Notes for: August 4, 2009
The son of a wealthy Berlin banker, Mendelssohn had the most comfortable childhood of any of the great composers. When he reached his 20th birthday in 1829, moreover, his parents decided he should spend the next three years traveling outside his native Germany. They had several purposes in mind – to advance his budding career as a composer-pianist-conductor; to enable him to make social contact with prominent families in other countries; and to broaden his education through visits to the cultural, scenic and historic sights of Europe.
The first stop was Great Britain where Mendelssohn’s banker father had business and diplomatic contacts. Arriving in London in April, Mendelssohn was introduced into the city’s salons and social life. He also appeared before the London public in four concerts, conducting his First Symphony, soloing in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, and performing in his own Concerto for Two Pianos. After the concert season, he toured Scotland, visiting Edinburgh, Loch Lomond and the Hebrides, and stopping off to meet Sir Walter Scott, then Britain’s most prominent writer, at Scott’s country estate.
This busy schedule notwithstanding, Mendelssohn found time to compose. During this period, he wrote the Opus 12 quartet; a number of piano, organ and choral pieces; and a liederspiel (a sort of comic opera) in honor of his parents’ silver-wedding anniversary. His trip to Scotland also inspired the initial sketches for his Hebrides Overture, completed the following year, and the “Scottish” Symphony, not completed for twelve years.
Mendelssohn often referred to his first visit to Britain as one of the happiest experiences of his life, and the quartet, completed in September, reflects a sense of serenity and well-being. Perhaps its most remarkable characteristic is its early manifestation of the so-called “cyclical form”, in which thematic material from one movement reappears in another. Today this form is most often associated with César Franck, but Mendelssohn was one of its earliest exponents.
The first movement opens with a slow introduction, which in its third measure introduces three short upbeats leading to a longer note. This pattern will reappear, in completely different dress, in the fourth movement, and the main theme of the third movement is related to it.
The first movement’s main theme is a lyrical, flowing melody, and the second theme, presented by the first violin, continues this relaxed mood. In the development, the second violin introduces a variant of the main theme, with the viola accompanying it in undulating eighth notes. This variant is of some importance; it reappears in the coda, and returns with the main theme near the end of the quartet.
For the second movement, Mendelssohn substitutes a canzonetta in 2/4 rhythm for the customary scherzo in 3/4. A canzonetta was originally a 16th century term meaning a short vocal piece, similar to a madrigal; in the 19th century, it was used for an instrumental piece of song-like character. Here it is a charming movement with a folksong-like melody lightly seasoned with pizzicato and staccato bowing. The animated middle section is a playful dialogue between the two violins over droning sustained notes in the viola and cello.
The third movement is surprisingly short. Its eloquent theme, related to the upbeat passage in the introduction to the first movement, is twice interrupted by dramatic passages for the first violin marked con fuoco (with fire).
The fourth movement follows without a break, starting with two massive chords played by all four instruments. The main body of the movement is in the minor mood and in the spirit and 12/8 tempo of an Italian tarantella. At one point, the flow is interrupted by the second violin’s variant theme from the first movement.
Eventually, the cyclical form of the quartet reaches full flower. With the rhythm changing from 12/8 to 4/4, the full quartet restates as a fanfare or march the upbeat pattern from the first movement’s introduction. This subsides into a short solo passage for the first violin inverting the upbeat motive and hinting at the variant theme. The full quartet then takes up the variant theme, leading to the return of the first movement’s main theme. The quartet’s final 55 measures are an almost exact 55-measure repetition of the first movement’s coda!