We don’t know any of the details—not even her name, but in 1827, the 18-year-old Felix Mendelssohn seems to have fallen head over heels in love. In June of that year, Mendelssohn was inspired to write the words and music for a love song called Frage, Op. 9, No. 1 (“Question”). The brief song is filled with questions. It begins with tentative, teasing phrases (“Ist es Wahr?”) and concludes with a serene plagal …
Benjamin Britten said, I couldn’t be alone. I couldn’t work alone. I can only work really because of the tradition that I am conscious of behind me… I feel as close to Dowland as I do to my youngest contemporary. Fragments of the songs of English Renaissance composer John Dowland emerge and dissipate as fleeting ghosts in Britten’s Lachrymae, Op. 48. Subtitled “Reflections on a Song by John Dowland,” the work unfolds …
Robert Schumann composed the dreamy and mercurial Fantasiestücke (“Fantasy Pieces”), Op. 73 in a burst of creativity over the course of two days in February of 1849. Set in A major and A minor, the work was first conceived for the melancholy, nostalgic voice of the clarinet. Later, Schumann indicated that the clarinet part could be performed on violin or cello. The three movements unfold in A-B-A song form and flow together without …
Cetera desunt translates from Latin as “the rest are missing.” Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach (b. 1973) chose this title for her String Quartet No. 3, composed in 2006. She describes the work as a “sonnet for string quartet.” Its eight sections, each bearing a Latin title, mirror the form and rhyme scheme of a strambotto romagnuolo sonnet, a poetic structure which dates back to 12th century Sicily. Cetera desunt is an homage to the …
After hearing Antonín Dvořák’s String Sextet in A Major, Op. 48 in 1941, conductor Václav Talich was overcome with the pure beauty of the work, exclaiming, “Beautiful musical ideas, a beautiful structure and a beautiful sound! God himself must have been walking the Czech Lands when his humble servant Dvořák bequeathed to us a work of such excellence and sanctity…” Filled with the Slavonic folk influences, the Sextet is the enchanting music …
In Samuel Beckett’s 1979 novella, Company, a man lies on his back in the dark and listens to a Voice. According to Thomas J. Taylor, The central narrative revolves around the complex relationship between the voice, the listener, and the elusive “another,” highlighting the ambiguity of identity and presence. As the anecdotes unfold, they reveal a deeper commentary on the nature of existence and the inevitability of loneliness, suggesting that while memories and …
Describing Béla Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1, Sz. 75, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja notes The power in the first movement, the loneliness of the violin melody and the states of panic in the second; the almost grotesquely joyful and folk-like character of the third — it’s a special joy if you can play it with pleasure and without stress, without worrying about all its terrifying difficulties. It’s technically extremely difficult, with all the …