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xford University Press
Early Mendelssohn and Late BeethovenAuthor(s): Joscelyn GodwinSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Jul., 1974), pp. 272-285Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/734224
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EARLY MENDELSSOHN AND LATE
BEETHOVEN
BY
JOSCELYN
GODWIN
"EVERYTHING
here
is different,
ery
different
rom
anything
ever
heard
before,
ven from
hecomposer
himself.We
hope that
he
will
not
take it amiss
when we add
that
it does not
appear
an unimport-
ant work,
and as
it
seems
to
be well-ordered,
well-divided,
well-
formed, ts effect s all the more bizarre".1. t is withprecisely uch
thoughts
hatone is struck
n firstmeeting
with
certainof
Mendels-
sohn's early
works.
The 'conservative'
Mendelssohn-bastion
of
Victorian
respectability
r inheritor f Rococo
elegance,
depending
on
one's
point
ofview-is
seldomcredited
with
a
spirit
f adventure.
Yet
in
his
brilliant
youth
he wrote works
which
are astonishing
for
thisvery quality,
as
well
as for
the
fact
that theyshow
an appreci-
ation
and emulation
of certainfeatures
of Beethoven's
later works
that
must
be
unique
for
their time.
All
the
important
writers
on
Mendelssohnhave feltobliged to comment,at least briefly, n this.
But
in view
of the still
widespread
undervaluing
of
Mendelssohn,
I
think
t
pertinent
o
enlarge
upon
and
illustrate
his
aspect
of his
music.
The
works
concerned
are
the
piano
sonata
in E
major
(Op.
6),
the
fantasiesfor
piano
in
F$
minor
Op. 28)
and
E
major (Op.
15),
and
the
string uartet
in
A
minor
Op.
I
3).
By
the time
the
earliest
of
these
was written
E
major
sonata,
I826),
Mendelssohn
was
prob-
ably
acquainted
with all the
important
music of
his time:
as
Eric
Wernerhas pointed out, the composer'sfatherwas able, and inter-
ested
enough,
to
buy
him
copies
of
anything
ignificant.,
do
not
doubt,
therefore,
hat he knew
all the
pieces
I shall cite. To
avoid
confusion,
shall
call
Mendelssohn's
works
by
their
keys
and
Beet-
hoven's by
their
familiar
opus
numbers.
Robert
Schumann,
writing
n
I835,
detected
the
inspiration
of
the
opening
of the
E
major
sonata:
If the
first
movement
f
this
onata
reminds
ne of the
thoughtful
melancholy
f
Beethoven's
ast
A
major
sonata-though
the
last
movement ecallsWeber'smanner-yetthis s not causedbyweak
1
Allgenmeine
usikalische
eitung,
x
(i8i8),
p.
792;
quoted
from
Anton
Schindler,
'Beethoven
as I knew
him',
edited by
Donald
MacArdle
and
translated
by
Constance
Jolly
London,
I966).
This
quotation
s
actually
from
review
of Beethoven's
ate
cello
sonatas,
Op. I02.
2
This point
s made
in Werner's
Mendelssohn;
a New
Image
of
the
Composer
nd
his Age',
translated
by
Dika Newlin
(London,
I963),
p.
107.
Weiner's
book
and
Philip
Radcliffe's
Mendelssohn'
n
the
'Master
Musicians'
series
revised
d.,
London, 1967),
are
the only
useful
books
n English.
For
the
Mendelssohn
bibliography,
ee
the
article
on
him in
Die
Musik
n Geschichte
nd
Gegenwart'.
272
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unoriginality,
ut rather
y
ntellectual
elationship"
E
major
onata,
Allegretto
on
espressione
VI
Fi
#$
PI
p
J,
J
PP
*
$r
P2
-#..'
do
t~~~~
P
P
op.
101,
'Etwas
ebhaft
nd
mit
er
nnigsten
mpfindung
Ti
1
7
The
question
of
deliberate,
accidental,
or
coincidental
relationship
arises
immediately.
Was
Mendelssohn
thinking
f
Op.
ioi,
was
he
so
imbued
with
it
that
this
ust
flowedfrom
him,
or
is
this
material
as
common
to
its
time
as
the
Alberti
bass?
I
hope
I have
excluded
instances
of
the
third
alternative.
Both of
the
others,
here
and
throughout hisstudy,are probable. Anyonewho has composed in
his
youth
may
remember
how
he
would
appropriate
an
occasional
feature
from
an
admired
composer-a
chord-progression
ere,
an
instrumentation
here-in
a
spirit
of
homage,
and
in
the
hope
that
a
happy
fertilization
might
thereby
occur.
Such
appears
to
be
the
case
here.
The
early piano
works
re
full
of
such
similarities,
howing
3
Quoted
from
Robert
Schumann,
Music
and
Musicians',
second
series, ranslated
by
Fanny
Raymond
Ritter
4th
ed.,
London,
n.d.),
p.
253.
273
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that the
youngcomposer
was
fully
s
steeped
n
the Beethoven
sonatas
s
hewasin
Bach's
48'.
In
the
E
major
onata,
or
xample,
there
re
also
clearechoes f
Beethoven's
p.
go
and
Op.
8
a:
ED
major
onata,
(cf.
Op. 90,
fi,
ars
0
and
49)
l
z*^vw
_
IL
_-
I
ht e
~~~~~~~~~~~FT
I
_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A
m
)
?
1:e 1
1' 1-k W I I I i~~~~~~~~~~~11 fI
( si:
$fi$$-
- 1-
e SJJ
JJl 'I J
\ _ e q - -_ - :-. 2 . _ ,
ei
t:-
w
0
4
77
P F
I
.I 1
RP~
~ ~
(|
~~~~~~~legato
dlce
P
*P
*P
simile
\
~~
~~~~~~~Imin
una
corda,
p
e dolce
274
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Andante
Allegretto on espressione
*
diTLm____t@_
. i n
_PP_
UL
*10,
6
OP
P.CP
sempre
These
four elementsare then repeated in different eys, makingan
alternating orm
eminiscentfOp.
09, i
and Op.
I1I,
iii.
As for
the musical substance, Op.
31,
no. 2, i, comes readily
enough
to
mind; and perhapsOp.
I06G
iii iS lurking omewheren Mendels-
sohn's unconscious:'
Op. 106, iii
l.rnaorda
crese. ltue
e
corde
(1
"""$"glli-
'ifuii S
11~~~~~~~~~I-]
.
':
P
dimin.-___--?_I?'
P * P
*
Was it not a ghost of this that we heard at bar
I
I6
of the E major
sonata, ? The same passage recurs
t
the very
nd of the
sonata,
culminating
n three
inal hordswhich cite as an example fthe
more
conscious
borrowing f an effect:
4
Werner,op. cit.,pp. Io8-9,
gives a letter
fromMendelssohn
o his sister,
ated
8 November 825,
in which
he
mentions impersonating
eethoven
himself)
hat he is
sending
her his sonata in
B, major,Op. Io6;
"I
did not write he sonataout
of
thin
air.
Play it only
fyouhave ample
time,
which s indispensable
or t".
276
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E
major Sonata,
iv
ending)
Op. 106,
iii
(ending)
r7N
(
h K01 l |
Eltuttedle
The E major
sonata
shows adventurousness
n form to a
rare
degree, using a
motto
theme in three different
movementsas
well
as a
reminiscence
of the opening
theme
near the end
of the
finale
(not quoted here). Surely the young Mendelssohn was the first o
experiment
with
'cyclic'
form to this
degree. He may
have
known
Schubert's
'Wanderer Fantasie',
but
his practice is not
so
much
a
thematic
transformation,
uch
as was to
be
used by Liszt
and
Franck,
as an
extension
of
the
principle
of
literal quotation
found
in
Beet-
hoven's fifth
nd
ninth
symphonies nd
late piano sonatas.
Of
Mendelssohn's other
earlysonatas,
Op.
I
05
in G
minor( 82
I)
and Op. io6
in BI
major
(I827),
the first
raws its inspiration
from
Mozart. Both
were
published
posthumously
i868) byJulius
Rietz,
who was surely guilty of cynicism in his assignmentof the opus
number io6
to a piano
sonata in B,
major which
begins:
Bb
major
Sonata,
i
(opening)
Allegro
vivace
.
P
*
modulates to
G
for
ts second
subject,
and
begins the
development
with
ajugato.The
resemblance
ends
there.
Two
years
later
(I829)
we find
the
remarkable
F#
minor Phan-
tasie',
Op.
28,
an
ambitious
work
in
three
movements, rich
in
Beethovenian reminiscences.
I am
continually
surprised by
the
number of non-specialist authors who, doubtless parroting each
other,
call
the
'Variations Serieuses'
Mendelssohn's only
significant
large-scale
piano
work.5
The
F#
minor
Phantasie'
seems to me to
have an
equal
claim,
not
so much
for ts
perfection n
technique as
6
Only
Radcliffe,
p.
cit.,
.
78,
sees
the virtues f
this
work,
mentioning
he
"stormy
and
grandiose eturn f ts
highly
haracteristic
main
theme
..
In
this
work,
s
elsewhere,
the
key
of
F
sharp
minor seems
to have
stimulated
Mendelssohn o
an
unusually
high
level
of
ntensity".
277
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for
ts continuity,
igour,
passion
and absence
of the cloying
harmo-
nies
of the
later
work. Late Beethoven
does not come
into
question
here (though
some
may
hear
Op.
IO9,
i in
the plunge into
the
first
Allegro),
but
the
influence
of the
middle-period
sonatas
is much
in
evidence: the third movernent Presto) is like a combination of
ideas
from
the finales of Op.
3I,
no.
2
and Op.
8Ia, together
with
the
m
J
motif
f Op.
57,
(not
shown
here):
F#
minor hantasie,
ii
51
Op.
81a,
ii
b
j,
l
K:
~~cresc.-_____
__________
F69
6s?
3=
{2
F#
minor
hantasie,
ii
15
o
maecalonr
Op.
31 no.
2,
i
F283
-7
sf
dim.
p
Despite
appearances
Mendelssohn
shows
himself
worthypupil
of
the
great
man,
and
no
mere
compiler:
he visits Beethoven's
in-
exhaustible
fount
of
ideas for
inspiration
and
refreshment,
ot
for
lack
of
his own
initiative.
278
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The
last
piano
work
which
concernsus
is the
Fantaisie
sur
une
Chanson
Irlandaise', Op.
I5
(I833),
based
on the
song
'The
Last
Rose of
Summer'.
Doomed to silence in
our
unsentimental
age,
this one-movement
essay
has
its
remarkable
moments.
It
harks
back to Beethoven's Op.
IO9
(and is in the same key):
Fantasian
E major
cf. Op. 109, ,bars 5
foll.)
n
x
- ~~~~~~-
-
;----
P
cresc.
Mendelssohn's
treatment of
the
song itself,
especially when it
returns
ransformed
t theend, is
close in
texture
nd general
feeling
to
the theme
ofOp.
io9,
iii. In the
middle of
the
Fantasia,
however,
another
influence
appears, that
of Op.
i
io, iii,
with its
hesitant
alternationsbetween
recitativeand
stricter
hythms.
Note that the
Mendelssohn
extract
below) closes
with the
same pair of
diminished
seventhchordsas itspresumedmodel:
Fantasian E
major
cf.Op.
109, ii,bars
-7)
Recitativo
Recitativo
A A
i2
S-l
dim
l~~~~a
tempo
f
-.
Recitativo
pp
|f
cresc.1
279
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-0
F7-7(vlc.)
(C,
Ez
"
confuoco
F= F
r
4 Lj i
1
-Ls-
Mendelssohn
Beethoven
bar
bar
I
Slow
introduction
I
I9
Semiquaver ransition
9
23 Principal heme
a)
II
42 Semiquaver
ransition
37
5'
Transition
Transitional heme
40
59 Secondary heme b) 48
77
Cadential theme c) 57
93
Development
73
124
Recapitulation iI9
225-251
Coda
195-264
Beethoven
is more of
a
developer:
his
expositorysections
are
compressed
in
favour of
a
long development
and
coda,
whereas
with Mendelssohn
development
is
reduced to
a
fairly nsignificant
role.
The
two
codas,
for
example,
are
articulated thus:
Mendelssohn
Beethoven
bar bar
225
Coda
begins Principal heme urther
developed 195
Transitional heme
urther
developed
214
Secondary heme urther
developed
223
233 Principal
heme
developed
over
semiquavers 232
239
crescendo
some
new melodicmaterial
241
244
diminuendoo p
248
245-251
crescendo
o end 257-264
For
all
that,
Mendelssohn's
movement is
thematically unified,
permeated
with the
Ist es
wahr?'
rhythm,
n
contrast o the wealth
28I
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of disparate ideas that flood in one after another (yet with what
miraculous nevitability ) n
Op.
I32,
i. Mendelssohn had obviously
been impressed by more than the
textures nd rhythmswhich are
all that our shortexamples can show adequately: he was also aware
of the principlesof motivic unity at work.
For the slow movement of the
A minor quartet Mendelssohn
chooses the same F keynote as Beethoven's 'Heiliger Dankgesang'.
The mood at which
he aims is evidently
one of serenity nd pro-
fundity, erhaps with Op. I30, iv
and Op.
I35,
iii in mind:
A
minor uartet,i
Adagio on ento
cantabile
-F
#F
n
%r rpYr
.
,
J
NJ.n
;;i
J
1
-
1.v
T.J
A
melancholyfugal passage
follows
his,recalling the opening fugue
of
Op.
I3I
in its
intensity
nd the
strangenessof
its
harmonies.
Eric
Werner sees
these as "the most excessive chromaticisms ver
writtenbeforeTristan"-an opinionwhich I would modifywiththe
suggestion
that
Mendelssohn
knew
Bach's 'Chromatic
Fantasy
and
Fugue'.
Some
might
see
in
the
subject
a
remembrance-surely
unconscious-of the slow
movement
of Beethoven's
seventh
sym-
phony:
A
minor
uartet,
i
l vlaw l
Z~~~~~
~~
~nd
n.
e
espress.
The
chromaticisms
ecome much more
pronounced
later
on,
when
all
four
parts
have entered:
then the
fugue
melts
beautifully
nto
a
more
cheerful theme
with
accompaniment,
a
spiritual
child of
282
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A minor
uartet,v cf.Op.
132,
v,
bars 5
foll.,
ndOp. 31
no. 2,
,
bars144
foll.)
Presto
?
ad libitum
itri-emvv
tempo
0
_
use tococue
te wor
in thetonicmao.
After o much
strif
and
95,ivand,
v-effects
whcha
empo
to hert Betoe
is onc
mor reclle,
alot
ltraly
inth
ej
0
doesc
/
im
Tusends
hcocudheAiorki athet.oEic
Wej'rn
ferasof
it:stie
n
thnisn
is
cones
f bnsnatrtheosangenou
ofedlshn'
compositonsO.
Chrceie
by a
breat-takn
poinac
an matr
of
inte- v
_indeed
a
M,
efelssohn
b
toemaintain
te evienlo thien
o
a
Beethoven
'
o
es
ry
Wemaynwonder
whyrte h
i
n_ t.
th.
_
inkl
fact
tha
Mncldelsshn
stoppe
ntearoning
taooroo.
ste
longa
uhstie
wasd
stenimulte
byhisimscovaeriesoin
Bfeethoen
ande
ach
he
woas
xcitin
to~~~~~~
ert
Betoe
isoci-ercle
lms ieal,i
h
final~~~~~
~~~
imrs:p
ands
orighA
minohi
re
ine crpeta.
f. tem:e
wy
fnitnsv
uc
comparative,l
t
work
as
the
magnien
Ao
ao
rgan
ata.s
of pa
Bt hofen,
we
h mn
w
n
fat
ha
Mendlsoh
stpe
leringtoson.
As
log
ash.a
adoiial
in
his
eineprttin
of
he:
winssee
sc
comparativel
fathe
oras
th
magenio
icentdelssohn'
rgnponatao
ofO.e5
But
oftenr
when is mindwa
ot.
ehikth
raon
omes
t
leas
7Werner,
op.
cit.,
.
II8.
284
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partially
intellectual
problem,
such as the
incorporation
of
the
Baroque style,
the
assimilation
of
Beethoven's
'difficult'
works,
or
the
achievement of
unity by
connected movements and
thematic
reminiscences,writing music became
too
easy
for
him-with
the
result hatmade him so beloved ofQueen Victoria and so unfashion-
able today. The works with
which
I
have
dealt,
on
the
other
hand,
could
be regarded
as valid
interpretations
f their
models
for
the
Biedermeierage, such as
might
have
led
their
audiences
gently
to
an
appreciation of
the
originals.8
f
Mendelssohn's
studies had led
him
further, ay to
an
understandingof
Beethoven's
fugues, or of
why
Beethoven
could
so often
dispense
with
song-like
themes, his
music as a whole
might interest us more. But
just as he
played
Beethoventoo fast, o
he grew up, and
lived, too fastto take
stock of
his assets and liabilities. Perhaps we may hear in the late F minor
quartet,
Op. 8o,
a sense of
this oss of
opportunity, nd a
longing to
regain some of the
profundity f
his earlymaster.
8
The
AmZ's reviews f
the
E
major
sonata
(xxix,
827,
col.
122-3) and the
A
minor
quartet
(xxxiii,
831,
col.
524-7)
are
wholeheartedly
pproving,
nd
say
nothing
ither
about what seem
to us the
strange ualities
ofthese
works, or about
their
kinshipwith
Beethoven.
285