Scan 192
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1907
23 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1His extemporising was, however, marked by other traits than that of memory. 'It was,' says Macfarren, 'as fluent and as well planned as a written work,' and the themes, whether borrowed or invented, were not merely brought together but contrapuntally worked. Instances of this have been mentioned at Birmingham and elsewhere. His tact in these things was prodigious. At the concert given by Jenny Lind and himself on Dec. 5, 1845, he played two Songs without Words—No. 31, in E flat, and No. 30 in A major, and he modulated from the key of one to that of the other by means of a regularly constructed intermezzo, in which the semiquavers of the first song merged into the arpeggios of the second with the most consummate art, and with magical effect.1 But great as were his public displays, it would seem that, as with Mozart, it was in the small circle of intimate friends that his improvisation was most splendid and happy. Those only who had the good fortune to find themselves (as rarely happened) alone with him at one of his Sunday afternoons are perhaps aware of what he could really do in this direction,2 and he 'never improvised better' or pleased himself more than when tête à tête with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. A singular fact is mentioned by Hiller,3 which is confirmed by another friend of his: that in playing his own music he did it with a certain reticence, as if not desiring that the work would derive any advantage from his execution. The explanation is very much in consonance with his modesty, but whether correct or not, there is no reason to doubt the fact.
3His immense early practice in counterpoint under Zelter—like Mozart's under his father—had given him so complete a command over all the resources of counterpoint, and such a habit of looking at themes contrapuntally, that the combinations just spoken of came more or less naturally to him. In some of his youthful compositions he brings his science into prominence, as in the Fugue in A (op. 7, No. 5); the Finale of the E flat string quartet (1823); the original Minuet and Trio of the string quintet in A (op. 18), a double canon of great ingenuity; the Chorus in 'St. Paul,' 'But our God,' constructed on the chorale 'Wir glauben all'; but with his maturity he mostly drops such displays, and 'Elijah,' as is well known, 'contains no fugues.' In extemporising, however, it was at his fingers' ends to the last.
5He was also fond of throwing off ingenious canons, of which that in the following column, written on the moment for Joachim, on March 11, 1844, is a good example. A somewhat similar canon, written in the album of John Parry in 1846, is printed in the Musical World for August 19, 1848. Another for two violas—'Viola 1, Sir G. Smart; Viola 2,
71 Recollections of Joachim and Rockstro.
82 Dr. Klengel and Sterndale Bennett once had this good fortune, and it was a thing never to be forgotten.
93 H. p. 18.
11Etude for one violin, or Canon for two violins.
13F. M. B.'—is given in Sir Frederick Bridge's Primer of Double Counterpoint and Canon: [Yet another canon, written in the album of Miss Eliza Wesley (daughter of Samuel Wesley) will be found in the Musical Times of Feb. and April 1896, pp. 89 and 233.]
15Of his organ-playing we have already spoken. It should be added that he settled upon his combinations of stops before starting, and steadily adhered to the plan on which he set out4; if he started in three parts he continued in three, and the same with four or five. He took extraordinary delight in the organ; some describe him as even more at home there than on the pianoforte, though this must be taken with caution. But it is certain that he loved the organ, and was always greatly excited when playing it.
17He was fond of playing the viola, and on more than one occasion took the first viola part of his own Octet in public. The violin he learned when young, but neglected it in later life. He however played occasionally, and it was amusing to see him bending over the desk, and struggling with his part just as if he were a boy. His practical knowledge of the instrument is evident from his violin music, in which there are few difficulties which an ordinarily good player cannot surmount. But this is characteristic of the care and thoughtfulness of the man. As a rule, in his scores he gives each instrument the passages which suit it. A few instances of the reverse are quoted under Clarinet (vol. i. p. 545a), but they are quite the exception. He appears to have felt somewhat of the same natural dislike to brass instruments that Mozart did. At any rate in his early scores he uses them with great moderation,5 and somewhere makes the just remark that the trombone is 'too sacred an instrument' to be used freely.
19The few of Mendelssohn's very early works which he published himself, or which have been issued since his death, show in certain points the traces of his predecessors—of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber. But this is only saying what can be said of the early works of all composers, including Beethoven himself. Mendelssohn is not more but less amenable to this law of nature than most of his compeers. The traces of Bach are the most permanent, and they linger on in the vocal works even as late as 'St.
214 Musical World, Feb. 16, 1838, p. 102.
225 Neither of his three Concert Overtures, nor the Italian and Scotch Symphonies, have trombones. As to 'St. Paul,' see his letter to Mr. J. C. Horsley, R.A., August 23, 1834, in G. & M. p. 113.
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