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Mendelssohn - A Life in Music Todd, auth. 25.60 paper cover 736pp ISBN 9780195179880 Oxford University Press

Thanks for the recommendation--- I love musician biographies. I have one or two others published by Oxford that seem readable, yet very informative and reliably-researched. A 736 page book at $25.00 is not such a bad deal.

Hi everyone,

time to revive this thread!

I am working on 19/6 as well, and the start of the 2nd page (after the repeated staccato D's) is giving me a lot of trouble.

If I do it RH only, I just don't have the chops yet to bring out the melody properly while having a cleanly articulated middle voice. So my teacher suggested playing the bass octaves and then the middle voice with my LH. This of course allows much better articulation and separation of the voices, but I wonder if I'll ever get the jumps from the bass to the treble fast and clean enough...

What do you guys do in this measure?

I'm glad to see that Mendelssohn has his own thread! I don't play piano (yet -I'm about a week into beginner lessons) but I do listen to music, and Mendelssohn is a favorite. I love his Songs Without Words.



I was wondering about something I heard in a lecture this weekend about Chopin. The lecturer brought up Fanny Mendelssohn as an example of how women weren't encouraged to take on music as anything more than a leisure activity, and the example given was Fanny, whose brother discouraged her from publishing her music, but later regretted it and spent the rest of his life after she died championing and getting her music published. I thought the speaker alluded as if this was Felix, but he died so closely after her, that the timing doesn't seem right. Didn't he have a stroke when he heard that she died and wasn't really well for the next few months, until he died himself? I know there was a second brother - could that have been who the lecturer was referring to? Maybe I read Felix into it.

I'm working on 19/6 too. I only play the bass notes with the left hand and everything else with the right. I'll have to try it the other way at tonight's practice session and report back...

I have a Schirmer edition that indicates pedal all through those measures. I didn't like that idea. I finally got an urtext edition - now I can make up my own mind about what to do.

Sam

hmm pedal, really? mine is marked non-legato. I did use pedals on every 8th, which wouldn't be necessary if the LH does the middle voice. What does the Urtext say?

I am using the Peters edition from IMSLP: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/5/51/IMSLP00651-Songs_Without_Words__Op_19.pdf

No pedal in that section at all. Very little pedal elsewhere in 19/6. Of course, the pianos were different back then, and composers did not mark pedal that often or very consistently.

I'll check it tonight and let you know which measures have pedal marked.

Sam

The Henle urtext edition for 19/6 only has a few pedal markings. This edition is based on first editions and manuscripts.

measure 22 first beat - pedal down
measure 23 last beat - pedal up
measure 34 first beat - pedal down
measure 36 below the staff - "sempre" pedal
measure 40 beat 3 - pedal up

There are no other pedal markings. I've tried playing it like this, and it's pretty dry in the measures with no pedal (and difficult to play) and muddy when the pedal is held down. Of course, Mendelssohns's piano probably had less sustain than a modern piano.

To use one pedal change per measure, like the Schirmer edition has, is way too much pedal for my taste. Two pedal changes per measure is still too much for me. So I use something closer to a pedal per beat. This makes the left hand low bass notes more detached, which might be closer to what Mendelssohn wanted, since they are usually marked with a dot, and it helps me connect things. It is marked sostenuto and cantabile.

I prefer using the urtext and making my own decisions. And the urtext doesn't have the silly titles, which I really hate - Mendelssohn did not give the Songs without Words those silly titles.

Anyway, I hope to play 19/6 for the next ABF recital, if I can work out some remaining little problems.

Sam

Sam, thanks for a lot for the information! 19/6 is going to be my entry as well, can't wait to hear yours!

I played mostly with a pedal change to take out the bass note for the remaining 2/3 in each half-measure, then another pedal change after each LH group. Almost no pedal for the staccato 16th in measure 10, and right now experimenting with pedalling in measures 26-31.

I think I'll end up with 8th pedal or so for most of it on the digital - but I suspect once the grand arrives I'll use none or almost none on that one. Tricky piece!

Fanny died first, then Felix six months later. Their family had a history of heart problems, so I don't think Felix died of a broken heart over Fanny. He had a wife and kids of his own, after all.

Felix did advise Fanny not to publish - her father did the same thing, telling her that music could only be an ornament in her life. She did publish a few things in her lifetime. Felix may have published some of her works under his name.

If Fanny hadn't been rich - or if her family hadn't been rich (bankers) - she might have been another Clara Wieck Schumann. She was an excellent player, and played with Felix at musical evenings at home when they were growing up in Berlin. These were not little parties of family and a couple of friends, but free concerts with a lot of people attending. If Fanny had been forced to support a family or had an undependable husband like Clara she might have gone onto the concert stage. Fanny and Clara were contemporaries and knew each other.

Anyway, it's fun to speculate and play the "what if?" game.

Sam

Cool! The more Mendelssohn the better!

Sam

I might be doing 30/6, but haven't decided. 19/2 is an option as well as a few Chopin (I didn't say that name in this thread) Mazurkas. I'm not really happy with anything right now and I'm not getting a lot of time to make anything better so it's probably going to end up being a throw a lot of stuff at the recorder and see what sticks.

I used quite a bit of pedal when I was working on 19/6 (it's in one of the previous recitals, 2 or 3 back I think). I think it all works really as it is speculation as to what is really meant by Felix on it. I do believe we can look at the title here as it's one of the only one's he did title and take that as an indication of the rhythm. I think most tempo's for it are too fast and I think I played it too fast in the recital attempting to play at the marked tempo. It loses that pole push I think it should have when played too fast.

Anyway. Best of luck working it out and figuring out your interpretations and have fun. It's a brilliant little piece.

What I didn't realize when I posted this painting so long ago is that Bach lived and worked in that building. His office was on the right just above the small arched gate. The building is no longer there.

Sam

Time to add your recordings of 19/6 to the thread Sam Smith and Bunneh. They were very enjoyable in the recital and should be here.

Here was my 30/6 for the recital: op 19 no 6

Currently, I'm giving a reasonable look (more than just sight reading through a bit and tossing it into the pile, kind of look) at 53/1. It is probably beyond me to get this anywhere near the dotted quarter at 92. andante con moto. But I'm still maintaining 19/2 and 19/4, although not polishing them up to a good recording yet and there's always 53/3, but I think that one is in the postponed pile.

Hey Sam - I first saw that watercolor of M's in a biography on Bach by C. Wolff - I had a sort of 'look upon my works and despair' moment - how accomplished he was -

OK, here's my 19/6:

Mendelssohn Song Without Words Opus 19 #6

53/1 and 53/3 are both good choices. I would dearly love to do 53/5, the "Volkslied". I love the way it is so dramatic. And there is always 62/3, "Trauermarsch", that I want to do some day. But right now I am working on 19/2. There are so many good ones that will just have to wait until I get better.

Sam

I read that biography too - which is how I realized that Bach lived and worked in that building. It's amazing how talented Mendelssohn was.

Sam

I like this recording....nice work HomeInMyShoes.........very sensitive

Best regards,
Johan B

Thanks Johan B. It was a bit of work getting it to that point.

Yep, 53/3 is a doozy. I love the quick triplets against the chords of the beginning, middle breaks and end. I'll have to look at 62/3. My familiarity with the Songs isn't the best outside of a few. 53/1 and 53/3 were completely unknown to me until last year really. The real reason I picked up an edition is still eluding me. A couple of attempts into 19/1 have left me feeling that my brain and hands are just not in the right place yet. But that failure has left me with a lot of wonderful finds.

It's nice to communicate with other musiclovers all over the world. I like that. I think you have the same love/addiction to pianomusic like me.

And indeed...sometimes playing particular, special compositions are a heck of a job......I worked today at Fantasie BWV904...very nice but hard to play it real good.

Since friday I have the diagnosis of Dupuytren's disease......made my pianolife more difficult......I knew it for myself but two days ago I got the official diagnose from a MD.....

I think I will make many recordings so long it goes.....but music will still be a way of living for me....

Best regards,
Johan B

I bought an album of all the Songs Without Words and listen to it every now and then. There are a lot of less well known ones that are very beautiful. 62/3 was played at his funeral. 38/6 was a wedding present to his wife - but I would need three hands to play that one.

Sam