Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor from WTC I.

This fugue is in four voices, however voices (particularly the bass) are sometimes doubled with an octave. This effect is certainly Mendelssohn's way of bringing romantic intensity to the compositional genre of the Baroque composers.

Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14

This piece is instantly recognizable to me, I believe because it was on the soundtrack of the movie Shine. I appreciate the first few measures and the way that Mendelssohn creates an atmospheric and haunting melody between the bass and the soprano lines. Once the soprano melody enters it sounds immediately like a Chopin Nocturne in its song-like nature.

The transition into the presto section seems deliberately borrowed from a Beethoven sonata.

Something in this presto section that is unlike anything we have studied since the beginning of the year, even in Classical Literature, is the use of the "boom-chik" accompaniment. This is the first deliberate separation from alberti-bass that has caught my intention. The use of thirds is very striking to me in its establishment of a "sound" for this specific work (reminds me of the Nutcracker Suite to be honest).

I still do not feel that the style of virtuosity is much seperated from Beethoven, but I can see how the more original material will eventually evolve into an equal importance with the "stock virtuosity". Elements of the presto section very strongly resemble the 3rd movement of the "Les Adieux" sonata.