Octet (Mendelssohn)
{{Short description|1836 string octet by Felix Mendelssohn}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name = Octet in E-flat major
| composer = Felix Mendelssohn
| image = Octetp1.jpg
| caption = First page of the autograph manuscript
| key = E-flat major
| opus = 20
| dedication = Eduard Ritz
| composed = {{Start date|1825}}
| performed = {{Start date|1836|01|30|df=y}}
| published =
| movements = four
| duration = about 30 minutes
| scoring = double string quartet (4 violins, 2 violas, 2 celli)
}}
The String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, MWV R 20, was written by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn during the fall of 1825 and completed on October 15.{{Cite book|last=Todd|first=R. Larry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2Pf2yQipyUC&lpg=PA152&pg=PA148|via=Google Books|title=Mendelssohn : A Life in Music|page=148|date=2003|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-511043-2}} Written for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, this work created a new chamber music genre. Conrad Wilson summarizes much of its reception ever since: "Its youthful verve, brilliance and perfection make it one of the miracles of nineteenth-century music."{{Cite web|title=Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 – Felix Mendelssohn|url=https://www.earsense.org/chamber-music/Felix-Mendelssohn-Octet-in-E-flat-major-Op-20/|access-date=2021-04-28|website=www.earsense.org}} This was one of the first works of Mendelssohn to be very well received.{{Cite web|title=Felix Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat major, op. 20, for strings (1825)|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200156434/|access-date=2021-04-28|website=Library of Congress}}
Background
Mendelssohn wrote his octet and gave a signed score to his friend and violin teacher {{ill|Eduard Rietz|de}} as a birthday present. Rietz copied parts from the score to use for the premiere. The string octet was a fairly new genre of chamber music at the time, the most widely known genre of chamber music still being the string quartet. The genre was rapidly gaining popularity among other composers.
When Mendelssohn composed his octet, it was a rather new genre, and he may have been inspired by Louis Spohr's Double Quartet in D minor, Op. 65. But Spohr's double quartet was written with the two quartets playing apart from each other; Mendelssohn's octet is an undivided ensemble. In the score, Mendelssohn wrote that the piece should "be played by all the instruments in the style of a symphony."
Structure
{{Listen
|type=music
|filename=The Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio - Mendelssohn's String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, MWV R 20 - I. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco.ogg
|title=I. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco
|filename2=The Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio - Mendelssohn's String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, MWV R 20 - II. Andante.ogg
|title2=II. Andante
|filename3=The Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio - Mendelssohn's String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, MWV R 20 - III. Scherzo allegro leggierissimo.ogg
|title3=III. Scherzo allegro leggierissimo
|filename4=The Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio - Mendelssohn's String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, MWV R 20 - IV. Presto.ogg
|title4=IV. Presto
|description4=Performed by the {{ill|Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio|pl|Orkiestra Kameralna Polskiego Radia Amadeus|de|Kammerorchester des Polnischen Rundfunks „Amadeus“}}
}}
The work consists of four movements:
{{Ordered list|type=upper-roman
| Allegro moderato ma con fuoco (E-flat major)
| Andante (C minor)
| Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo (G minor)
| Presto (E-flat major)
}}
A typical performance of the work lasts around 30 minutes, with the first movement usually comprising roughly half of this. All four movements are in sonata form.
=I. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco=
{{stack|File:MendelssohnOctet.png}}
:
\header { piece = \markup \bold \large "First theme" }
\relative c' {
\tempo "Allegro moderato ma con fuoco"
\tempo 4 = 144
\key es \major
\time 4/4
\clef treble
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "violin"
\bar ""
r4 r8 g\p (bes es g es' | bes4.) bes,8( es g bes g' | es4.) es,8\< (g bes es g | bes g) es'4~\f 16 bes g( es bes g as g) | f4
}
The first movement's first theme begins above tremolo string accompaniment before being restated in the lower strings. A prolonged climax in the development builds from quiet whole notes into a flurry of sixteenth notes.
=II. Andante=
:
\header { piece = \markup \bold \large "First theme" }
\relative c' {
\tempo "Andante"
\tempo 8 = 100
\key es \major
\time 6/8
\clef bass
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "cello"
\bar ""
es4( d8) c8. b16 c8 | as'4( g8) f8. e16 f8
}
=III. Scherzo. Allegro leggierissimo=
The scherzo, later scored for orchestra as a replacement for the minuet in the composer's First Symphony at its premiere, is believed to have been inspired by the "Walpurgis Night's Dream" section of Goethe's Faust.[http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=3182 Program notes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616065112/http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=3182 |date=2013-06-16 }} from a concert at the Kennedy Center Fragments of this movement recur in the finale, as a precursor to the "cyclic" technique later 19th-century composers employed. The entire work is also notable for its extended use of counterpoint, with the finale, in particular, beginning with an eight-part fugato. In this section, Mendelssohn quotes the melody of "And he shall reign forever and ever" from the "Hallelujah Chorus" of Handel's Messiah.[https://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/octet-felix-mendelssohn "Program notes"], Los Angeles Philharmonic. Retrieved 19 October 2017{{sfn|Todd|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=j2Pf2yQipyUC&pg=PA152 152]}}
=IV. Presto=
The Presto begins with a fugal figure transferred across the eight instruments, from the second cello to the first violin, before being contrasted with an octave motif. In the development section, Mendelssohn reprises the scherzo's main theme in sequence.{{cite web |last=Gutmann |first=Peter|title=Felix Mendelssohn: Octet|url=http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics4/octet.html|access-date=23 April 2025|website=classicalnotes.net}}
Instrumentation
The original score is for a double string quartet with four violins and pairs of violas and cellos. Mendelssohn wrote in the score, "This Octet must be played by all the instruments in symphonic orchestral style. Pianos and fortes must be strictly observed and more strongly emphasized than is usual in pieces of this character."{{cite web|title=Octet in E-flat major for string, Op. 20|url=http://nyphil.org/programNotes/Mendelssohn_Octet%20for%20Strings_1011.pdf|access-date=13 June 2011|publisher=New York Philharmonic}}{{dead link|date=April 2025}} He also transcribed the piece for piano duet with violin and cello ad. lib. and orchestrated the third movement (with alterations) as an alternative third movement to his Symphony No. 1 in C minor.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}
The piece is sometimes played by full string sections using more players for each part as well as a double bass that usually doubles the second cello part an octave lower. Arturo Toscanini created such a version for a performance with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1947. In 2009, conductor Yoon Jae Lee made a transcription of the first, second, and last movements for full orchestra.{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-13/news/32664386_1_chamber-orchestra-elgar-s-serenade-string|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023060917/http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-13/news/32664386_1_chamber-orchestra-elgar-s-serenade-string|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 October 2013|access-date=11 April 2013|title=Review: Reduced Baltimore contingent pleases at Longwood|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{IMSLP|work=String Octet, Op.20 (Mendelssohn, Felix)|cname=String Octet, Op.20 (Felix Mendelssohn)}}
- [http://traffic.libsyn.com/gardnermuseum/mendelssohn_op20.mp3 Complete performance of the Octet] by the Musicians from Marlboro from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum [http://www.gardnermuseum.org/music/listen/music_library?filter=composer#go_2586] in MP3 format. (32:22)
- {{YouTube|NflVfjLB-zs|Complete performance of the Octet}}, Pražák and {{ill|Zemlinsky Quartet|cs|Zemlinského kvarteto|lt=Zemlinsky Quartets}} at the {{ill|International Music Festival Wissembourg|fr|Festival international de musique de Wissembourg}}, 4 September 2013 (35:36)
{{Felix Mendelssohn}}
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Category:Chamber music by Felix Mendelssohn
Category:Compositions in E-flat major