Notes for: July 26, 2016
Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings is arguably the most precocious work in western music. It was written when the composer was only 16 years old – not even Mozart or Schubert produced a work of such maturity at so early an age. In addition to his very young age, the string octet by Mendelssohn was his own invention – no one had ever before attempted an ensemble work for eight string players. Other young composers had followed existing models (divertimentos, symphonies, quartets, concertos), etc. Young Mendelssohn, however, created a work for eight independent instruments: four violins, two violas and two cellos. This combination gave him unprecedented flexibility in dividing and grouping his instruments. At times each instrument plays a separate part, and at other times it plays in combination with two or more of the others. In a few passages, all eight play octaves in unison.
How did so young a composer conceive such an original idea? When Felix was a boy, his father would invite professional musicians to his home on Sunday mornings for informal music-making. These weekly concerts gave the young composer a workshop for his creative ideas. But this arrangement had one drawback. Wind players were considered socially inferior, so the Sunday visitors were all string and piano players. Thus, Mendelssohn’s early instrumental works were for strings alone or strings and piano. He kept seeking new ways to vary his instrumental combinations.
Thus he developed a multi-movement work for eight instruments, blending the intimacy of chamber music with the fuller sound of symphonic strings. This was a hybrid medium, and Mendelssohn insisted that, “The octet must be played by all the instruments in symphonic orchestral style. Pianos and fortes must be strictly observed, and more strongly emphasized than usual.”
Mendelssohn was to write chamber music for the rest of his life. Much of it rivaled the octet in craftsmanship, but nothing surpassed it in inventiveness. Further, other composers attempted string octets based on Mendelssohn’s model, but with little success. For all practical purposes, Mendelssohn’s teenage masterpiece has remained one of a kind.
The octet’s symphonic dimension is heard at the outset of the first movement when the first violin states the soaring first theme against quavering 16th notes and syncopated chords in the seven other instruments. The texture soon breaks up into smaller groupings and separate musical lines, but with the first violin continuing in a concerto-like role. Thus, the flowing second theme is presented by one violin and one viola, where the first violin interrupts with snatches of the first theme.
The andante is in the slow 6/8 rhythm of an Italian dance, the siciliano. The first theme is stated by two contrasting groups, first by the lower strings and then by the four violins a semitone higher. Two subsequent themes are introduced, and the rest of the movement is a continuously varied interweaving of these strands.
The scherzo is the gem of the octet – Mendelssohn was so fond of it that he later transcribed it for orchestra. He marked the movement leggierissimo (as lightly as possible) and instructed that it be played “pianissimo and staccato throughout.” Felix’s sister Fanny said the movement was inspired by Goethe’s Faust, where he describes the wedding of the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania.
The presto finale is a contrapuntal whirlwind based on three themes – a gruff fugue stated at the opening by the cellos, a heavy stomping tune played by the eight instruments in unison, and a strain reminiscent of “And he shall reign forever and ever” from Handel’s Messiah. At a dramatic point, the main theme from the scherzo reappears, but it is overpowered by the headlong rush to the end.