Mendelssohn , MosesBiblio.com
MENDELSSOHN, Felix 1809-1847Biblio.com
Sechs Lieder Ohne Worte für das Pianoforte . componirt und Fräulein Sophÿ Horsleÿ zugeeignet . Op. 53 . IVtes. Heft . Preis 4 Frs
184140964Bonn . Paris . London: bei N. Simrock . Chez Lemoine . Chez Ewer & Co. PN 3935 1841. Folio. Disbound. Contemporary dark blue paper wrappers with decorative cut paper label titled in manuscript to upper. 1f. recto title verso blank 3-21 i blank pp. Lithographed.<br /> <br /> Wrappers worn and detached. Moderate foxing to first and last leaves. Early German edition. MWV SD23 p. 478. Krause 227. Hoboken 10 222.<br /> <br /> "One of the most gifted and versatile prodigies Mendelssohn stood at the forefront of German music during the 1830s and 40s as conductor pianist organist and above all composer. His musical style fully developed before he was 20 drew upon a variety of influences including the complex chromatic counterpoint of Bach the formal clarity and gracefulness of Mozart and the dramatic power of Beethoven and Weber.<br /> Mendelssohn's emergence into the first rank of 19th-century German composers coincided with efforts by music historiographers to develop the concept of a Classic-Romantic dialectic in 18th and 19th-century music. To a large degree his music reflects a fundamental tension between Classicism and Romanticism in the generation of German composers after Beethoven . <br /> <br /> . The origins of the Lieder ohne Worte of which Mendelssohn published 36 pieces in six volumes between 1832 and 1845 two more volumes followed posthumously remain couched in mystery. Among his earliest piano lieder was one in E♭ written for Fanny's birthday in 1828 Fanny herself composed numerous examples of the genre; the idea of creating songlike piano pieces may have originated in a game Fanny and Felix played in which they apparently added texts to piano pieces. Then too the critical thought of A.B. Marx who explored in his writings of the 1820s the expressive potential and 'definiteness' of instrumental music was not without impact. Most of the lieder fall into three groups pianistic parallels to the vocal categories of solo songs duets and partsongs. The meaning of the new genre perplexed Mendelssohn's contemporaries. Schumann suggested that the composer had produced texted lieder but then suppressed the texts; when the composer's cousin Marc-André Souchay offered to give some of the lieder fanciful titles Mendelssohn replied that he had intended each lied 'just as it stands'. Only a small number of the lieder bear titles from Mendelssohn e.g. the three called Venetianisches Gondellied or his circle e.g. the 'Frühlingslied'; nevertheless later in the 19th century a host of insipid titles accrued to the lieder contributing to the view of Mendelssohn as a composer of overtly sentimental piano music for the parlour." R. Larry Todd in Grove Music Online. bei N. Simrock ... Chez Lemoine ... Chez Ewer & Co. [PN 3935] unknown
