Felix Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E Minor
Felix Mendelssohn was brought up in a wealthy family, with a strong Jewish faith, and was one of four children. He was born in 1809, in Hamburg, Germany, and died in Leipzig, Germany in 1847. Soon after he and his sister Fanny were born, the family moved to Berlin, to elude the French troops of Napoleon. While in Berlin, the Mendelssohn family experienced some wealth; because of this Felix was able to encounter many artists, musicians, philosophers, and writes. By the young age of thirteen, Mendelssohn was an adept composer.
During his thirty-eight year life, Mendelssohn traveled the world as a concert pianist and musical director. Mendelssohn served as the conductor for the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig from 1835-1840, and then from 1845-1847, he also served the Berlin Philharmonic in various positions from 1840-1844. Felix Mendelssohn also founded the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, with faculty including Robert Schumann.
Mendelssohn and Mozart are often compared, due to the vast amount of similarities they hold. Both Mendelssohn and Mozart began playing and composing music at a young age. They both had a virtuosic quality about them. These composers also had the misfortune of suffering an early death; Mendelssohn passed at the age of thirty-eight and Mozart at thirty-five.
Mendelssohn’s life wasn’t always carefree and easy; he often set expectations too high for himself, which added a great deal of tension to his life. As he was Jewish, he also was the victim of anti-Semitism.
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor is a staple in professional violin literature. The music starts out with the solo violin playing the main theme. It is noted that before Mendelssohn officia...
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...are presented, the development beings. This is where the composer develops his themes; it is similar to the body paragraphs of an essay. During the development the violins carry the majority of the theme, while the main theme is fragmented, and then varied in the solo violin part. As the development ends the solo violin descends into the lower register, and the orchestra crescendos. After the development, comes the cadenza. The cadenza is the place in the music where the soloist is allowed to show off his virtuosic quality. The first composer to use a cadenza was Mozart, however the first composer to use virtuosic quality was Vivaldi. Mendelssohn’s cadenza is unique because he wrote it all out, leaving no room for interpretation or improvisation. The cadenza is played with the solo violin only, and is made up of broken chords and many trills. The main melody is
On January 27th, 1756, at 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria, a Jupiter among mere men and composers was born. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born the son of Anna Maria (1720-1778) and Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), a composer, teacher, and the fourth violinist for Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Already learning to play the keyboard at a mere age of three years old, Mozart would learn by sight as he watched his seven year old sister took lessons from her music teacher. As Mozart got older and started to develop as a player and composer, his traveled with his father around Europe performing as a child ...
Johannes Brahms was born on Tuesday 7th may 1833, in the city of Hamburg the birthplace also of Mendelssohn. Johann Brahms was himself a musician, and played the double bass for a time at the Karl Schultze Theatre, and later in the Stadttheater orchestra. In 1847 Johannes attended a good Burgerschule (citizens? school), and in 1848 a better, that of one Hoffmann. When he was eight years old his father requested the teachers to be very easy with him because of the time that he must take for his musical studies.
...ers and the audience. The dramatic nature of this piece alone is something to be reckoned with as it is extremely passionate. The symphony is presented in 4 movements as is common and begins with a Poco Sostenuto- Vivace, followed by a Allegretto movement, Presto movement, and finally ends on an Allegro con brio movement. the central theme of this piece is introduced in the first movement by a flute playing in tripple meter continuously ascending up the scales rising in dynamic contrast, continuing to grow into a louder and more stark contrast between it’s highs and lows. Consistently dance like, the piece is celebratory of its roots buried in historical Austrian music that has been present in the culture for years. The accomplishments of the soldiers for which the piece was composed for are easily told of simply by the energy and power present throughout the piece.
Traditional analysis of Beethoven's use of Sonata Allegro form tends to focus on harmonic or melodic movement and key relationships. This study stretches such investigations to include questions of historical context and philosophic motivations that drive a composer to structure music in a certain way. Ultimately this leads to an inquiry about how these traditions affect us as listeners, and more specifically how they relate to gender issues in a musical tradition primarily made up of male composers.
Hurwitz, David, and Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Shostakovich symphonies and concertos: an owner's manual. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Amadeus ;, 2006. Print.
I will focus on the historical of horn, classical period and the rhythm, form textual, harmonic analysis and phrase structure about this piece. The first movement of this piece is a sonata form. In this research paper, I will talk about how Mozart puts sonata form in first movement and the key relation.
Besides composing, he also worked as a conductor in Düsseldorf (1833-35) and Leipzig (1835-40). And in 1843, he established a new conservatory in Leipzig. Up to this point, Mendelssohn was already a well-known pianist, composer and conductor.
Historical. This brilliant composition is considered as one of the two most important violin concertos of the German Romantic period, with Mendelssohn’s vi...
Felix Mendelssohn was born as Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy on February 3, 1809 in Hamburg, Germany. Felix married Cécile Jeanrenaud on March 28, 1837. He died November 4, 1847 in Leipzig, Germany. The musical time period he lived in was the early romantic period. Felix was born to Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn who were founders and members of a Jewish Liberal Society and were considered affluent in the Jewish society. Felix’s parents converted from Judism to Christianity before Felix, his brother, Paul, and 2 sisters, Fanny and Rebecka, were born. When Felix was 2 years old his family moved to Berlin, Germany where Felix began taking piano lessons from Ludwig Berger, a famous composer at the time. During Felix’s childhood he composed
The three thematic areas, as well as the transitory interlude by the trio, are interesting twists added by Haydn. It is important to note that the exposition stays in C major the entire time, the only exception being the short C minor section in the first trio interlude. In a standard sonata form, a modulation to the dominant would be expected during the exposition. But in this opening, every major section except for the last section ends with a perfect authentic cadence in C major. With so much of the form of the piece contrasting the standard sonata form model, it would be difficult to label this piece without hearing what happens in the
Beethoven gives the cello a much more significant role that it is usually allocated in classical pieces -- it is a meaningful participant in the melody, and not just a “base-holder”. The variations take the listener through a full spectrum of musical variety: major and minor, fast and slow tempo, sad and joyful, leaving an almost magical impression.
He is considered by some people to be one of the most famous composers of the classical period. His career grew with the development of classical style and forms, with the symphony, sonata, string quartet, and other instrumental forms, in the moulding of which he played an important part. Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau in 1732, the son of a wheelwright, he trained as a chorister at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he made an early living. He worked as a freelance musician, playing the violin and the keyboard instruments, accompanying for singing lessons given by the composer Porpora, who helped and encouraged him ( Boynick, 1). In this essay, I will discuss a brief overview of Joseph Haydn's life. I will also talk about some of the pieces he has composed and how they changed music forever.
Mozart’s parents were Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart. Wolfgang was born into a very musical family in Salzburg Austria. Leopold was a famous composer as well. He also was an amazing violinist and assistant concert master at the Salzburg court. Mozart showed signs of amazing abilities at an extremely young age. He could play the violin at age two. He also began composing little pieces at age five.
Even though Mozart was younger than Haydn, Mozart’s life was significantly shorter. Mozart learned a lot of his styles through studying Haydn. Something I found interesting through the readings was that Mozart was very childlike. He could be writing or performing a full length symphony one minute, and then be running around with his dog the next. Haydn didn’t act childish as Mozart did, however, they both had a strong sense of humor. Haydn spent a lot more time in one place than Mozart did. While Haydn did write some pieces on his own for public performance, many of his pieces were written for his job. On the other hand, Mozart did not really settle down on somewhere to live. He did a lot of traveling, meeting different people and learning different styles of music. While he was employed by the court in Salzburg, much of the music he wrote was on his own time.
The role of the sonata as an extremely important form of musical arrangement still inspires people to work with and compose and perform new works in this very traditional form. (Sonata)