7 Pieces by Felix Mendelssohn YOU should listen to this Week

cmp2020 (72)in #music • 6 years ago (edited)

Hello everyone! Several weeks ago, I missed Mendelssohn and Schubert's birthday as a result of unavoidable demands on my time from a family obligation. I am considering the weekly7 I did to be my Schubet post, but I wanted to write a post honoring Mendelssohn, so here are 7 pieces by Mendelssohn YOU should listen to this Week!

7. Violin Concerto in E Minor (Opus 64)

This is one of the 4 German Violin Concertos. In my opinion it is the most reliant on the Violin. It reminds me much of Vivaldi's violin concertos. I think the reasoning behind this is because Mendelssohn was mainly a violinist, and therefore understood the violin very well as a composer. I think this is also one of the more technically demanding violin concertos, due to the same factor. All three of the movements in this piece are in a traditional form. With the first movement using Sonata allegro form, with some adaptations by Mendelssohn that varied from a traditional concerto (The soloist entered almost immediately, and the soloist's cadenza was written out. Usually, the soloist would improvise a cadenza). The second movement utilizes ternary form, which means that it incorporates an a section, then a b section, then the return of the a section. The third movement utilizes a combination of sonata allegro form, and rondo form. Here is the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor (Opus 64) performed by Maxim Vengerov (Violinist), Kurt Masur (Conductor), and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig orchestra:

6. "Vaterland, in deinen Gauen," from "Festgesang"

I wonder if anyone here recognizes this piece. If you don't it is the music used for the hymn Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It was written by Mendelssohn to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the invention of the Printing Press. Later on, William H. Cummings adapted the melody from this piece to fit the words from the poem by Charles Wesley, "Hymn for Christmas-day".

5. The Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

You probably recognize this piece. It is one of the most famous pieces played in weddings, and probably one of the most famous themes ever written. Mendelssohn first wrote a concert overture for the play by Shakespeare, and then years later added incidental music which included this Wedding March. Here is the Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream":

4. String Symphony no. 1 in C Major

This was my very first listening assignment for music theory. After reading through my "symphony," my music theory teacher told me to listen to this string symphony (and the second) because Mendelssohn was around the same age as I was at the time when he wrote these string symphonies. This piece really makes me feel excited, and I still enjoy to listen to it and think about how far I have come from that first listening assignment. Here is the first Mendelssohn String Symphony in C Major:

3. Italian Symphony (Opus 90)

This is probably one of Mendelssohn's best works. Mendelssohn wrote it during his tour of Europe, which took several years (from 1829 - 1831), which was funded by his parents. One of my fondest memories of this piece, is when my father realized that it was in the movie we were watching "Breaking Away". You can hear it with the scene towards the end of this trailer. Here is Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony:

2. String Symphony no. 2 in D Major

I already included one of these String Symphonies, but this is my favorite of the two, and I often pair the two together. This was also part of my first listening assignment, and it was my favorite of the two. I found it incredible that Mendelssohn had written these symphonies at around my age. These two pieces were the first to open my eyes to how smart the composers really were.

1. String Octet in E-flat Major (Opus 20)

This is one of the first listening assignments my music theory teacher gave me. It has since then become one of my favorite chamber pieces. I also consider it to be one of Mendelssohn's best chamber works. It is incredible that he was able to achieve what he achieved at the age of 16. This really shows you how hard he worked when it came to music, and the passion that he had for the field. I'd point out that at 2:14, you can hear the theme from that Heavy Metal song, Let the Bodies Hit the Floor. I am not sure if that was intentional (by the group) or just coincidental. Judging by the wikipedia page, it seems to be coincidental. I guess they don't realize Mendelssohn came up with the theme first. The first movement of this is a really incredible Sonata Allegro Movement. The last Movement is so fast, I would not want to play it.

Sources

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Thanks for reading this! I haven't posted a Weekly7 in a while. I hope you can understand that I have been busy. Rossini's birthday is this week along with Chopin, so I will probably post two weekly7's themed on that for this week. See you tomorrow!

Also remember to check for: My weekly 7 post, As well as my composer birthday posts (Note) In order to encourage meaningful feedback on the platform, I will check comment trails of users who leave superficial comments (ie "Awesome post," or "Upvoted.") and will mute any users who exhibit a pattern of leaving "spammy" comments.

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