By Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
“CH’IO T’ABBANDONO” BY FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY: A DRAMATIC IMAGE OF THE EDUCATION AND APTITUDES OF THE COMPOSER Charles Turley, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2002 APPROVED: Linda di Fiore, Major Professor John Michael Cooper, Minor Professor Jeffrey Snider, Committee Member and Voice Division Chair James C. Scott, Dean of College of Music C. Neal Tate, Dean of Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Turley, Charles William, “Ch’io t’abbandono” by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: A Dramatic Image of the Education and Aptitudes of the Composer. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), August 2002, 64 pages, 2 tables, 12 musical examples and illustrations, references, 39 titles. The unpublished concert aria, “Ch’io t’abbandono,” by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1825), is representative of the adolescent composer’s developing musical aesthetic. In this study, Mendelssohn’s education, work ethic, and perfectionism are revealed, paradoxically, as both the catalysts for the piece’s composition and also the reasons it was not published during Mendelssohn’s lifetime. An exploration of the text, form, thematic usage, and performance demands of the aria yields specific examples of his uniquely balanced romantic-classicist style. A consideration of possible original performers of the piece, Franz Hauser and Eduard Devrient, leads to further discussion about the nature of the work as both a reflection of Mendelssohn’s romantic self-expression and his appreciation for the Baroque melismatic style. The significance of the aria, both stylistic and biographical, is further delineated by a presentation of possible motivations for its composition.
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