a
f fase
as ay rie 3 gl
vs ee
- VE oS Fee Brey ie ae . 5 ae fie S 3 ae ti . ye ae ae ee
ine ian neering esos 2 Be Caaf ae ae ee FAI Gab Raster es Sa: Te : a RES Re eee i = pac fa Set. pie tte eae Roe yee Te Poe. EE — . Pe ar ak ted g SS ei . ay A E SLD mee ek TAS cS * bs
i ; ae si
v, t
aR LC aVi Se an S =
td AO fi 7 ¢
RS = LM-2166 SEAL RED
ANIA a % Mendelssohn — oy
sa cche cs: : 1 L HOUT
ba
= fn Pa ace eke
= ears ned re 2 % E ' iad ¢ oe oe = ; =a = : : im a a | nee © RCA Printed in U.S.A. :
na Neg t
Mendelssohn S ON GS Wi TH O U/ T WORDS
SIDE 1
Band 1—Op. 19, No. 1— SWEET REMEMBRANCE Op. 19, No. 3——HUNTING SONG Op. 19, No. 6 — VENETIAN BOAT SONG No. 1
Band 2— Op. 19, No. 5— RESTLESSNESS Op. 30, No. 3 — CONSOLATION Op. 30, No. 6 — VENETIAN BOAT SONG No. 2
Band 3 — Op. 38, No. 5 — PASSION Op. 38, No. 6 — DUET Op. 62, No. 2—THE DEPARTURE Op. 67, No. 4— SPINNING SONG
SIDE 2
Band 1 —Op. 62, No. 6 — SPRING SONG Op. 53, No. 3— AGITATION Op. 62, No. 5— VENETIAN BOAT SONG No. 3 Op. 67, No. 2—LOST ILLUSIONS
Band 2— Op. 62, No. 1— MAY BREEZES Op. 62, No. 3—- FUNERAL MARCH Op. 85, No. 1— REVERIE
Band 3—Op. 102, No. 3— TARANTELLA Op. 85, No. 4— ELEGY Op. 102, No. 5—-THE JOYOUS PEASANT Op. 85, No. 6— SONG OF THE TRAVELER
Over a period of eighteen years, that is to say for almost
half of his tragically short life, Mendelssohn kept a
kind of musical diary. A repository of tender and whim-
sical and thoughtful jottings, it is that endearing col-
lection — eight collections, in fact — of piano pieces
called Songs Without Words. They are alone a revealing
and entrancing mirror of Mendelssohn the man, the
artist, the musician. We have greater things from Men-
delssohn’s hand — the symphonies, the oratorios, the concertos, the overtures, even greater music for the
piano in other forms, all expressive of a rich and diver-
sified endowment. Here in the Songs Without Words
we have that same Mendelssohn, but a Mendelssohn with
a difference. Here once more is the supremely meticu-
lous craftsman; here we glimpse the same sincere and
genuine artist at work, master of his medium, perhaps
over-dainty, at times, and perhaps a shade over-senti-
mental too. This, after all, is Mendelssohn, and whether
in art or life, le style c’est Vhomme. In its given province
the quality of his genius was unique.
Now this uniqueness appears in an intimate and
special form in these half-hundred vignettes for the
piano. These are truly “songs without words.” They
proclaim Mendelssohn the singer and melodist as even
his songs “with words” never quite do in the same
degree. Had Mendelssohn words or word-patterns in
mind for these “songs,” conscious or subconscious
phrases that welled up in his mind only to lose their
specific identity in music? Was there a program, word
by word, phrase by phrase, by which each of these forty-
nine pieces evolved its moment of drama of ecstasy or
reverie? The answer, of course, is no. “If I found that
words did suflice,” wrote Mendelssohn to Marc-André
AN. IA DOREIMAN. N, Pranast
oO 4
Souchay, who had inquired about the “meaning” of
some of these wordless Lieder piano, “I would have
nothing more to do with music.’
A strong statement, yet one is impressed by the logic
of his argument as he develops it. Words, he tells his
French correspondent, are ambiguous and vague as
compared to music. Words cannot reach the soul in the
“If you ask me what I
was thinking of when I| wrote it,” “T would
say: just the ‘Song’ as it stands. And if I happen to have
had certain words in mind for one or another of these
thousand ways that music does.
he goes on,
songs, | would never want to tell them to anyone because
the same words would never mean the same things to different people.”
To Mendelssohn only the wordless song could com-
municate the same message and stir the same feelings
in one person as in another— feelings, he was certain,
that were beyond the reach of ordinary concrete lan-
guage. In the end Mendelssohn had to admit to his cor-
respondent that, in searching for an adequate reply to
his query, he was himself at the mercy of the very
words he found so inadequate. The truth of the matter
is that the burden and beauty of these Songs Without
Words can only be transmitted through themselves.
Their living essence of communicative artistic speech
dissolves in any attempt to transmute them into words.
Mendelssohn was only twenty when he began to find
this medium ideally suited for a certain intimacy and
brevity of musical thought. Few, if any, composers sur-
pass him in this delicacy of touch in small matters. They
are a jewel box of fastidiously wrought gems. For more
than a century these have given quiet satis-
faction to keyboard amateur and professional alike.
“songs”
They are for the most part controlled, even restrained,
in their feeling, yet often deep and tender and moving.
There is none of the emotional stress one comes upon
"in even the smaller piano pieces of Chopin and Schu-
mann, none of their recurring agitation of the heart —
and soul. In this tidy and tranquil world of Mendels- sohn’s creating, we are far removed from the troubled
cosmos of his more impetuous contemporaries. Content
and form are beautifully co-ordinated here in a faultless
design for living. There is no suggestion of an over-
burdened structure. What it bears, it bears easily. There’
is neither too little nor too much in any of these pieces.
There is a beginning and an end, and the “Song” is the shortestdistance between the two points.
They are reminiscent moments of song — memories
of Venetian gondoliers and Austrian hunters, of small —
German country places. Here are hunting songs and
barcaroles, folk songs and spinning songs. Here are
childhood moments of fantasy and enchantment from
the fairyland Mendelssohn knew so well and immortal-
ized in the Midsummer Night’s Dream music. As he
grows older, the moods vary and deepen, and we are
not surprised to find Mendelssohn at one point musing
darkly in terms of a “Funeral March.” Most cherished
of all to Mendelssohn himself must have been the sixth
and last “Song” of the third book, an Allegro in A-flat.
Mendelssohn called it “Duetto,” the “ being
none other than Mendelssohn and the adoring and_
adorable Cécile Jeanrenaud who became his wife in
183%,
Many of the Songs Without Words were composed in England, and it was perhaps in England that they en-
joyed — along with their composer — their longest and
greatest success, though there, as elsewhere, in the years
following Mendelssohn’s death, their popularity has
moved in cycles. These “Songs” are the sort of artistic
experience each generation discovers for itself, and in
so doing discovers that the quality of distinction, in
music, as in all other arts, is imperishable.
singers”
Notes by Louis BIANCOLLI The complete Songs Without Words, as recorded by Mme.
Dorfmann for RCA Victor, are available as LM-6128.
© by Radio Corporation of America, 1957
This Is an RCA Victor “New Orthophonic” High Fidelity Recording. It is distinguished by these characteristics: 1. Complete frequency range. 2. Ideal dynamic range plus clarity and brilliance. 3. Constant fidelity from outside to inside of record. 4. Improved quiet surfaces.
Beware the Blunted Needle! | A blunted or chipped needle can permanently damage your most valuable records. A worn needle will impair the quality of sound reproduction you hear. Make sure your needle is in good condition before you play this record. If in doubt, have it checked by your dealer — or buy a new needle,
LM-2166 Printed in U. S. A.