Scan 194
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1907
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1of imitation (see p. 123a); but these, if not imaginary, are at best but jeux d'esprit.
3Connected with this tendency to Programme is a curious point, namely, his belief in the absolute and obvious 'meaning' of music. 'Notes,' says he, 'have as definite a meaning as words, perhaps even a more definite one,' and he devotes a whole letter to reiterating that music is not too indefinite to be put into words, but too definite; that words are susceptible of a variety of meanings, while music has only one. This is not the place to discuss so strange a doctrine, which, though true to him, is certainly not true to the majority of men, and which obviously rests on the precise force of the word 'to mean' (heissen); but it is necessary to call attention to it en passant.
5His great works in chamber music are on a par with those for the orchestra. The octet, the quintets, and the six quartets are thoroughly individual and interesting, nothing far-fetched, no striving after effect, no emptiness, no padding, but plenty of matter given in a manner at once fresh and varied. Every bar is his own, and every bar is well said. The accusation which is sometimes brought against them, that they are more fitted for the orchestra than the chamber, is probably to some extent well founded. Indeed Mendelssohn virtually anticipates this charge in his preface to the parts of the octet, which he desires may be played in a symphonic style; and in that noble piece, as well as in parts of the quintet in B flat and of the quartets in D and F minor, many players have felt that the composer has placed his work in too small a frame, that the proper balance cannot always be maintained between the leading violin and the other instruments, and that to produce all the effect of the composer's ideas they should be heard in an orchestra of strings rather than in a quartet of solo instruments. On the other hand, the pianoforte quartet in B minor and the two pianoforte trios in D minor and C minor have been criticised, probably with some justice, as not sufficiently concertante, that is as giving too prominent a part to the piano. Such criticism may detract from the pieces in a technical respect, but it leaves the ideas and sentiments of the music, the nobility of the style, and the clearness of the structure, untouched.
7His additions to the technique of the pianoforte are not important. Hiller tells a story which shows that Mendelssohn cared little for the rich passages of the modern school; his own were quite sufficient for him. But this is consistent with what we have just said. It was the music of which he thought, and as long as that expressed his feelings it satisfied him, and he was indifferent to the special form into which it was thrown. Of his pianoforte works the most remarkable is the set of seventeen Variations Sérieuses; but the Fantasia in F sharp minor (op. 28), the three great Capriccios (op. 33), the Preludes and Fugues, and several of the smaller pieces, are splendid works too well known to need further mention. The Songs without Words stand by themselves, and are especially interesting to Englishmen on account of their very great popularity in this country. Mendelssohn's orchestral and chamber works are greatly played and much enjoyed here, but it is to his oratorios, songs, Songs without Words, and part-songs, that he owes his firm hold on the mass of the English people. It was some time (see vol. ii. p. 727b) before the Songs without Words reached the public; but when once they became known, the taste for them quickly spread, and probably no pieces ever were so much and so permanently beloved in the country. The piece, like the name, is virtually his own invention. Not a few of Beethoven's movements—such as the adagio of the Sonate pathétique, or the minuet of op. 10, No. 3—might be classed as songs without words, and so might Field's nocturnes; but the former of these are portions of larger works, not easily separable, and the latter were little known; and neither of them possess that grace and finish, that intimate charm, and above all that domestic character, which have ensured the success of Mendelssohn's Songs without Words in many an English family. They soon became identified with his name as it grew more and more familiar in England; some of them were composed here, others had names or stories attached to their origin: there was a piquancy about the very title—and all helped their popularity. His own feeling towards them was by no means so indulgent. It is perhaps impossible for a composer to be quite impartial towards pieces which make him so very popular, but he distinctly says, after the issue of Book 3, 'that he does not mean to write any more at that time, and that if such animalculæ are multiplied too much, no one will care for them,' etc. It is difficult to believe that so stern a critic of his own productions should not have felt the weakness of some of them, and the strong mannerism which, with a few remarkable exceptions, pervades the whole collection. We should not forget, too, that he is not answerable for the last two books, which were published after his death, without the great alterations which he habitually made before publication. One drawback to the excessive popularity of the Songs without Words is, not
91 L. to Frau von Pereira, Genoa, July 1831.
102 L. to Souchay, Oct. 15, 1842, and compare that written to Frau von Pereira, Genoa, July 1831.
113 Mrs. Austin (Fraser's Mag., April 1848, p. 426) relates that he said to her on one occasion 'I am going to play something of Beethoven's, but you must tell them what it is about. What is the use of music, if people do not know what it means?' She might surely have replied, 'What, then, is the use of the imagination?'
124 H. pp. 154, 165.
145 Such as the well-known one in A (No. 30), which, though in Germany known as Frühlingslied, was in England for a long time called 'Camberwell Green,' from the fact of its having been composed during his visit to the Beneckes, who resided at Denmark Hill, near Camberwell Green. The Duet (No. 18) represents a conversation between the composer and his fiancée.
156 L. to Simrock, March 4, 1839.
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