A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (painting by Wilhelm Hensel, 1847)

A Midsummer Night's Dream is the title of an overture ( op. 21; MWV P 3) and the drama music of the same name (op. 61; MWV M 13) by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . The music to William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the composer's most popular and most played works and has achieved worldwide fame , in particular due to the wedding march it contains. The playing time is approx. 47 minutes.

Emergence

The imagination of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was kindled by Shakespeare's romantic-poetic fairy tale game of the same name, which ingeniously interlocks three completely different groups of people: the mythological-court society of Athens with its entangled love, the burlesque world of the craftsmen with their boisterous game, which involuntarily turns itself into a parody on the pathos of tragedy and the fairy kingdom of the divided royal couple Oberon and Titania together with the goblin Puck, from which all errors and confusions are controlled that bother the Athenian lovers and the clumsy craftsmen.

The concert overture to the Midsummer Night's Dream , which was given opus number 21 when it went to press in 1835, was written in the summer of 1826 (at the age of 17) and was dedicated to the Prussian Crown Prince and later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV . After the premiere in Abraham Mendelssohn's house at Leipziger Straße 3 , the public premiere took place on February 20, 1827 in Stettin under the direction of Carl Loewe .

1842–43, Mendelssohn wrote the incidental music op. 61 for the comedy of the same name (in five acts ) by William Shakespeare at the request of this very king , since the overture was already considered a masterpiece that was second to none. Mendelssohn accepted, although he was now almost twice as old as when he composed his Opus 21. He added to the overture that which, in keeping with the custom of the time, belonged to incidental music: instrumental inter-act music that was played during the setting , songs, choirs and instrumental pieces on the scene when the poetry required it, and melodramas when the Text was spoken to music and punctuated through it. More precisely: He developed the incidental music from the overture and at different distances from it. It makes the beginning and the end, as a finale enriched with choir and solos, but without any substantial musical change. Mendelssohn used the translation by August Wilhelm von Schlegel , whose translations of the Shakespeare dramas into German were fundamental for the enthusiasm for the English poet that was emerging in Central Europe at that time. And with regard to Midsummer Night's Dream, it can be said that it was Mendelssohn's music in the first place that helped poetry to break through in German-speaking countries.

The composition of the incidental music ( incidental music ) is directly related to Mendelssohn's appointment by the Prussian King in Berlin, by whom he was appointed General Music Director for ecclesiastical and sacred music on November 22, 1842 . Several testimonials show that compositional work on op. 61 began at the end of 1842. The progress of the composition work cannot, however, be followed precisely because, on the one hand, there are no dates in the sources and, on the other hand, the mentions in the correspondence are hardly defined in terms of content. However, there is certainty about the completion of the Midsummer Night's Dream , because at the beginning of the rehearsals on September 27, 1842 in Potsdam , Mendelssohn brought the finished score with him from Leipzig . During rehearsals, however, a problematic divergence between Mendelssohn's finished score and Tieck's dramatic disposition emerged. The composer had started from Schlegel's five-act structure of the comedy, while Tieck had combined Acts II to IV into one continuous part and thus the (popular) inter-act music No. 5 and 7 in the real sense had no place. The world premiere in the Neues Palais in Potsdam took place on Saturday, October 14th, 1843 under the direction of Ludwig Tieck . While this performance was reserved for invited guests of the king, the first public performance of the Midsummer Night's Dream was given on October 18, 1843 in Berlin . Alexander von Sternberg reports on the premiere in the Morgenblatt for educated readers as a continuation report “On the representation of the Midsummer Night's Dream in the new Palace in Potsdam” on pages 1021f. (October 26, 1843), 1 026f. (October 27, 1843) and 1 029f. (October 28, 1843).

The fact that Mendelssohn made the original concert overture an integral part of drama music - and at the same time the substantial starting point of its musical discourse - leads to its aesthetic existence being doubled: as op.21 it is independent, in itself Closed concert piece, but within op. 61 the first movement of a multi-part incidental music. Particularly noteworthy is the connection between the overture and the finale, both of which are not included in the consecutive numbering of the movements. In the finale, Mendelssohn impressively succeeds in adding a vocal layer to the largely unchanged composition of the overture and in turning the purely instrumental piece into a vocal composition.

"Overture from the music to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream composed and arranged for the pianoforte by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" (four-handed piano reduction by the composer, 1844)

The success of the music for the Midsummer Night's Dream quickly got around after the first performances and so the work was to be performed elsewhere as soon as possible, which quickly increased the need for materials. Interestingly, Mendelssohn himself was less interested in getting the score out to print quickly than in promoting general knowledge of the work through the edition of his four-hand piano reduction . For the score, the composer initially relied on copies, which evidently promised him higher income. However, he delayed printing the score until shortly before his death. While the four-hand piano reduction appeared in Leipzig and London as early as May 1844 and the two-hand excerpt for Nos. 1, 7 and 9 in November 1844, Breitkopf & Härtel could only put the score on the market in June 1848 and the orchestral parts shortly afterwards bring.

During the National Socialist era , when Mendelssohn's works were hardly performed in Germany , various composers wrote substitute works with music for Midsummer Night's Dream , including Carl Orff , who presented a revision of his incidental music from 1917, Julius Weismann (1935), Walter Girnatis (1935) and Winfried Zillig (1939).

The first significant setting of the material comes from Henry Purcell with his vocal stage work The Fairy Queen . More recently, Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett have also processed Shakespeare's Midsummer Night 's Dream into an opera. The ballet masters of today insisted on choreographing Mendelssohn's music .

Musical figure

Overture (short score), T. 1-15

The introductory four wind chords give the work the setting, as it were, because they run through it as a leitmotif that is later taken up again in the elf and riot scenes of the drama music. The leitmotif leads into that shimmering dream world of the elven kingdom, which, in its atmospheric condensation, brings Shakespeare's poetry to life. Courtly festive glamor, passion for love and burlesque coarseness create effective contrasts. All associations that can be brought into connection with a romantic midsummer night's dream are musically redeemed in this overture. This is not only due to the high integration power of the topic material, but also to the uncommon transparency of the orchestration.

Overall shape

Mendelssohn's Schauspielmusik op.61 with the original title A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare consists of the following numbered or unnumbered parts:

  • Overture: Allegro di molto, 2/2 time, E major
  1. Scherzo [from the first act]: Allegro vivace, 3/8 time, G minor
  2. Melodrama and Elfenmarsch [from the second act]: Allegro vivace, 2/4 time, E minor
  3. Melodrama and song with choir (“Bunte Schlangen, zweigezüngt”) [from the second act]: Allegro ma non troppo, 2/4 time, A major
  4. Melodrama [from the second act]
  5. Intermezzo [after the second act]: Allegro appassionato, 6/8 time, A minor - Allegro molto commodo, 2/4 time, A major
  6. Melodrama [from the third act]
  7. Notturno [from the third act]: Con moto tranquillo, 4/4 time, E major
  8. Melodrama [from the fourth act]
  9. Wedding march : Allegro vivace, 4/4 time, C major
  10. Melodrama with Marcia funebre (funeral march) [from the fifth act]: Andante comodo, 2/4 time, C minor
  11. A dance of jerks ( Bergamasca ) [from the fifth act]: Allegro di molto, 2/2 time, B major
  12. Melodrama [from the fifth act]
  • Finale (“When the fire flickers”): Allegro di molto, 2/2 time, E major

Notes on the overture

The composition of the overture A Midsummer Night's Dream op.21 was the stroke of genius of a 17-year-old and was created in substance and soundscape on two levels: first as a domestic version for piano four hands, then in early 1827 as an instrumented version for orchestra. Mendelssohn showed a first part of his manuscript to his friend Adolph Bernhard Marx . "The introduction, the first and the second subject were as we know them today, but what followed was amiable, cheerful, good-sounding music" (Marx), which could easily have been used in other comedies. Marx suggested to Mendelssohn that the overture must "contain all the characteristic details that distinguish the comedy from all others". The composer then added the "Rüpel" passage with the stylized donkey call. The development, in which Mendelssohn achieves the plasticity of a narrative without words, also gained something decisive from Marx's advice. After the opening chords, the overture has three main themes: the first with fairy dance and festive music, the chorus-like second and the third, the " jerk dance ". They are held together by an original motif, which is already hidden in the four introductory chords. It acts as the backbone of the composition, and it steers with hidden determination towards the quote from Weber's Oberon , which closes the overture before the last recurrence of the four opening chords.

Mendelssohn's concert overtures cannot easily be explained by the term " program music ", despite their clearly non -musical originals. This is primarily due to the simple fact that they can stand alone as musical works, i.e. they do not necessarily need the stories that accompany them. Nevertheless, Mendelssohn's "programmatic" music is an essential prerequisite for the symphonic poems by Liszt and later by Richard Strauss that became established in the second half of the 19th century . This dazzling special position between autonomy and program comes from Beethoven's Pastorale , whose motto “More expression of feeling than painting” could rightly claim Mendelssohn's overtures as well. The real act of Mendelssohn is the separation of the genre overture from opera or drama and its establishment as a one-movement concert piece.

Even the famous Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, Op. 21, initially has nothing to do with an introduction to incidental music, it stands on its own and belongs to the concert hall. She conjures up the atmosphere of Shakespeare's comedy with genuinely musical means - from the perspective of the early 19th century - but does not describe any content. The piece follows the form of the sonata movement almost exactly , has an exposition, a development and a recapitulation. Although it was by Krummenacher Friedhelm referred to the right to have the music from the shape model will not win any major impetus, but it still shows the holding Mendelssohn on primarily instrumental design, as opposed to nachzeichnenden description of what the music is merely as a means. The kaleidoscope-like themes of the overture can be associated with Shakespeare's characters, such as the "Elfenreigen", the "Rüpeltanz" and the like, but this striking assignment would be just as brief. Because how could you explain the four magical wind chords at the beginning and at the end, which actually represent a simple cadence with interchanging subdominant and dominant? They are the frame and at the same time the heart of the whole, the events grow out of them and then withdraw again. This chord progression contains the musical idea of ​​the work and ties the chain of associations of the nocturnal dance to compositional independence.

The formal structure of the overture follows the actual events of the drama in its lined up sequence, with the themes, motifs, harmonic metamorphoses and rhythmic shapes primarily following the theatrical progression and not an abstract form model (like the sonata form that is usual for concert overtures). The "row character as an overarching design principle" is a substantial and qualitative composition technique that was favored by Mozart before Mendelssohn in order to do musical justice to extra -musical dramatic processes or poetic associations.

Analysis (overture)

Allegro di molto, E major, 2/2 time ( alla breve ), 687 bars / playing time: approx. 13 minutes

The exposition (bars 1-250) opens with the poetic "original motif" (bars 1-5) in the woodwinds and horns in the piano. Mendelssohn uses the chords E major, B major, A minor and E major - a simple cadence in E major with interchanging (minor) subdominant and dominant. As a result, the musical action then shifts to the strings, which surprisingly begin in bar 6 in the variant in E minor (instead of E major).

Fairy dance theme (T. 8-15)

The main movement (mm. 8-98), which in turn has two strongly contrasting themes, begins with the so-called "Elfenreigen theme" (mm. 8-62) in pianissimo, a mysteriously shimmering and structured into AA / BA ' BA 'as a classic three-part song (after Ratz ) designed thematic complex with written out repetitions: The A part (bars 8-15) in E minor in the divided violins comprises 8 bars, ends half-conclusively and is repeated; the 8-bar B part (middle part) consists of a 2-bar model in B major, two real sequences in A major and G major and a short return to a recapitulation A 'extended to 9 bars (T. 32-40), which instead of the expected full closing (VI) ends in E minor with a retroactive interharmony (and must therefore be continued). Both parts, i.e. the middle section and recapitulation, are repeated in their entirety before Mendelssohn finally leads on to the second main movement theme from m. 58 and suddenly cadences in E major.

Festival music theme (T. 62-86)

The second, so-called "festival music theme" (bars 62-98) is now heard for the first time in the radiant E major with the full orchestra in fortissimo and is formally divided into three interlaced sections. The transition (mm. 98-122) is again mainly designed with main movement material (see "Elfenreigen theme"), consists of an 8-bar model in B major, its sequence in C sharp minor and a triumphant passage blaring fanfares of the brass in E major, before Mendelssohn modulates normally in bar 122 to the double dominant F sharp major.

Choral theme (T. 138-154)

The following page movement (bars 122-222) in the dominant key of B major begins with an 8-bar introduction (with motivic fragments) in the piano and then ends in a first thematic form in bar 130 (8 in 4 + 4 bars ) in the clarinets, bassoons, horns and cellos. In m. 138 the dignified "chorale theme" (16 in 4 + 4 + 8 bars) sounds in the strings, which after its varied repetition with enriched instrumentation in m. 166 into a third, contrasting theme with dialogical interplay passes between the winds and the strings.

Rüeltanz (T. 198-214)

After a cadenza in B major and a short, rustic introduction with pounding basses, the repetition that has been started leads to the second subordinate theme, the famous "Rüpeltanz" (T. 198-222), which is also divided into three parts and in bar 122 ends in the so-called "donkey call".

Donkey call in the horns and trumpets (T. 222-229)

The stylized donkey call, a motif from the side movement (cf. bars 71-73) in the horns and trumpets, marks the beginning of the final group (bars 122-250). Mendelssohn then takes over the "festival music theme" from the main movement again (cf. bars 62-70), but this time slightly varied and transposed to B major, before it ends in the domiant key by means of descending triad sequences in unison .

Final passage of the development / transition to recapitulation (T. 376-394)

The implementation is (T. 250-394) - apart from three screaming horn sounds fortissimo ( con la forza tutta ) - consistently maintained and processed in turn in pianissimo material of the main and side set in chronological order. Mendelssohn opens again with the "Elfenreigen theme" in the variant B minor, and then modulates via F sharp minor (bar 270), E minor (bar 290) gradually downwards to D major (bar 316 ). In bar 322 the "donkey call" sounds again in the woodwinds and horns, but now augmented and harmonically varied. Using descending scales ( pizzicato ) paired with dramatic tremolos in the strings, Mendelssohn subsequently - contrary to conventional conventions - sequenced to the dominant of C sharp minor (instead of E major), where in m "appears. In m. 381/382, however, this passage surprisingly leads to a fallacy before Mendelssohn's second attempt - now slowed down ( ritardando ) and interrupted twice by fermatas - ends peacefully in the median key of C sharp minor.

The varied recapitulation (mm. 294-621) also opens with the original motif; Due to the entanglement with the preceding development, the chord progression now begins in C sharp minor (instead of in E major as before). Mendelssohn also dispenses with the swell dynamics (cf. bars 4-5), instead fading in the divided violins, thereby extending the original chord motif from 7 (5 + 2) to a total of 10 (8 + 2) bars. The following main movement (T. 404-442) begins with the "Elfenreigen theme" in E minor, but this time without the repetition of B and A '. Mendelssohn supplements the middle section (B) with an ostinate timpani rhythm (from bar 420), while he extends the recapitulation (A ') to an actual transition and thereby dispenses with the recapitulation of the "festival music theme". The following side movement (mm. 442-543) in the basic key of E major, however, largely corresponds to its original course within the exposition, because both the "chorale theme" (from mm. 458) and the "Rüpeltanz" (from mm. 519) appear again as expected. In the context of the extended final group (mm. 543-621), Mendelssohn first recapitulates in m. 543 (instead of the "Eselsruf") material from the second main clause theme (see mm. 78-86) that was previously left out (cf. 587 directly to the "festival music theme". The recapitulation ends with (now opposing) triad sequences in E major and three powerful beats of the full orchestra in fortissimo over a thundering drum roll . The overture could actually be completed with this, but Mendelssohn extends the work with a spacious coda, which leaves the listener in the dreamy mood of the beginning.

Reminiscence / quote from "Oberon" (T. 663-673)

The coda (T. 621-687) comprises a total of 67 bars, is - like the development - entirely in pianissimo and is divided into three sections: In bars 621-644 the "Elfenreigen theme" is heard for the last time in E minor the strings, but this time varied and without repetitions (A var BA 'or 24 in 8 + 8 + 8 bars). The following, chord-like passage (bars 645-663) in the woodwinds (without oboes) above an organ point in the horns acts as a transition and, due to its broad note values, now appears strongly slowed down. Mendelssohn remains here in the variant key of E minor, but surprisingly leads to a variant fallacy after a fermata (m. 658), before the continuation in the clarinets and bassoons finally ends, as expected, in the basic key of E major. In the context of the last section (from m. 663) Mendelssohn quotes a melody from Werber's Oberon , whose overture he had heard while composing Midsummer Night's Dream . It is precisely here how creatively the composer dealt with his role models: Weber's theme of the coda is not just a quotation, but also develops quite organically from the motivic context of the entire work, namely as a derivation from the second theme of the main movement ("Festmusik -Theme"). The reminiscence is not the only meaningful factor, but an additional hint for the Weber connoisseurs in the audience. The transfigured melody (from bar 664) in the violins with delicate chord accompaniment (see. T. 62-66) in the bassoons and horns hovering over a pizzicato bass of the cellos and double basses is subsequently triplet varies and fades after three plagal Cadenzas (I-IV-I) - in the sense of a swan song - peaceful in E major, where the original motif is heard for the last time in m. 683 and the overall form is organically rounded off.

occupation

Overture: 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 2 horns , 2 trumpets , ophicleide , timpani and strings : violin (2), viola , cello and double bass

Drama music: additionally with 3rd trumpet, 3 trombones , percussion ( triangle and cymbals ) / soprano and mezzo-soprano solo as well as four-part female choir

literature

  • Jörn Rieckhoff: Mendelssohn's Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream . Mechanisms of Reception History: Music and Literature in Romanticism. Peter Lang, Frankfurt / Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-631-60771-8 .
  • Christian Martin Schmidt (Ed.): Music for A Summer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, in: Leipzig edition of the works of Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Urtext), Series V, Volume 8. Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2007.
  • Thomas Christian Schmidt: The aesthetic foundations of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's instrumental music . M & P, Publishing House for Science and Research, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 978-3-476-45163-7 .
  • Hans Swarowsky, Manfred Huss (Ed.): Preservation of the shape . Writings on work and reproduction, style and interpretation in music. Universal Edition AG, Vienna 1979, ISBN 978-3-7024-0138-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream: A love affair in the fairy kingdom. In: Wissen.de. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Digital version of the 1843 edition (2nd half of the year) of the Morgenblatt for educated readers http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10531729_00481.html
  3. ↑ a b Christian Martin Schmidt: Music for A Summer Night "by Shakespeare (preface) . In: Leipzig edition of the works of Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Urtext) . Breitkopf & Härtel, Berlin 2007.
  4. ↑ Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy - A Midsummer Night's Dream. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
  5. ^ Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Overtures. Retrieved May 8, 2020 .
  6. ^ Thomas Christian Schmidt: The aesthetic foundations of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's instrumental music . M & P, Publishing House for Science and Research, Stuttgart 1996, p. 317-318 .