I felt all the selections created strong imagery, specifically Lieder Ohne Worte which particularly stood out to me. I really like the 3/4 which for some reason to me lends itself to setting some sort of a cinematic scene. At first it seems open and spacious and airy. An outdoor environment perhaps. After that it develops until it arrives at a single repeated note, around 1:05-1:06 my scene changes to a room or a more closed environment because of the space between notes. Maybe something involving toys or a scary cylindrical room with lots of mystery and not all of it in view (the minor key) and some discovery is present in the music as well. Not everything is given away at once and its tuneful and mysterious enough to keep the listener going.
paulus mvt 1 main theme is now a popular church hymn holy holy lord god almighty
the voice in mendelssohn’s wordless song is simply replaced with main paino line, with greater focus on shaping for the sung notes
I had never heard music by Fanny Mendelssohn before, so I was really interested to hear the three selections by her in this week’s listening. Her composing somehow felt a little less sophisticated than Felix Mendelssohn’s, but it had the same feeling of young energy that I so often associate with Mendelssohn’s compositions. I hope we get to listen to more music by female classical composers!
Really enjoyed the Song Without Words. I never really get around to listening to Mendelssohn, so it was nice to sit down and listen though a couple of his works and then Fanny’s.
I loved the evocative nature of the selections from Fanny Mendelssohn’s piano cycle. March in particular was really beautiful harmonically, especially in the opening with all of the expressive chromatic neighbor tones (left hand) and hints of neapolitan. I read about this piece that a poem accompanied each movement, but I couldn’t find them poems anywhere- it would have been interesting to see how the music related to writing.
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