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2008 Romantic Irony in the String Quartets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann Robin Wildstein Garvin

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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

ROMANTIC IRONY IN THE STRING QUARTETS OF FELIX

MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY AND ROBERT SCHUMANN

By Robin Wildstein Garvin

A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Degree awarded: Fall Semester, 2008 The members of the Committee approve the Dissertation of Robin Wildstein Garvin on September 3, 2008.

______Douglass Seaton Professor Directing Treatise

______Eric Walker Outside Committee Member

______Michael Bakan Committee Member

______Charles E. Brewer Committee Member

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii

This dissertation is dedicated to my parents

Larry and Diane Wildstein

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my major professor, Douglass Seaton, for his unflagging support from the inception of this project to its long-delayed conclusion. Quite apart from his help with my dissertation, he has been instrumental in my development as a musicologist, both as a teacher and a scholar. I would also like to thank committee members Michael Bakan, Charles E. Brewer, and Eric Walker for their careful reading and many helpful suggestions. My parents Larry and Diane Wildstein have supported and encouraged me throughout my academic career. And finally I would like to thank my husband Larry Garvin and our children Hannah, Philip, and Samuel, without whom this dissertation would have been finished a long time ago, but without whom I cannot imagine my life.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Diagrams……………………………………………………………...viii List of Examples...... xi Abstract...... xiv

1. ROMANTIC IRONY ...... 1

Background: General Definition and Categories of Irony 2 Schlegel and Romantic Irony 6 Framework for this Study 9

2. ROMANTIC IRONY IN MUSIC ...... 11

Methodology 11 The Perceivable World of the Work...... 12 The Work ...... 12 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 13 Persona...... 13 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 14 Transcendence...... 14

3. ROMANTIC IRONY IN FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY’S STRING QUARTETS...... 15

String Quartet in A Minor, op. 13 15 The Perceivable World of the Work...... 15 The Work ...... 18 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 34 Persona...... 36 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 37 Transcendence...... 40 String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 12 42 The Perceivable World of the Work...... 42 The Work ...... 47 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 56 Persona...... 57

v Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 57 Transcendence ………………………………………………..58 String Quartets op. 44, nos. 1-3 59 The Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44...... 59 The Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44 no. 2 ...... 62 The Work ...... 63 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 76 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 76 The Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44 no. 3 ...... 77 The Work ...... 78 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 97 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 97 The Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44 no. 1 ...... 99 The Work ...... 99 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 113 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 114 Persona: op. 44...... 114 Transcendence...... 116 String Quartet in F Minor, op. 80 117 The Perceivable World of the Work...... 117 The Work ...... 120 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 136 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 137 Persona...... 138 Transcendence...... 139

4. ROMANTIC IRONY IN ROBERT SCHUMANN’S STRING QUARTETS OP. 41 NOS. 1-3 ...... 142

String Quartets op. 41, nos. 1-3 142 The Perceivable World of the Work...... 142 String Quartet in A Minor, op. 41 no.1 147 The Work ...... 147 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 159 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 160 String Quartet in F Major, op. 41 no. 2 160 The Work ...... 160 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 171 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 171 String Quartet in A Major, op. 41 no. 3 172 The Work ...... 172 Contradictions in the World of the Work ...... 184 Paradoxes Specific to the Work ...... 185 Persona: op. 41...... 186 Transcendence: op. 41...... 188

vi

5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ...... 190

The Perceivable World of the Work 191 The Work 191 Paradoxes Specific to the Work 193 Persona 195 Transcendence 196

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 199

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...... 206

vii LIST OF DIAGRAMS

Chapter 3

Diagram 3.1. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in A minor, op. 13, mvt. 1...... 23

Diagram 3.2. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in A minor, op. 13, mvt. 2...... 27

Diagram 3.3. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in A minor, op. 13, mvt. 3...... 29

Diagram 3.4. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in A minor, op. 13, mvt. 4...... 32

Diagram 3.5. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 12, mvt. 1...... 48

Diagram 3.6. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 12, mvt. 2...... 52

Diagram 3.7. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 12, mvt. 3...... 53

Diagram 3.8. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 12, mvt. 4...... 54

Diagram 3.9. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E minor, op. 44 no. 2 , mvt. 1 ...... 63

Diagram 3.10. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E minor, op. 44 no. 2 , mvt. 2 ...... 69

Diagram 3.11. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E minor, op. 44 no. 2 , mvt. 3 ...... 71

Diagram 3.12. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E minor, op. 44 no. 2 , mvt. 4 ...... 74

Diagram 3.13. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 44 no. 3 , mvt. 1...... 79

Diagram 3.14. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 44 no. 3 , mvt. 2...... 84

viii Diagram 3.15. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 44 no. 3 , mvt. 3...... 86

Diagram 3.16. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 44 no. 3 , mvt. 4...... 90

Diagram 3.17. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in D major, op. 44 no. 1 , mvt. 1...... 100

Diagram 3.18. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in D major, op. 44 no. 1 , mvt. 2...... 104

Diagram 3.19. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in D major, op. 44 no. 1 , mvt. 3...... 108

Diagram 3.20. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in D major, op. 44 no. 1 , mvt. 4...... 109

Diagram 3.21. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in F minor, op. 80 , mvt. 1...... 122

Diagram 3.22. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in F minor, op. 80 , mvt. 2...... 127

Diagram 3.23. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in F minor, op. 80 , mvt. 3...... 129

Diagram 3.24. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet in F minor, op. 80 , mvt. 4...... 134

Chapter 4

Diagram 4.1. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A minor, op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 1...... 148

Diagram 4.2. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A minor, op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 2...... 151

Diagram 4.3. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A minor, op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 3...... 153

Diagram 4.4. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A minor, op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 4...... 157

Diagram 4.5. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in F major, op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 1...... 162

ix

Diagram 4.6. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in F major, op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 2...... 164

Diagram 4.7. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in F major, op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 3...... 165

Diagram 4.8. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in F major, op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 4...... 169

Diagram 4.9. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A major, op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 1...... 173

Diagram 4.10. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A major, op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 2...... 175

Diagram 4.11. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A major, op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 3...... 181

Diagram 4.12. Robert Schumann, String Quartet in A major, op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 4...... 183

x LIST OF EXAMPLES

Chapter 3

Example 3.1. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Frage, op. 9 no. 1 ...... 20

Example 3.2. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13 mvt. 1, mm. 13-17 ...... 21

Example 3.3. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13 mvt. 4, mm. 365-72 ...... 22

Example 3.4. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 4, mm. 373-98 ...... 32

Example 3.5. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12 mvt. 1, mm. 107-14 ...... 50

Example 3.6. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2 mvt. 1, mm. 39-53...... 67

Example 3.7. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2 mvt. 2, mm.141-50...... 69

Example 3.8. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2 mvt. 3, mm. 53-56...... 72

Example 3.9. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2 mvt. 4, mm. 213-16...... 74

Example 3.10. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3 mvt. 2, mm. 114-22...... 83

Example 3.11. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3 mvt. 4, mm. 54-70...... 89

Example 3.12. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3 mvt. 4, mm. 131-35...... 94

Example 3.13. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3 mvt. 4, mm.159-90...... 95

Example 3.14. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1 mvt. 1, mm. 182-87...... 103

xi Example 3.15. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1 mvt. 2, mm. 205-25...... 106

Example 3.16. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1 mvt. 3, mm. 124-37...... 112

Example 3.17. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80 mvt. 1, mm. 1-23 ...... 121

Example 3.18. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80 mvt. 1, mm. 290-98 ...... 125

Example 3.19. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80 mvt. 2, mm. 86-102 ...... 127

Example 3.20. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80 mvt. 4, mm. 396-461 ...... 132

Chapter 4

Example 4.1. Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1 mvt. 1, mm. 34-55...... 150

Example 4.2. Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1 mvt. 3, mm. 10-19...... 155

Example 4.3. Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41, no. 1, mvt. 4, mm. 253-84...... 158

Example 4.4. Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2 mvt. 1, mm. 169-76...... 163

Example 4.5a. Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2 mvt. 3, mm. 170-94...... 167

Example 4.5b. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 3, mm. 138-63 ...... 168

Example 4.6a. Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3 mvt. 2, mm. 145-60...... 177

Example 4.6b. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1 mvt. 3, mm. 1-12...... 178

Example 4.7. Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3 mvt. 4, mm. 224-55...... 179

xii ABSTRACT

This dissertation applies the concept of Romantic irony as a critical approach to instrumental music of the nineteenth century, based on the string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann. Romantic irony, notably identified by Friedrich Schlegel, influenced authors and composers and Mendelssohn and Schumann would have been familiar with the concept. As Romantic musicians with extensive literary knowledge who also composed significant string quartets, Mendelssohn and Schumann are the two most obvious choices whose music enables such a study. By the nineteenth century string quartets had become established as the most academic, intellectual, and abstract of the instrumental genres. The genre would intuitively seem the least likely to manifest Romantic irony. If Romantic irony could be shown to exist in string quartets, then it must have been a very powerful concept indeed. There can be no formulaic methodology for indentifying Romantic irony in a musical work. Consequently the primary criterion of any methodology for this investigation must be the flexibility to adapt to different situations. Certain fundamental objectives will remain constant, although in each case the subsidiary ones will differ. The procedure consists of examining each work in a series of steps: 1) identify the perceivable world of the work; 2) recognize the contradictions of that world; 3) identify the work’s persona; 4) distinguish the paradoxes specific to the work; and 5) explain how the preceding steps lead to transcendence, or how a new understanding of the world is reached through the work’s paradoxes. Mendelssohn and Schumann express some similar themes in their respective quartets. By raising issues of musical meaning, the quartets compel a look at the broader scope of music and meaning. The two composers express their concern with musical meaning in very different manners, however. Schumann’s focus is on the larger picture that includes the history of music, while Mendelssohn emphasizes his own intriguing aesthetic position regarding meaning in music.

xiii

CHAPTER 1

ROMANTIC IRONY

Introduction

This study demonstrates how the concept of Romantic irony may be applied as a critical approach to instrumental music of the nineteenth century, based on specific explorations of the string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann interpreted through the views of Romantic irony espoused by Friedrich Schlegel. These two composers were selected for this study for two reasons. First of all, both would have been familiar with Romantic irony. Indeed, both were extremely interested in and knowledgeable about literature. Schumann was the son of a bookseller and was exposed to a wide variety of literature, and he often wrote about Friedrich Schlegel and modeled some of his work on Schlegel’s.1 Mendelssohn read widely and knew the literature of his time, as well as the classics, extremely well. He had the added advantage of being related to Schlegel, who was married to one of Mendelssohn’s aunts. Mendelssohn and Schumann are thus the two most obvious choices among Romantic musicians with extensive literary knowledge who also composed significant string quartets. The choice of genre was an important consideration as well. By the nineteenth century string quartets had become established as the most academic, intellectual, and abstract of the instrumental genres. The genre would intuitively seem the both the most and least likely to enable us to track an extramusical idea, and therefore the identification of irony in the quartet would challenge the musicologist most of all. Further, if Romantic irony could be shown to exist in string quartets, then it must have been a very powerful concept indeed. There is an apparent imbalance in the treatment of the works of the two composers. Mendelssohn’s six string quartets were composed over the course of his life, necessitating a detailed look at the historical and biographic events surrounding each one (or, in the case of his op. 44, the set of three works). Schumann’s three quartets however, were composed as a set

1 For more on Schumann and Schlegel, see, for example, John Daverio, Robert Schumann: Herald of a “New Poetic Age” (N. Y. and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 24 (for Schumann’s early acquaintance with Schlegel’s writings), 42-43 (where Daverio likens Schumann to Schlegel), and passim.

1 within a period of just two months, and thus they do not require the same kind of extensive treatment for each individual quartet. As a result some aspects of the discussion are able to serve for the entire set instead of including a section for each quartet. Romantic irony does not always look the same. Although each of the nine quartets manifests Romantic irony, they do so in a variety of ways. The concluding chapter therefore serves to juxtapose the interpretations reached in the individual discussion comparing and contrasting the different ways Romantic irony is demonstrated in each quartet or set of quartets. Background: General Definition and Categories of Irony From its earliest conception irony was an idea based in ambiguity.2 The term originated in ancient Greek comedy. The eiron was a dissembler, who used understatement and the pretense of stupidity to triumph over the alazon, the “self-deceiving and stupid braggart.”3 Originally the term was a pejorative one: an eiron was a “wily, cunning person versed in every sort of unscrupulous trickery, often symbolized as a sly fox.”4 Implicit is that the eiron is deliberately lying, and it is clear that in most of the various uses of the concept of irony there is fundamentally a difference between what is asserted and what is reality.5 Both the term itself and the meaning behind it were adopted by later cultures. The Latin form, ironia, was used by Cicero, Quintilian, and other Romans to identify a rhetorical manner of discourse in which the meaning is contrary to the words.6 Irony was translated into English as

2 The classic text on Romantic irony is Friedrich Schlegel, Kritische Ausgabe, vol. 2, edited by Hans Eichner (Munich, Paderborn, Vienna: Schöningh, 1967). For discussions of Schlegel’s ideas the reader is referred to Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Stuc (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1968); M. H. Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism (N. Y.: W. W. Norton, 1973); Anne K. Mellor, English Romantic Irony (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980); Jerome McGann, The Romantic Ideology: A Critical Investigation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); Lilian Furst, Fictions of Romantic Irony (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984); Kathleen Wheeler, editor, German Aesthetic and Literary Criticism: The Romantic Ironists and Goethe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); Ernst Behler, “The Theory of Irony in German Romanticism,” Romantic Irony, edited by Frederick Garber (Budapest: Akadémai Kiadó, 1988), 43-81; Raymond Immerwahr, “The Practice of Irony in Early German Romanticism,” Romantic Irony, edited by Frederick Garber (Budapest: Akadémai Kiadó, 1988), 82-96.

3 M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms, seventh edition (N. Y.: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1999), 135.

4 Furst, 6.

5 Abrams, Glossary, 135.

6 J. A. Cuddon, Dictionary of Literary Terms, 4th edition, revised by C. E. Preston (Oxford and Malen, Mass.: Blackwell, 1998), 428.

2 “yroye” in 1502, first appearing in Thordynary of Crysten Men.7 It was defined as “of grammare, by whiche a man sayth one & gyveth to understande the contrarye.”8 Irony thus came to be known as a literary technique and used as an element of style. It had, however, no philosophical implications, and as an aesthetic category it was ignored by the authors of treatises. It was not in common usage until the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Irony, like many other art forms, was first developed and practiced and only analyzed later.9 Irony became an aesthetic category only towards the end of the eighteenth century.10 A common element among all forms of irony is paradox.11 In order for irony to function there must be paradoxes, and it is precisely through these paradoxes that irony is achieved, whether in literature or in music. In some cases the paradoxes that appear in music can be compared with those found in literature. In other instances, however, there may be paradoxes that are created in ways that are peculiar to music and can have no literary parallels. M. H. Abrams lists two pairs of classifications of irony, based on different aspects: verbal and structural, and stable and unstable. Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of the words is very different from what is actually meant. Structural irony is a feature that allows the author to sustain a double meaning. This can be accomplished, for example, by the presence of a naive hero or a fallible narrator. The naive hero’s simplicity or obtuseness induces him to give an incorrect interpretation to the events of the story. This type of structural irony depends on a shared knowledge by the author and the audience of the author’s ironic intention, knowledge not shared with the hero. The naive hero is not aware of his simplicity, although both the author and audience are. Structural irony can also be effected through the use of a fallible narrator, who is a participant in the action and whose report is filtered through his viewpoint and with his prejudices.12 Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a good

7 Furst, 7.

8 Cuddon, 336.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid., 429.

11 Ibid., 428.

12 Abrams, Glossary, 136.

3 example of structural irony.13 This multivolume work contains nothing but digressions about Tristram’s uncle and father rather than actually expressing the life and opinions of the title character. Everything is seen through Tristram’s eyes; the reader has no way to gauge the events and reactions to them other than Tristram’s perception of them. Stable irony exists when the author shares with the reader information that “serves as a firm ground for ironically qualifying or subverting the surface meaning.”14 The firm ground allows irony to be reconstructed with relative ease, as in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.15 In this case Swift’s outrageous proposal is undercut by the title, which implies an idea that is the very model of reasonableness. Only an extraordinarily stupid reader would take this mock treatise’s ideas seriously; the ironic intent in the absurd proposal is clear. Unstable irony is the opposite, that is, where there is no firm position and everything can be undercut by further ironies.16 This type of irony eludes a “reasonably definitive interpretation.”17 Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot has an “endless regress of ironic undercuttings” that specifically denies that there is even a secure place from which to evaluate the actions of the characters.18 Abrams also lists four uses of irony as a literary device or mode of organization: Socratic, dramatic, cosmic, and Romantic.19 Socratic irony is a profession of ignorance on the part of one party in order to highlight true ignorance in the other.20 The following excerpt from Plato’s Republic demonstrates this type of irony through a discussion between Glaucon, a musician, and Socrates. Surely, I said, you can state this first point, that a song consists of three elements: words, musical mode, and rhythm. Yes, he said, I can state that. As

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 Furst, 9-10.

16 Abrams, Glossary, 136.

17 Furst, 5.

18 Abrams, Glossary, 136.

19 Ibid., 136-37.

20 Fowler, Modern English Usage, 2nd edition, edited by Sir Ernest Gowers (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), 305.

4 far as words go, there is no difference with speech which is not set to music; it must conform to the patterns which we enunciated just now and in the same way. —True, he said. Further, the mode and the rhythm must fit the words. —Of course. And we certainly said that we needed no dirges and lamentations in our discourses. —No indeed. What are the lamenting modes, then? You tell me, for you are musical.21

Glaucon knows about the modes but is not creative in his thinking. Socrates, on the other hand, claims not to know anything about the modes, but he thinks well. Through his questions Socrates illustrates the limits of Glaucon’s understanding, and it becomes evident to the reader that Glaucon is a musician only when Socrates calls him one, pointing up the irony inherent in this dialogue. Dramatic irony exists in a situation in which the author and audience share knowledge of which the character is ignorant. Dramatic irony can be found in either comedy or tragedy. One of the best-known examples of this type of irony is Oedipus Rex. The audience is horrified by the implications of Oedipus’s marriage to Jocasta, but Oedipus himself does not realize his crime.22 (Structural and dramatic irony share similar elements, but for Abrams structural irony depends on the audience’s knowledge of the author’s ironic intention, while dramatic irony depends on knowledge shared by the author and audience but not by the character.) Cosmic irony occurs when some form of deity or deity-like force (such as fate) seems to be manipulating events in favor of the protagonist, but these hopes turn out to be false, leading to an eventual frustrating and even tragic end for the protagonist.23 Thomas Hardy’s characters often face inexorable consequences arising from their actions. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, in which “the heroine, having lost her virtue because of her innocence, then loses her happiness because of her honesty, finds it again only by murder, and having been briefly happy, is hanged,” is an example.24 In this example fate determines the heroine’s future. The final category, Romantic irony, in Abrams’s view, is manifested in “writing in which the author builds up illusion representing reality, only to shatter it by revealing that the author, as artist, is the creator and arbitrary manipulator of his characters and their actions.”25 In Byron’s

21 Plato’s Republic, translated by G. M. A. Grube (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1974), 68.

22 Cuddon, 237.

23 Abrams, Glossary, 137.

24 Ibid. 25 Abrams, Glossary, 137.

5 Don Juan both the title character and the narrator engage in a “constant process of creation and de-creation, of commitment and detachment, of self-projection and self-criticism.”26 All of these elements contribute to the manifestation of Romantic irony. Schlegel and Romantic Irony Romantic irony was first framed as a philosophical concept rather than as a purely rhetorical one by Friedrich Schlegel, who formulated his ideas during the last years of the eighteenth and the first years of the nineteenth centuries. Schlegel first constructed an original perception of irony, and he then gave it a place of primary importance in his aesthetic theory.27 He developed a hierarchy of ironies; the lower literary forms included the rhetorical, satirical, polemical, and parodistic irony, while higher philosophical irony is “genuine, complete, and divine in spirit.”28 This higher form is what Schlegel regarded as Romantic irony. Although the term “Romantic irony” was coined by Schlegel, he actually used it only four times, and all of these instances appear in his private notebooks, which were not published until 1957. Neither Ludwig Tieck nor A. W. Schlegel used the term “Romantic irony,” although, like Friedrich Schlegel, they too made a clear distinction between rhetorical irony and Romantic irony. Novalis used the phrase in regard to Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, but again that was in a private notebook not published until 1901. Although Hegel constantly criticized the philosophic concept behind Romantic irony, he did not use the term. Kierkegaard also did not use the term. The first use of the term “Romantic irony” in a scholarly work occurred in Die romantische Schule in ihrem Zusammenhang mit Göthe und Schiller (1850) by Hermann Hettner, a historian of German literature.29 Just as Schlegel did not publicly use the expression “Romantic irony,” he also never provided a concise definition. In all, three sets of aphorisms provide the basis for an understanding of Schlegel’s idea of Romantic irony. The first set, the Kritische Fragmente, was

26 Furst, 49.

27 Furst, 24.

28 Ibid., 25.

29 “Hettner writes of that ‘übermütig auflösende Willkür des Schaffens . . . die unter dem Namen der romantischen Ironie so berühmt und berüchtigt geworden ist’ (‘exuberantly dissolving wilfulness in creativity . . . that has gained such fame and notoriety under the name of romantic irony’),” Furst, 30. See also Hermann Hettner, Schriften zur Literatur, edited by Jürgen Jahn (Berlin: Aufbau, 1952), 52.

6 published in 1797. The second set was the Athenäums-Fragmente, published in 1798, and the final set, Ideen, appeared in 1800. Instead of a clear definition, Schlegel’s discussion took on characteristics of Romantic irony itself. He aspired to “express thoughts and the processes of thinking as flashes of insight, as axioms, and as works of art in miniature.”30 As a consequence, a single definition encompassing all the elements Schlegel considered would be impossible. It may be helpful here to review some of Schlegel’s aphorisms concerning Romantic irony. Kritische Fragmente 42. Philosophy is the real homeland of irony, which one would like to define as logical beauty: for wherever philosophy appears in oral or written dialogues and it is not simply confined into rigid systems--there irony should be asked for and provided. And even the Stoics considered urbanity as virtue. Of course, there is also a rhetorical species of irony which, sparingly used, has an excellent effect, especially in polemics; but compared to the sublime urbanity of the Socratic muse, it is like the pomp of the most splendid oration set over against the noble style of ancient tragedy. Only poetry can reach the heights of philosophy in this way, and only poetry does not restrict itself to isolated ironical passages, as rhetoric does. There are ancient and modern poems that are pervaded by the divine breath of irony throughout and informed by a truly transcendental buffoonery. Internally: the mood that surveys everything and rises infinitely above all limitations, even above its own art, virtue, or genius; externally, in its execution: the mimic style of an averagely gifted Italian buffo.31

30 Lowry Nelson, Jr., “Romantic Irony and Cervantes,” Romantic Irony, edited by Frederick Garber (Budapest: Akadémai Kiadó, 1988), 16.

31 Schlegel, Lyceum 42, Friedrich Schlegel’s Lucinde and the Fragments, translated with an introduction by Peter Firchow (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971), 148. Die Philsophie ist die eigentliche Heimat der Ironie, welche man logische Schönheit definieren möchte: denn überall wo in mündlichen oder geschriebenen Gersprächen, und nur nicht ganz systematisch philosophiert wird, soll man Ironie leisten und fordern; und sogar die Stoiker hielten die Urbanität für eine Tugend. Freilich gibts auch eine rhetorische Ironie, welche sparsam gebraucht vortreffliche Wirkung tut, besonders im Polemischen; doch ist sie gegen die erhabne Urbanität der sokratischen Muse, was die Pracht der glänzendsten Kunstrede gegen eine alte Tragödie in hohem Styl. Die poesie allein kann sich auch von dieser Seite bis zur Höhe der Philosophie erheben, und ist nicht auf ironische Stellen begründet, wie die Rhetorik. Es gibt alte und moderne Gedichte, die durchgängig im Ganzen und überall den göttlichen Hauch der Ironie atmen. Es lebt in ihnen eine wirklich transzendentale Buffonerie. Im Innern, die Stimmung, welche alles übersieht, und sich über alles Bedingte unendlich erhebt, auch über eigne Kunst, Tugend, oder Genialität: im Äußern, in der Ausführung die mimische Manier eines gewöhnlichen guten italiänischen Buffo. Friedrich Schlegel, Kritische Ausgabe, vol. 2, 152.

7 Schlegel begins this aphorism with the claim that Romantic irony is philosophical, not rhetorical. Here Schlegel is making a clear distinction between the earlier, rhetorical uses of the term and his own idea of a higher form of irony (Romantic irony). The two forms are, of course, related, but they are not the same, and this distinction is essential. Schlegel repeats this new, philosophical view of irony in a later aphorism which says, “Complete absolute irony ceases to be irony and becomes serious.”32 Schlegel repeatedly emphasized the difference between the rhetorical types of irony and his own ideas on the subject. The aspect that elevates Romantic irony to the realm of the philosophical is not mentioned until the final sentence of the aphorism. According to Schlegel Romantic irony must incorporate transcendence. The “interior” aspect provides for a transcendent understanding, and this is what fundamentally separates Romantic irony from irony in general. This transcendence is amplified in a lengthy aphorism from the Athenaeum (no. 238), which says in part, But we should not care for a transcendental philosophy unless it were critical, unless it portrayed the means of production along with the product, unless it embraced in its system of transcendental thoughts a characterization of transcendental thinking.33

This implies that in order to become a satisfying transcendental philosophy a philosophy must evidence the kind of levels that are also characteristic of Romantic irony. Transcendental buffoonery is another essential element of Romantic irony, as it directs attention to the simultaneous creation and undermining of the work (or, as mentioned in the sentence quoted above, it must portray “the means of production along with the product”). The creation of the work must be established as a believable entity and then exposed as artifice. In an aphorism from the Philosophische Lehrjahr, Schlegel states that “Irony is a permanent parabasis.”34 Parabasis was developed in Greek comedy and consisted of “an interruption of the action, usually in the middle of the play, in which the author’s spokesman addressed the audience directly, often either speaking of the author’s personal circumstances or attacking the

32 “Die vollendete absolute Ironie hört auf Ironie zu seyn und wird ernsthaft,” Friedrich Schlegel, Literary Notebooks 1791-1801, edited by Hans Eichner (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1957), 82.

33 Dialogues, 145. So wie man aber wenig Wert auf eine Transzendentalphilosophie legen würde, die nicht kritisch wäre, nicht auch das Produzierende mit dem Produkt darstellte, und im System der transzendentalen Gedanken zugleich eine Charakteristik des transzendentalen Denkens enthielte. Schlegel, Kritische Ausgabe, vol. 2, 204. 34 Die Ironie ist eine permeanente Parekbase. Furst, 28.

8 faults of various contemporary personages.”35 A more modern example of parabasis can be found in Mel Brooks’s film Blazing Saddles, “in which the dramatic frame is constantly broken.”36 By breaking the dramatic frame Brooks incorporates transcendental buffoonery; the audience is made aware of the film as an artistic creation, and thus both the creation and undermining of the work are evident. Framework for this study Schlegel’s thoughts on Romantic irony provide a framework for this study. Based on his reflections on the subject, we may assert that Romantic irony is an aesthetic and epistemological concept that provided nineteenth-century thinkers and artists a method of transcending the contradictions of the perceivable world through paradox. Each artwork exists in a cultural world and also creates a defined artistic world of its own. The cultural world actually pre-figures the work; the elements of the specific world of the work are determined by the work itself. One Romantic conception of the world is predicated on the idea that chaos determines the course of events in the universe. This chaos, abundantly fertile, constantly gives rise to new creations. These new creations, however, are themselves finite. The Romantic ironist must incorporate the finite nature of the work by including the creation and destruction of the work in the work itself.37 Locating the contradictions and paradoxes in the work is a means of identifying the elements of the creation and destruction in it. In order to pursue the irony of the work, therefore, the critic must first identify the perceivable world of the work, through an examination of biographical and cultural context. Contradictions in the world of the work bring outside ideas into the perceivable world of the work. Such contradictions include the presence of multiple structural tropes and cultural functions. Paradoxes specific to the work are, in a sense, the counterpart of the contradictions of the perceivable world. While the contradictions of the perceivable world are created by expanding the world of the work, paradoxes specific to the work are identified through a detailed look at the work itself. As there are contradictions in the world, there are also paradoxes in the artistic work

35 Mellor, 17.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid., 4-5. For a discussion of the subject from a Neo-Platonic point of view see Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism.

9 itself. These two ideas are related in that they examine opposite aspects of the same work. Paradoxes can be manifested in both style and forms (as well as in genre, which is synthesized from style and from within a set of functional norms). Paradox often reveals persona by appearing to represent the self-reflective experience.38 Romanticism in art depended upon a created persona who gives a particular identity to the “speaker” in the work. The paradox foregrounds this persona by drawing attention to the contradiction between the act of creation and critical reflection. The presence of the persona causes the audience to be aware of and to reflect critically on the act and very nature of creation. Paradox forces a consciousness of the self as opposed to the work. This is the antithesis of the suspension of disbelief. It makes the audience conscious of the artificial nature of the work rather than accepting of it, and therefore a sense of distance emerges between the work and the audience’s perception of the work. In this way the work manifests Romantic irony. As a Greek scholar, Schlegel was familiar with the concept of persona. According to Schlegel persona was crucial to, and inseparable from, Romantic irony. He linked persona to the idea of irony through the idea of permanent parabasis. This technique of interruption, according to Schlegel, was similar in method to that of the personae of Cervantes, Diderot, Sterne, and Jean Paul.39 All Romantic irony thus creates a perceptual distance from the artwork through paradox and by that means leads to transcendence. Romantic irony finally incorporates transcendence of the contradictions of the perceivable world. As a consequence of the paradoxes found in the work the understanding of the world changes. Transcendence is achieved when the paradoxes, while yet remaining unresolved, inspire a new understanding of the world, encompassing contradiction or paradox. The ultimate aim of Romantic irony, then, is to transcend rather than to resolve the contradictions and paradoxes of the finite world.

38 The word “persona” is derived from the Latin term for a theatrical mask and originally referred to a device that transformed actors on stage; see Robert C. Elliot, The Literary Persona (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 20-21. In music the question of persona was first raised by Edward T. Cone, The Composer’s Voice (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974).

39 Peter Firchow, introduction to Friedrich Schlegel’s Lucinde and the Fragmants, 29.

10 CHAPTER 2

ROMANTIC IRONY IN MUSIC

Discussions of irony in music have seldom approached the epistemological and aesthetic idea that is essential to Romantic irony properly conceived. Rather, these discussions usually merely center around more common types of irony. Mark Evan Bonds’s article “Haydn, Lawrence Sterne, and the Origins of Musical Irony” discusses eighteenth-century irony in both literary and musical works. Jon Finson’s “The Intentional Tourist: Romantic Irony in the Eichendorff Liederkreis of Robert Schumann,” in spite of the title, is not concerned with Romantic irony as an aesthetic and epistemological issue; rather Finson confines himself to an explanation of how he thinks verbal irony functions in Schumann’s songs. Charles S. Brauner’s article, “Irony in the Heine Lieder of Schubert and Schumann,” is based on Wayne Booth’s concepts of covert and overt irony; Brauner does not mention Romantic irony and does not discuss irony in an aesthetic or epistemologicial context. Berthold Hoeckner, in his article “Schumann and Romantic Distance,” at first seems to come close to Romantic irony but instead treats distance literally, largely ignoring any aesthetic and epistemological aspects.40 Methodology This dissertation applies Romantic Irony as a critical hermeneutic approach to the string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann. There are, of course, multiple ways to approach this body of work, but this particular way offers insights that cannot be obtained from other methods. There can be no formulaic methodology for identifying Romantic irony in a musical work. Consequently the primary criterion of any methodology for this investigation must be the flexibility to adapt to different situations. Certain fundamental objectives, however, will remain constant, although in each case the subsidiary ones will differ. The procedure here consists of examining each work in a series of steps designed to engage the points introduced in the first chapter: 1) identify the perceivable world of the work; 2) recognize the contradictions of that world; 3) identify the work’s persona; 4) distinguish the

40 Charles S. Brauner, “Irony in the Heine Lieder of Schubert and Schumann,” The Musical Quarterly 67 (1981), 261-81; Mark Evan Bonds, “Haydn, Lawrence Sterne, and the Origins of Musical Irony,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 44 (Spring 1991), 57-91; Jon Finson, “The Intentional Tourist: Romantic Irony in the Eichendorff Liederkreis of Robert Schumann,” in Schumann and His World, edited by R. Larry Todd (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), 156-70; Bertold Hoeckner, “Schumann and Romantic Distance,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 50 (Spring 1997), 55-132.

11 paradoxes specific to the work; 5) explain how the preceding steps lead to transcendence, or how a new understanding of the world is reached through the work’s paradoxes. These general steps serve as a useful guide for engaging the works in concrete ways. It is true that the nature of art itself means that the critic who would take such steps necessarily stands on shifting ground, but unless one stands somewhere there is no way of making sense out of any problem. The goal here is not to set up a Procrustean formula that would force all the quartets into the same mold but to interpret each work from a variety of viewpoints, letting each work itself determine the degree of emphasis given to each step and the specific questions raised in the methodological approach. The Perceivable World of the Work The identification of the perceivable world of the work includes the biographical and cultural context of the piece in question, such as where the composer was and what he was doing at and prior to the time of composition, and what philosophical, social, literary, musical, and aesthetic ideas formed the environment for the work. Exploration of the cultural history also includes discussions of Romantic musical writings and reception history, especially in regard to what contemporary critics thought of the music. Musical conventions, such as conventions of scoring, formal structure, tonal plan, rhythm, and melodic style also form part of the perceivable world of the work. Lawrence Kramer identifies these as “structural tropes.”41 The composer’s treatment of musical conventions (including the avoidance of them) will also play a role in the investigation of Romantic irony. The Work A second avenue of approach consists of a detailed hearing of the music itself. Salient features of each work will be pointed out, based on a thorough musical analysis. Diagrams of the structure of each movement serve to clarify forms. The aim is to lay the groundwork for the following discussions of the contradictions in the world of the work and paradoxes specific to the work.

41 Lawrence Kramer, Music as Cultural Practice 1800-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 10.

12 Contradictions in the World of the Work The next objective involves identifying contradictions in the world of the work. The possibility for contradictions in the world is created through the expansion of that world by the work. A contradiction would be created by the presence of multiple structural tropes, cultural functions, or political assumptions. Another type of contradiction might involve textual inclusions, such as texts set to music, titles, epigrams, programs, notes to the score, and even expression markings.42 A similar effect might concern assumptions made about genre. Any particular genre raises certain expectations, and these expectations are often mutually exclusive. If a work brings more than one genre into its world, then it raises conflicting expectations, and a contradiction results. Therefore, if other genres are explicitly referred to in a string quartet, then there will be a contradiction in the world of the work. Persona Persona gives a particular identity to the fictive “voice” in the music that the composer has created. This allows the demonstration of the distinction between the act of creation by the composer and critical reflection by the listener, for the intervention of the persona causes the listener to be aware of and to reflect critically on the nature and act of creation. Such critical reflection constitutes an essential component of Romantic irony, in that it draws attention to both the means of the work’s creation (through the perceivable world) as well as the work’s dis- integration (through the contradictions).43 The persona is not only the fictive “voice” in the musical work, however, but also experiences the transcendence necessary to Romantic irony. The persona both creates Romantic irony, appearing to manipulate the events by which it is manifested, and is also the one who experiences the transcendence that is its outcome. The persona’s self-conscious awareness and reflection is an integral aspect of Romantic irony. In order for the persona to reflect critically on the act of creation, it must be able to frame the paradoxes specific to the music. These paradoxes, in turn, draw attention to the contradictions in the world of the work. One method of manifesting critical reflection occurs when the persona comments on the music. Such commentary can, for example, take the form of

42 Ibid., 9.

43 There are any number of methods that can be used to determine persona in a musical work. For extensive treatment of this topic see Edward T. Cone, The Composer’s Voice.

13 extra-generic references that identify or draw attention to the contradictions in the perceivable world. Paradoxes Specific to the Work Musical analysis of a specific work reveals the paradoxes that must be inherent in a particular piece in order for it to manifest Romantic irony. Examples of such an analytical paradox could be a deviation from a structural trope, such as a tonal relationship that does not follow standard harmonic practice, or a departure from conventions of form. The inclusion of formal structures or types of movements not usually found in a string quartet and ambiguity concerning the formal structure are also possible analytical paradoxes. As Lawrence Kramer suggests, textual and citational inclusions may help to locate paradoxes specific to the work. Citational inclusions might be titles that connect a musical work with a literary or visual image, place, or historical moment. Musical allusions to other compositions or allusions to texts through the quotation of associated music are also citational inclusions.44 Transcendence Transcendence is a state whereby a new understanding of the world is reached through the paradoxes in the work, such that the contradictions of the world appear in a different light. In order to achieve transcendence, the contradictions of the perceivable world are incorporated into a new understanding of the world of the work. This new understanding, however, does not resolve the contradictions or paradoxes. For a work to manifest Romantic irony the paradoxes must remain unresolvable, but in such a way that a new understanding of the work and the world is gained.

44 Ibid., 10.

14 CHAPTER 3

ROMANTIC IRONY IN FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY’S STRING QUARTETS

String Quartet in A Minor, op. 13

The Perceivable World of the Work In 1825, two years before the composition of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A minor, op. 13, the young composer’s family moved to Leipzigerstrasse 3 in Berlin. The estate, with its many buildings and extensive gardens, became more than just a place for the family to live. According to Werner it was considered by the family “almost a family shrine, representative of their status in the world.”45 The salons held at Leipzigerstrasse 3 were meetings of literary and scientific minds, a forum in which current religious, legal, political, and social problems were discussed, and a musical center.46 These salons were frequently attended by some of the most influential thinkers of the time, including the brothers Wilhelm (1767-1835) and Alexander (1769-1859) von Humboldt, and E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822). The Humboldt brothers had a long acquaintance with the Mendelssohn family. Moses Mendelssohn (Felix’s grandfather) and the Humboldt brothers often spent time at Mendelssohn’s home discussing philanthropy and philosophy.47 At the age of nineteen Wilhelm von Humboldt moved to Berlin, and one of the individuals with whom he spent time was Brendel Veit (later Dorothea Schlegel), Felix’s aunt, who later married Friedrich Schlegel.48 Wilhelm became known for his ideas on history and education. Alexander’s connection to the Mendelssohn family, however, was closer. He studied physical geography and meteorology and was responsible for making the connection between altitude and temperature. In the late 1820s Alexander constructed a hut on the grounds of Leipzigerstrasse 3, in which he

45 Eric Werner, Mendelssohn: A New Image of the Composer and His Age, translated by Dika Newlin (N. Y.: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1963) 71.

46 Ibid., 72.

47 J. Löwenberg, Robert Avé-Lallemant, and Alfred Dave, Life of Alexander von Humboldt, Karl Brutins, ed., Jane and Caroline Lassell, trans. (Boston and N. Y.: Lee and Shepard, 1873) I: 22-23.

48 Paul R. Sweet, Wilhelm von Humboldt: A Biography (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University, 1978) I: 16. At the same time she adopted the name Dorothea.

15 made hourly observations on the variation “in the inclination of the needle and periods of extraordinary disturbance in the earth’s magnetism.” 49 The German author and music critic E. T. A. Hoffmann, who arrived in Berlin in 1814, was a major contributor to the concept of Romanticism. As an author he is known for his stories, which intertwined reality with fantasy, leaving the reader unsure which is which. His first book, Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier, had a foreword by Jean Paul.50 Hoffmann was a composer as well as an author and his opera Undine had its first performance at Berlin’s Royal Theater on 3 August 1816.51 Hoffmann may well have attended events at the Mendelssohn home. In 1821, one year before his death, Hoffmann had an engraving of himself made by Wilhelm Hensel, who seven years later married Felix’s sister, Fanny.52 Another important influence was Jean Paul Richter. Although he did not attend a salon at the Mendelssohn home, all of the Mendelssohn children read that author’s works. According to Werner, Felix was especially intrigued by Jean Paul’s vacillation between opposite emotions. Jean Paul remained influential throughout the composer’s lifetime; Mendelssohn continued to quote from Jean Paul’s works even in later years.53 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s String Quartet op. 13 was composed in October 1827. That the song and the quartet were meant to be associated is made clear in one of Mendelssohn’s letters to Adolf Lindblad: The song that I sent with the quartet is its theme. You will hear it speak with all its notes in the first and last movement, in its sentiment in all four movements. If at first it doesn’t please you — which might happen — then play it a second time, and if you still find something Minuet-like in it then think of your stiff and formal Felix with his cravat and valet. I thought I would express the song well, and it sounds like music to me.54

49 Löwenberg, II: 147.

50 R. Murray Schafer, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Music (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975), 25.

51 Ibid., 26.

52 Ibid., [xiv].

53 Werner, 80-1.

54 Friedhelm Krummacher dates this letter from the first half of 1828 in Mendelssohn -- der Komponist: Studien zur Kammermusik für Streicher (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1978), 513, n. 85; Krummacher quotes the letter on p. 87: “ Das Lied was ich dem Quartette beifüge ist das Thema desselben. Du wirst es im ersten und letzten Stücke mit seinen Noten, in allen vier Stücken mit seiner Empfindung sprechen hören. Wenn es Dir das erstemal missfällt – was kommen kann, so spiele es zum zweiten male und wen Du etwas menettrartiges darin findest, so denke an

16

According to the composer, the quartet shares the emotional content of the song Frage, written by Mendelssohn earlier in the same year and published in 1830 as op. 9 no. 1.55 The connection Mendelssohn explicitly made between the song and the string quartet indicates that the perceivable world of op. 13 contains the genre expectations of both the string quartet and the song. Mendelssohn wrote both the text and the music of Frage in 1827 at Pentecost.56 In the first edition and in the collected edition of Mendelssohn’s works by Rietz the song’s text is attributed to “Voss.”57 Sebastian Hensel, however, writes that Mendelssohn spent time in 1827 at Sakrow, an estate belonging to the Magnus family, near Potsdam. There he “composed the words and music of a song which afterwards became the theme of the A minor quartet.”58 Further, A. B. Marx, who at this time was very close to the composer, in a review of Mendelssohn’s twelve songs, op. 9, wrote “The poems are by various authors. One does not always want to believe the headings; for example, the first poem is certainly not by H. Voss, but rather by the composer himself.”59 The structural tropes in the perceivable world of any quartet consist of the conventions of the string quartet, including its scoring, normative forms, and characteristic texture. Charles Rosen points out that there are significant harmonic implications in the use of four voices. The presence of four voices allows for the presentation of a triad, which establishes the harmony, and a fourth voice to create dissonance against the triadic harmony.60 The string quartet in

Deinen steifen und formellen Felix mit der Halsbinde und dem Diener. Ich dächte ich spräche aus dem Liede wohl, und es klint mir wie Musik.”

55 R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 176.

56 Sebastian Hensel, The Mendelssohn Family 1729-1847 (N. Y.: Harper and Brothers, 1882) 1:133. Pentecost that year was on Sunday, 3 June.

57 Eric Werner believed the text was composed by Gustav Droysen, using the pseudonym Voss. See Werner, 123. The reference to Voss is not to the well-known German translator and poet J. H. Voss (1751-1826).

58 R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music, 176.

59 “Die Gedichte sind von Verschiednen. Nicht immer möchte man den ueberschriften glauben; z. B. das erste Gedicht ist gewiss nicht von H. Voss, eher vom Komponisten selbst.” A. B. Marx, Berliner Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, 3 July 1830.

60 Charles Rosen, The Classical Style (N. Y. and London: W.W. Norton, 1972), 137.

17 Mendelssohn’s time was conventionally a four-movement work, with the first and last movements often in sonata form and employing rapid tempos. The inner movements usually include a slow movement and a faster, dance-derived movement. The characteristic texture of a string quartet is also an important element of the perceivable world of the work. From at least the time of Joseph Haydn’s op. 33 quartets, works in the genre particularly exploited a texture that Goethe referred to, in a letter to Mendelssohn’s teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832), as resembling four intelligent people having a conversation.61 Conversational texture exploits the ensemble nature of the string quartet, as motivic material is exchanged among the instruments in such a way that no one instrument is more important than another. Other textures, however, are also common in string quartets, including fugue, aria, and chorale. Both contrapuntal and aria-like textures appear in op. 13. Frage The Work The opening notes of Mendelssohn’s song Frage, op. 9 no.1 (see Example 3.1), are included on the manuscript title page of op. 13, and its text appears as an epigram to the quartet. The text of the song is Is it true? Is it true? That you constantly wait for me there in the arbor near the wall of vines, and also ask the moonlight and the little star about me? Is it true? Speak! What I feel, that only she can comprehend who sympathizes with it and who remains eternally true to me.62

Although the sentiment of the text is not consistent with to that of the other songs of op. 9, Frage is structurally and stylistically unlike any other text Mendelssohn set, and it certainly is very different from the other works in op. 9. Lieder conventionally have clearly structured texts that are strophic, metered, and rhymed, and this is true of the other songs of op. 9. Frage, however,

61 Letter of 9 November 1829, Goethes Briefwechsel mit Zelter, ed. Mary Sabia (Leipzig: Wolkenwander, 1923), 415.

62 Ist es Wahr? Ist es Wahr?/ dass du stets dort in dem Laubgang,/ an der Weinwand meiner harrst/ und den Mondschein und die Sternlein auch/ nach mir befragst?/ Ist es Wahr? Sprich!/ Was ich fühle das begrieft nur,/ die es mitfühlt,/ und die treu mir ewig bliebt.

18 has a strongly prose-like style; it is neither strophic nor metered, and it does not rhyme. Further, the line “Is it true? Speak!” is not merely a rhetorical question but a dramatic address that demands an answer.

19 EXAMPLE 3.1: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Frage, op. 9 no.1.

20

The text of Frage prevents the musical setting from having traditional four-bar phrases.

The short opening motive (“Ist es Wahr?”) is flexible and particularly adaptable to developmental treatment in a manner characteristic of instrumental music. The music unfolds in unequal phrase lengths, varying from one to seven measures. The opening rhythm and pitches of

Frage are found explicitly in the first movement of the string quartet (see Example 3.2). The last

25 measures of the final movement consist of the song (see Example 3.3).

EXAMPLE 3.2: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 1, mm. 13-17.

21 EXAMPLE 3.3: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 4, mm. 365-72.

22 Adagio and Allegro Vivace The first movement of op. 13 is in sonata form and opens in A major with an eighteen- measure introduction marked Adagio (see Diagram 3.1). As is shown in Example 3.2, this introductory section quotes (mm. 13-17) the opening notes of Frage, the motive that sets the text “Ist es Wahr?” The final measure of this introduction presents a transitional passage in thirty- second notes in the viola, leading to the main body of the movement, which begins in m. 19 in A minor with a new tempo marking of Allegro vivace. In m. 23 material derived from the dotted rhythms of the opening measures of op. 9 no. 1 appears in the viola, then imitatively in the second violin (m. 25), and in the cello (m. 26). This becomes the principal thematic material (P) at m. 27 in the first violin. The P material is a very brief two-phrase pair with a half cadence in m. 28 and an imperfect authentic cadence in m. 31. A repetition of the P material occurs in m. 38, followed by a precursor of the secondary thematic material at mm. 43-44. The rhythmic allusion to the song continues in the brief transition (beginning in m. 47).

DIAGRAM 3.1: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 1

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

O Adagio ¾ A 1

quotes 13-17 opening of Frage thirty- second Transition 18 notes in vla. Section 1 Allegro (expo, part 4/4 a 19 vivace 1) opening pre-P in 23 rhythm of vla. Frage pre-P in in 25 vln.2 imitation

23

DIAGRAM 3.1: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 1

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material pre-P in in 26 vlc imitation

P in vln. 1 27

P 38

pre-S 43-44

rhythmic Transition 47 allusion to Frage Section 2

(expo, part S1 E 51 2)

S2 67

S3 77

S3 81

thirty- second 92 notes in vla. Section 3 imitative

pre-P a 93 material (develop) from m. 19 expanded pre-P 93-107 version of mm. 19-26

P G 118

24 DIAGRAM 3.1: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 1

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 4 P a 151 (recap)

S1 164

S2 180

S3 198

S3 203

series of 208-14 viiø

Coda a 226

The secondary key area is reached in m. 51 in E major with the energetic secondary thematic material (S1) in the first violin. This had already appeared in mm. 43-44, however, which blurs the clarity of the function at m. 51. This harmonic choice is actually a somewhat unconventional treatment of the sonata form tonal plan. The movement is in sonata form, with an introduction in A major (the key of Frage), but the principal key area of the body of the movement is A minor. The expected secondary key area in a conventional sonata form would be the relative major of A minor, C major, or, less commonly, the minor dominant, E minor. The secondary key area of this sonata form, however, turns out to be E major, the dominant of A major, the key of the introduction. The secondary key area thus relates the move to greater tension to the slow introduction in A major more strongly than to the principal area in A minor. Further, even in sonata forms in A major the arrival of E major as dominant is commonly deflected to E minor. The move directly to the major dominant is a less compelling way to clarify the departure from the tonic, since it does not make it as clear that the new passage is in

25 rather than merely on the dominant. It is more typical for the secondary key area at least to begin in the minor dominant (in this case E minor), because this cancels the leading tone (in this case G#) and clearly negates the original tonic key. The move to E major in an A-minor sonata form almost forces the sense that this is the dominant of A minor rather than a new key. The secondary key area is conventionally the area of strongest contrast, but in this case the modulation produces ambiguity in regard to the defining harmonic move of the first part of the form. A more lyrical variation of the secondary thematic material, S2, appears in the second violin in m. 67. In m. 77 a boisterous treatment of the S material appears in the upper ranges of the cello (S3), followed by a repetition of S3 in the first violin in m. 81. The exposition ends in m. 92 with the same thirty-second notes in the viola that led to the beginning of the exposition. The development section begins in m. 93 in A minor with the imitative material introduced in m. 19. Measures 93 through 107 are an expanded version of mm. 19-26. The effect is that of hearing a repetition of the exposition instead of the beginning of a development section and the listener only discovers after several measures that the exposition does not actually repeat. The P material reappears in G minor in m. 118. The P material, with its dotted rhythms and descending motion, continues through the development. The recapitulation takes place in m. 151, with the P theme in A minor. S1 appears in m. 164, S2 in m. 180, and S3 in the first violin in the second violin m. 198 in the viola. Just as in the exposition, S3 is repeated in the first violin (mm. 203). The recapitulation thus follows the events of the exposition. A series of diminished-seventh chords (mm. 208-14) leads to the coda, which begins in m. 226. Adagio non lento The second movement, labeled Adagio non lento, is in F major and opens with an introduction (see Diagram 3.2). The cantabile introduction is sedate, leading to the somber fugue theme at m. 19, in D minor. This quiet theme is heard first in the viola, followed by the second violin, first violin, and finally the cello (mm. 25). At m. 48 a new section appears, marked poco più animato. This section is particularly unexpected after the counterpoint that precedes it, because it opens with seven measures of homophony; expressive and melodic material is heard in the first violin with accompaniment in the three lower instruments. At m. 52 the texture returns to one of imitation, now based on the inversion of the earlier fugato material, set against

26 running sixteenth notes, leading to a pedal on the dominant of D minor at m. 78. This supports a return of the fugato in its recta form, heard in the first violin, viola and second violin. At m. 89 the first violin has two measures of solo material marked ad lib., leading directly to the coda, marked Tempo I (m 92). This is a repetition of the cantabile introduction, again in F major. The initial fugue subject appears, starting in diminution, in the viola at m. 108, and in fragments in the second violin at m. 109, and cello at m. 110, and in its original note values in the first violin at m. 113. The movement proceeds to a quiet ending, with all the instruments in their upper ranges at m. 123.

DIAGRAM 3.2: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Adagio non O 3/4 F 1-18 lento fugato Fugato d 19 theme

4/4 45

Homo- poco più 48-51 phonic animato texture fugato material 52 imitation inverted

V/d 78

fugato 78-81 theme

4/4 88

solo vln. 89 ad. lib.

27 DIAGRAM 3.2: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material repetition Coda Tempo I F 92 of O fugato in 108 theme diminution

fragments 109-10

fugato 113 theme

Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto The third movement is an Intermezzo in composite ternary (ABA) form (see Diagram 3.3). The first section (A) is a rounded binary form in A minor with a tempo marking of Allegretto con moto. The stately march-like thematic material appears in the first violin over pizzicato eighth notes in the three lower parts. After the double bar (m. 8) the fragmented thematic material remains in the first violin until m. 16, when a return of the opening thematic material is heard in the second violin. The B section is also in rounded binary form, with a tempo marking of Allegro di molto. This section is in A major in an elfin-scherzo style, with a descending line of sixteenth notes separated by rests in the viola providing the theme (S). A motive of repeated sixteenth notes appears in rhythmic imitation in mm. 40-43. Three measures later the same rhythm (repeated staccato sixteenth notes) is found in the first violin, continuing to the cadence. The A section ends with a cadence in the dominant at m. 50. After the double bar (m. 51) the descending sixteenth-note melody reappears in the second violin, but eventually moves through all the instruments. This section continues with a complete restatement of the descending sixteenth-note line in the first violin in m. 84. After an eight-measure transition the A section returns in A minor beginning in m. 116. In a conventional ternary form the return of the A section is a literal repetition or decorative variation of the opening section. In this movement, however, the final section includes material from the second section; this section proceeds as a repetition of the first A section in the viola and cello until m. 142, where the

28 principal and secondary themes are juxtaposed in a section that shifts between A major and A minor. At m. 150 the principal theme returns in A minor, and the movement ends with a perfect authentic cadence in A minor in m. 163.

DIAGRAM 3.3: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Allegretto rounded A 2/4 a a 1-7 con moto binary

8 double bar

fragmented b 9-15 opening material

a 16

Allegro di rounded B c A 27 molto binary rhythmic 40-43 imitation

36

V/D 50

51 double bar

rhythmic 52-83 imitation

complete b 54 restatement in vln. 1

Transition 108-115

29

DIAGRAM 3.3: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

A a a 116

a 120

material from a A/a: i 138 sections A and B juxtaposed

c 143

a 146

c 148

a 150

Presto The final movement begins with a dramatic, recitative-like introduction (see Diagram 3.4). This agitated section, undergirded by diminished-seventh chords in D minor, leads to the principal thematic material (P) in A minor in m. 29. The P material is stated three times (cf. mm. 37 and 45). The transition begins in m. 51 with a descending eighth-note rhythmic passage. Principal thematic material from the first movement appears in m. 71. This material, like the P material from this movement, is stated three times. The secondary thematic material appears in m. 90. The development section begins in m. 105 with imitation of a theme presented in the first violin. This theme is marked ad libitum, an unusual instruction in a four-voice fugal texture. The theme is imitated a fifth lower by the second violin in m. 108, and then by the viola in m.

30 111. In m. 164, in E minor, the fugato theme from the second movement reappears, also treated imitatively. The recapitulation begins in m. 239 with the diminished-seventh chords in D minor from the beginning of the movement. The P material returns in A minor in m. 251, with the S material in m. 289. In m. 333 the theme from the second movement reappears in the first violin, with the same agitated diminished-seventh chords found in the introduction. Directly following this is a seventeen-measure section (mm. 333-49) of fragments of the theme from the second movement, with espressivo and a piacere quasi una fantasia directions for the first violin. The second of these markings is unusual in a string quartet. A three-measure section in D minor (mm. 365-67), marked Adagio non lento, has an unaccompanied solo for the first violin, repeating the theme from the second movement. This is followed by a five-measure section in A minor marked Recit., still unaccompanied (see Example 3.4). Such a passage is extrageneric in a purely instrumental genre such as a string quartet, and it invokes the presence of a speaker. The tempo marking Adagio come I in m. 373 marks the final section of the movement (See Example 3.4); this section, in A major, is a repetition of the introduction to the first movement. After a ten-measure reprise of the introduction the entire second half of Frage is incorporated into the final measures of this string quartet. Not only is the song quoted, it is given the direction cantando. The movement ends in A major after multiple restatements of the music set to “Ist es Wahr?”

31 EXAMPLE 3.4: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 4, mm. 373-98.

DIAGRAM 3.4: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Introduction Presto 2/2 O viiø/d 1-28 recit.-like

Section 1 P a 29 (expo, pt. 1)

P 37

P 45

Transition T 51

P from 71 mvt. 1

32 DIAGRAM 3.4: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Section 2 S 90 (expo, pt. 2) N in Section 3 105 ad lib. (develop) imitation

N 108

N 111

fugato theme in e 164 from mvt. imitation 2 Section 4 O viiø/d 239 (recap)

P a 251

S 289

material ø from mvt. vii 333 2 + O material from mvt. 333-49 2 material unaccopm. Adagio 3/4 from mvt. d 365-67 solo for non lento 2 vln. 1

4/4 a 368-72 Recit.

Adagio O from 3/4 A 373 come I mvt. 1

Frage 385 cantando

33 Contradictions in the World of the Work There were many contradictions in the world of the string quartet, and these contradictions exist not only for op. 13 in particular but for all string quartets composed in Germanic countries in the first half of the nineteenth century. The first set of contradictions concerns those inherent in Romanticism itself. These contradictions include ambitions for the future and a fascination with the past, an emphasis on both the individual and community, an interest in rebellion and nostalgia for order and balance, selfconsciousness and a sense of isolation, the assertion of human works and the longing for a divine presence.63 Another contradiction concerns the role of a string quartet itself. String quartets were performed at social occasions, such as convivial music-making in the home as entertainment for the players themselves or possibly for a domestic audience of close friends and family. At the same time, string quartets were considered the epitome of “serious” professional music. They were commonly considered to be a genre in which composers were able to compose music for themselves rather than to appeal to the public. From the time of Haydn, string quartets were a personal expression of the composer, “in which he could express his most intimate thoughts, confident that his audience would be intelligent enough to follow him.”64 One contradiction in the world of the string quartet as a genre therefore lies in the idea of music composed both for a social diversion and as a personal expression of the composer. Op. 13 was most likely first performed at a private musical salon in the Mendelssohn home. The musical salons regularly held on Sunday afternoons played an important role in Felix’s development as a musician and composer, because they allowed the young composer to hear his compositions immediately. His father, Abraham, was willing and able to buy instruments and to hire extra musicians or the services of music copyists in order for the Sunday musicales to take place.65 The novelist Paul Heyse, son of Felix’s tutor and his third cousin, described one of the gatherings at the Mendelssohn home:

63 John Warrack, “Romanticism,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London and N. Y.: Macmillan, 1980), 16:142.

64 Arnold Denis, ed., “Chamber music,” The New Oxford Companion to Music (Oxford and N. Y.: Oxford University Press, 1983), 1:346.

65 Werner, 72.

34 An illustrious company filled the large room, yet there was hardly anybody who was not, by his musical knowledge or talent, entitled to his place. Every transient musical celebrity was flattered to be thought worthy of a formal invitation to these Sunday morning concerts. Steady guests were Professor Boeckh and old Steffens, once president of the Berlin University. The hall was like a shrine, in which an enthusiastic congregation absorbed every tone with the utmost attention.66

Prominent musicians who sometimes attended the Mendelssohn salon were the pianists Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) and Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885), the violinist Eduard Rietz (1802- 1832), the music critic A. B. Marx (1795-1866), and the Mendelssohns’ music teacher Karl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832). Others who attended occasionally were the composers Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), Gaspare Spontini (1774-1851), Louis Spohr (1784-1859), and Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864).67 Op. 13 is a personal expression of the composer in that Mendelssohn had learned about complex textures, including strict counterpoint and conversational style, through the quartet medium as a study genre. Thirteen early pieces scored for first and second violin, viola, and cello/bass were composed between 1821 and 1823 as exercises under the instruction of Mendelssohn’s teacher Zelter.68 Although these works are not strictly conceived as string quartets per se—Mendelssohn himself called them Sinfonia—they employed the quartet scoring to provide an opportunity for the student composer to explore and perfect his grasp of Classic textures and forms. In a sense, op. 13 is a direct successor to these earlier “academic” works. The contradiction of op. 13 thus lies in that it is simultaneously a personal expression of the composer and also meant to be heard by an audience. That Mendelssohn intended it to be heard by more than just his family and relatively close friends is clear; it was published in Leipzig in 1830. The publication of op. 13 brings another aspect of the contradiction to the forefront, that of the emergence of op. 13 from the earlier academic pieces as a viable, commercial quartet. Further, op. 13 was one of Mendelssohn’s first pieces published in Leipzig. Earlier works, including op. 9, were published in Berlin. Leipzig had long been known as a prominent musical city, a reputation enhanced in 1798 when the music publishing firm of

66 Ibid.

67 Ibid.

68 Karl-Heinz Köhler, The New Grove Early Romantic Masters 2 (N. Y.: Norton, 1985), 253.

35 Breitkopf & Härtel founded the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. This was a journal devoted to articles on musical subjects, reviews of scores and concerts, intermixed with reports from other cities. It became the model for the many journals that appeared in other cities.69 By choosing Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, the composer was indicating that op. 13 was written for a national, more diverse audience than if it had been published in Berlin. Another contradiction in the world of the string quartet has to do with the idea of Romanticism and the string quartet. As mentioned above, the string quartet generically represented the ideal of abstract music. The distinctive traits of Romanticism, however, with its emphases on the past, longing, nature, and the supernatural, could be seen as inherently unsuited to such a medium. It must be regarded as contradictory that a non-programmatic genre should be called upon to express the ideals of Romanticism, and indeed the genre was not much explored by Romantic composers, who tended to prefer the intensely intimate song or piano solo piece, or the power and color of the orchestra. The most immediately evident contradiction in the perceivable world of this work is that of genre. Mendelssohn drew his song op. 9 no. 1 into the world of the quartet op. 13. Because the quartet is the quintessential genre of abstract chamber music, references to other genres inevitably create tension with the idea of a string quartet. Thus the synthesis of song and quartet is inherently a sort of contradiction. The more specific the reference is, the less compatible it will be with string quartets as a genre; moreover, the more specific the reference, the less abstract the string quartet. Therefore, this work’s reference to a specific song creates a contradiction between the verbal content of Frage and the abstract nature of the string quartet. Persona Because Mendelssohn said “The song that I sent with the quartet is its theme. You will hear it speak with its notes in the first and last movement, in its sentiment in all four movements,” the persona of Frage must be determined before attempting to discover the persona of op. 13. Music, especially music with text, often has more than one type of persona. Edward T. Cone distinguishes between the complete musical persona (what has been referred to as persona throughout this dissertation), and the vocal persona. The complete musical persona is

69 Leon Plantinga, Romantic Music: A History of Musical Style in Nineteenth-Century Europe ( N. Y. and London: W. W. Norton, 1984), 10-11.

36 the identity of the fictive author in the work that the artist has created.70 In the case of Frage Mendelssohn actually gave a name, “H. Voss,” to the fictive author of the poem.71 This is not a reference to an actual person but to a fictive identity. The vocal persona, however, emerges from the combination of the text and melody of the vocal line.72 The vocal persona of Frage is that of a lover alone in a garden at night. The complete musical persona of op. 13, however, is the vocal persona of Frage, i.e., the lover alone. One indication of the identity of the persona of the quartet is Mendelssohn’s statement, quoted above, that the sentiments of the quartet are the same as those expressed in the song. The sentiments of Frage are expressed by its vocal persona. Because Mendelssohn stated that the quartet expresses the sentiments of the song, the quartet is directly attributable to the vocal persona of op. 9 no. 1. In this instance, the obvious presence of the persona of the string quartet is brought to the listener’s attention in a manner that critically reflects on the work by focusing on the main contradiction, the allusion to a vocal work in an instrumental work. Paradoxes Specific to the Work Textual and citational inclusions are specific to the work and act to limit the elements of the world. Op. 13 has specific textual and citational inclusions that circumscribe the world of this quartet. The most obvious textual inclusion is Frage, which appears as an epigram. Mendelssohn’s letter to Lindblad states that the two works are related; they both express the same sentiments. In addition, Julius Rietz, the editor of Mendelssohn’s complete works, published Frage on the page facing op. 13 in the complete edition. As already mentioned, op. 9 no.1 is alluded to directly in the opening and closing movements of the quartet. These allusions are themselves citational inclusions. The ad libitum markings in the second and fourth movements create a paradox specific to this work. In this context, this indication calls for the tempo to be treated flexibly by the first violinst, reducing the other players to accompanists, and thus creates a paradox with the

70 Edward T. Cone, The Composer’s Voice (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978), 9-10.

71Unfortunately the manuscript is not extant, so it is impossible to see this in Mendelssohn’s own handwriting. He did, however, authorize the first published edition of op. 9.

72 Cone, 9-10.

37 ensemble nature of the string quartet. Given the emphasis on the conversational texture adjacent to these passages, the incorporation of a texture and rhythmic approach commonly used in solo performance is particularly incongruous. The recitative marking found in the fourth movement (m. 386) is another example of textual inclusion. This inclusion alludes to other vocal genres such as opera, oratorio, or cantata. The use of recitative in this string quartet invokes the presence of the persona by implying a vocal comment rather than a participant. Such allusions to vocal genres not only create paradox within the work, they also focus attention on the issue of verbal expression and musical meaning. Musical analysis reveals other paradoxes specific to op. 13. Outwardly, the movement order of op. 13 follows the traditional four-movement plan, as described above. The first movement, which is marked Allegro vivace, is a sonata-form movement with a slow introduction. The second movement is Adagio non lento with an intensely chromatic fugue followed by a coda. The only modification in movement plan occurs at the third movement, in which the expected dance form is replaced by an Intermezzo. The final movement also adheres to the conventional movement plan of a string quartet; it is in sonata form and the tempo is Presto. Closer musical analysis has revealed disruptions in the conventional tonal plan in the first movement. The movement is in sonata form, with an introduction in A major (the key of Frage), but the principal key area of the body of the movement is A minor. The expected secondary key area in a conventional sonata form would be the relative major of A minor, C major, or the minor dominant, E minor. The secondary key area of this sonata form, however, is E major, the dominant of A major, the key of the introduction. As has been explained above, one paradox of this movement, therefore, is that at the move to greater tension the secondary key area relates to the slow introduction in A major rather than to the principal area in A minor. Because the secondary key area conventionally contrasts to a movement’s tonic, this modulation creates a paradox in regard to the defining harmonic move of the first part of the form. The move to E major in an A-minor sonata form almost forces one to hear that this passage as a dominant prolongation in A minor rather than a genuinely new key. The third movement is an Intermezzo in composite ternary (ABA) form, the first section (A) a rounded binary form in A minor, followed by the B section, also in rounded binary form, in A major. In a conventional ternary form the return of the A section is a literal repetition or

38 decorative variation of the opening section. In this movement, however, the final section incorporates material from the second section. At m. 138 the principal and secondary themes are juxtaposed in a section that shifts between A major and A minor. Such juxtaposition of themes is usually associated with a form (such as sonata form) that depends on the development of material; these developmental procedures are not characteristic of ternary form movements. The return of the secondary material is paradoxical, first, in that it appears in the second A section at all, and second, because it imposes a developmental process in a non-developmental form. Further, by the time the return of the S material occurs it is too late to follow up with a restabilizing passage like a recapitulation, leaving the listener a bit at loose ends. The introduction to the fourth movement is an instance of the persona’s commentary in the work. Although it is not marked “recitative,” the movement opens with an unmistakably dramatic, recitative-like section, which is followed by a sonata form. The comment, in the form of recitative as an introduction to sonata form, is itself paradoxical for three reasons. The first is that the introduction is clearly an extrageneric reference, not usually found in a string quartet. The second concerns the oddity of commenting on a movement that has not yet begun, and the final paradox is the existence of the comment in a form (in this case sonata) that does not lend itself to such things. Another paradox also appears with the introduction of the fourth movement, which begins in the “wrong” key, D minor (see Diagram 3.4). The previous movement ended in A minor, and the principal thematic material of the fourth movement is also in A minor. The introduction to the fourth movement, however, is in the subdominant of A. The move from D minor to A minor has the effect of a move from the tonic to its dominant, i.e., clouding the feeling of A minor as tonic at the beginning of the finale. At the end of the fourth movement of the quartet (see Example 3.3) the first violin repeats the opening motive followed by several measures of Frage, marked Cantando. This is not merely a quotation from Frage but rather the culmination of the quartet in the music of the song. These allusions to vocality in the quartet not only create paradox but specifically focus attention on the issue of vocal/verbal expression, which sets up a consideration of the relations of text to musical meaning.

39 Transcendence Contradictions in the world of Mendelssohn’s op. 13 are perceived in a new light through understanding the work’s paradoxes. The paradoxes emphasize the nature of the connection between the song and the string quartet, and lead to a new understanding of the world of the work. Although it is not uncommon to find quotations of songs in string quartets, in most examples the song is quoted at the beginning of the quartet or of a movement, becoming the theme of the work.73 In op. 13, however, Mendelssohn begins with a motivic fragment of the song, and the song itself is not stated until the very end of the quartet. The quartet is not, as might be expected, about the song; rather it expresses the emotional/musical experience that culminates in the song. This resonates profoundly with Mendelssohn’s aesthetic understanding of musical content and verbal expression. Marc-André Souchay asked Mendelssohn about the meanings of some of his Songs without Words. Mendelssohn responded in a frequently quoted letter of 15 October 1842: There is so much talk about music, and so little is said. I believe that words are not at all up to it, and if I should find that they were adequate I would stop making music altogether. People usually complain that music is so ambiguous, and what they are supposed to think when they hear it is so unclear, while words are understood by everyone. But for me it is exactly the reverse, and not only with regard to an entire speech, but also with individual words. These, too, seem to me so ambiguous, so vague, so easily misunderstood in comparison with good music, which fills one’s soul with a thousand things better than words. What the music I love expresses to me are thoughts not too indefinite to be put into words, but rather too definite. Thus, I find in all attempts to put these thoughts in to words something correct, but also always insufficient, something not universal; and this is also how I feel about your suggestion. This is not your fault, but rather the fault of the words which simply cannot do any better. If you ask me what I was thinking of I will say: just the song as it stands there. And if I happen to have had a specific word or words in mind for one or another of these songs, I can never divulge them to anyone, because the same word means one thing to one person and something else to another, only the song can say the same thing, can arouse the same feelings in one person as in another, — a feeling which is not, however expressed, by the same words.

73 Examples of such string quartets would be Beethoven’s hymn of a convalescent in op. 131, Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet, and Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” quartets.

40 Resignation, melancholy, the praise of God, a par-force hunt: one person does not think of these in the same way as someone else. What for one person is resignation is melancholy for another; to a third person, neither suggests anything truly vivid. Indeed, if one were an enthusiastic hunter, for him the par-force hunt and the praise of God would come down to pretty much the same thing, and for the latter the sound of the horns would truly be the proper way to praise God. We, on the other hand, would hear a par-force hunt, and if we were to debate with him about it we would get absolutely nowhere. The words remain ambiguous, but we both understand the music properly. Will you accept this as an answer to your question? It is at any rate the only one I know how to give, though these, too, are nothing but ambiguous words.74

According to Mendelssohn music has definite and specific meaning, while words added to music function as a response that musically expressed meaning. The song was composed before the quartet, however, the music, rather than the words, is the artistic focus of the work. The fictive persona “Voss” identified in op. 9 no. 1, therefore, gives one verbal response to the feelings that emerge at the end of op. 13. Mendelssohn is clearly reticent to commit himself to explaining in words the meaning of his music. The text of Frage, however, represents a response to the song’s own music, and this, in turn, is the music that emerges out of the process of the quartet as a whole. Given Mendelssohn’s strong feelings concerning the relationship of music and text, his use of a pseudonym is entirely logical. The composer would not want to imply that the verbal expression has unique authority. The intrinsic connection between the expressive content of the song and the quartet further emphasizes why the quartet is so strongly differentiated from the quartet sinfonias that preceded it. The early sinfonias were academic exercises designed for the exploration of texture and form.75 By the time he composed the A-minor quartet, Mendelssohn had become a fully mature composer whose compositional technique with texture and form allowed him complete freedom to turn his creative imagination to emotional and symbolic issues. As the letter above

74 “Marc-André Souchay and Felix Mendelssohn,” Source Readings in Music History, edited by Oliver Strunk, revised edition edited by Leo Treitler, translated by John Michael Cooper (N. Y. and London: W. W. Norton, 1998), 1201.

75 There are quotations of Swiss folk tunes in Sinfonias 9 and 10, each time in the Scherzo movement. In these cases, however, the quotations do not by any means become pervasive emotional issues, but rather borrowed tunes used for their naively charming melodic character as well as for the sort of picturesque local color that appealed to pre-Romantic Enlightenment sensibilities.

41 makes clear, Mendelssohn could now incorporate musical-emotional content into the very fabric of the quartet. Rather than focusing attention on compositional craft, the quartet effortlessly assimilates and foregrounds the meaning and expressive content of the song. One paradox found in the first movement also highlights the expressive content of the music. The choice of E major for the secondary key area relates the move to greater tension to the slow introduction rather than to the principal area. This draws attention to the motivic fragments of Frage found in the slow introduction and reinforces their importance. It would not be unusual for the third movement of a string quartet composed during this time to be based on a dance form. This third movement begins in the manner of a character piece, a piece constructed to express a mood or programmatic idea.76 The return of the A section, however, includes at its coda developmental material which is not usually found either in dance-based forms or in character pieces and has the effect of “opening” the movement at its end. Thus in the quartet the issue of intrinsically musical development overtakes the “characteristic,” and this heightens the paradox between the implicit lyricism and the dramatic in the song-based quartet. The implication is that the quartet as a whole “develops” toward the song’s music. The striking aspect of the quartet is that Mendelssohn found a way to work with sub- genre of the string quartet that alludes to another genre and cites a specific song. He reversed the usual relationship, to suggest that the quartet produces the song, rather than the reverse. Mendelssohn thus made a fundamental point about feeling and meaning, i.e., that it resides in the music, not in the words. This is Mendelssohn’s essential point; music itself expresses feeling and meaning better than any words. He is able to make this point by means of a reference to a vocal genre within an instrumental work. This is a reversal that further changes the perception of the musical world, and thus provides the linchpin to the Romantic irony of the world. String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 12 The Perceivable World of the Work The perceivable world of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat major, op. 12 is similar in many ways to the perceivable world of his earlier string quartet, op. 13. The structural tropes (conventions of the string quartet, scoring, forms, and texture) all remain the same, as does the

76 Willi Apel, “Character piece,” Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Havard University Press, 1969), 147.

42 composer’s circle of friends and acquaintances, with the important additions of Ferdinand David (1810-73), a violinist, and Friederike Dorothea Elisabeth Pistor (1808-87), a family friend, known as Betty. Betty Pistor had been invited by Zelter to join his Berlin Singakademie when she was fourteen.77 Three of the Mendelssohn siblings, Fanny, Felix, and Rebecca, sang at the Friday evening rehearsals of the Singakademie. The Pistor family lived at 34 Mauerstrasse, and the Mendelssohns had often walked Betty home from rehearsals.78 Betty was one year older than Felix, and her birthday, 14 January, was the same as Felix’s nameday. The Pistors were invited to many events at the Mendelssohn home, including musicales, charades, and balls. Betty and Rebecca were particularly friendly and often studied Italian together.79 In addition to the expanded circle of friends, Mendelssohn’s familiarity with the quartets of Beethoven and Haydn is confirmed by an 1830 report from the Scottish composer John Thomson, who wrote, “I was a regular attendant at the quartett parties, held twice a week, and sometimes oftener, in Mr. Mendelssohn’s home.” He continues, “the selection of quartetts was principally from Haydn and Beethoven.”80 The year 1829 was an eventful one for Mendelssohn. Beginning in 1827 the choruses of the St. Matthew Passion were sung by a small group that met at the Mendelssohn home.81 According to her son, Ernest Rudorff, Betty Pistor was involved with the preparations for the eventual performance of the work and attended all the rehearsals.82 It is highly likely therefore that Betty had participated in those first readings of the choruses sung at the Mendelssohn home. After Mendelssohn and Eduard Devrient convinced Zelter of the viability of the project, Mendelssohn conducted the Berlin Singakademie in the revival of the work on 11 March. It was a great success; tickets sold out in a day, and more than a thousand people were turned away. By

77 Ernest Rudorff, “From the Memoirs of Ernst Rudorff,” translated and annotated by Nancy B. Reich, Mendelssohn and His World, edited by R. Larry Todd (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1991), 159-60.

78 Mauerstrasse connects Unter den Linden, where the Singakademie was, with Leipzigerstrasse, where the Mendelssohns lived.

79 Rudorff, 260. 80 The Harmonicon 8/3 (March 1830) 97-101.

81 Werner, 98.

82 Rudorff, 263.

43 popular demand a second performance took place on Bach’s birthday, 21 March, and a third, conducted by Zelter, during Holy Week.83 The final performance of the St. Matthew Passion was conducted by Zelter because Mendelssohn had already left Berlin for Great Britain on 10 April.84 Between the end of April and the end of July, Mendelssohn resided in London and spent time with Ignaz Moscheles and his wife, Charlotte. On 23 July Mendelssohn and Carl Klingemann left for Scotland, stopping through York and Durham on their way to Edinburgh. They traveled through Scotland until 15 August, when they returned to London from Glasgow by way of Liverpool.85 On this trip Mendelssohn conceived what would eventually become the Hebrides Overture, op. 26, as well as jotting down the opening of the A-Minor Symphony, op. 56. According to her son, “Felix told Betty with a smile, ‘I am composing a quartet for you.’”86 Since Mendelssohn left Germany on 10 April, that must have been in the early part of 1829. Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat, op. 12, was finished on 14 September 1829, while the composer was in London. The manuscript was inscribed “To B. P.”87 In several letters home Mendelssohn mentioned his quartet. On 17 June 1829 Fanny wrote to Felix, “What’s the status of your quartet to B. P.? Do you still feel the urge to have two new movements? She was here Sunday and I played that most assuredly absurd Scherzo for her. She laughed.”88 Fanny may have used the word “Scherzo” to refer to fast-tempo inner movements generally. Certainly the Canzonetta has humorous elements. It is also possible that the original movement was a scherzo later discarded by the composer. The quartet was also mentioned in a letter from Carl Klingemann to Fanny dated 7 July 1829. He wrote, “A new quartet in ‘B. P.’ major has gotten as far as the Adagio. In the last few

83 Werner, 99-100

84 Ibid., 100.

85 David Jenkins and Mark Visocchi, Mendelssohn in Scotland (London: Chappell, 1978), 111.

86 Rudorff, 265.

87 Ibid.

88 “Wie steht denn mit Deinem Quartett an B. P.? Hält die alte Neigung noch für zwei neue stücke? Sonntag war sie hier, u. Da spielte ich ihr das gewiß absurde Scherzo vor; sie lachte.” The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn, collected, edited and translated by Marcia J. Citron (Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon, 1987), 82.

44 days a new direction has been found there that I liked very much, as much as it pleased him that I understood it.”89 By stating that the piece is in “B. P. major,” Klingemann may have been making a pun on B-flat major, which appears in the second movement, using the added “P.” to refer to Betty Pistor.90 The word “Adagio” could be a generic reference to the slow movement, but in this case the slow movement is labeled Andante expressivo. The only section labeled Adagio is the slow introduction to the first movement. If this is what Klingemann meant, it would imply that Mendelssohn had hardly begun the composition. In a letter of 2 September 1829 Mendelssohn wrote to his sisters, “I shall soon send over my violin-quartet.”91 On 10 September he wrote, “My quartet is now in the middle of the last movement, and I think will be completed in a few days.”92 And on 22 September Felix wrote, “The Quartet is finished, and I think the ending isn’t so bad!”93 Mendelssohn gave the score of op. 12 to the violinist Karl Matthias Kudelsky (1805-72) in Berlin in January of 1830. Kudelsky transported it to Mendelssohn’s friend Ferdinand David. David, a well-known violinist, played first violin in a quartet established by Karl von Liphart in Dorpat (known today as Tartu, Estonia).94 According to Rudorff, Mendelssohn assumed that David “would have the best opportunity to play it.”95 When Mendelssohn learned of Betty Pistor’s engagement to Adolph Rudorff (1803-73), he instructed David to change the dedication. In a letter of 14 April 1830, written while he was recovering from the measles, Mendelssohn wrote, Do you want to know the latest news from Berlin? Now I must first learn it myself, since I know as little about what is going on as I would if I were in Dorpat. But still I

89 “Ein neues Quartett aus B-, P-dur steht’s im Adagio,–es ist da in diesen Tagen eine Wendung erfunden worden, die mich glücklich gemacht hat, so wie es ihn erfreute, dass ich’s verstand.” Carl Klingemann, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Briefwechesel mit Legationsrat Karl Klingemann in London (Essen: G. D. Baedeker, 1909), 60.

90 The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn, 82.

91 Hensel, 1: 222.

92 Ibid., 1: 225.

93 New York Public Library collection of autograph letters from Felix to his family.

94 Albert Mell, “David, Ferdinand,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 7:49.

95 Rudorff, 268.

45 do known one thing which would upset me if I hadn’t already given up courting and girls and resolved to be an old bachelor. Hear now and take alarm: Betty Pistor is engaged. Totally engaged. She is the legal property of Dr. and Professor of Jurisprudence Rudorff. I authorize you to transform the B. P. on the score of my quartet in E flat to a B. R. as soon as you get confirmation of their marriage from the Berlin newspapers. It will take just a skillful little stroke of the pen – it will be quite easy.96

The tone of the letter does not indicate that Mendelssohn was serious. In any case David did not change the dedication, and it remained as it had stood originally. The other dedicatees of Mendelssohn’s works were either cultural icons or monarchs, such as Goethe, Queen Victoria, and Friedrich Wilhelm IV; professional musicians who were friends of the composer, such as Eduard Rietz and Ignaz Moscheles; or “ladies of the elegant world.”97 The pieces dedicated to fellow musicians were intended to be played by those individuals. The last category included works appropriate for domestic music-making, and they were dedicated to the women who would play or sing them. That Mendelssohn chose to dedicate a string quartet to Betty Pistor, who was a friend of his but not a professional musician and in any case a singer rather than a string player, is noteworthy, especially given the composer’s other dedications. According to her son, even Betty Pistor found it hard to believe that Mendelssohn would dedicate a string quartet to her. He wrote, “The possibility of anyone’s dedicating a composition to her – particularly a large work like a quartet – seemed so remote to her that she interpreted the remark as merely teasing and just answered with a laugh.”98 Although in many letters Mendelssohn referred to his “quartet to B. P.,” the dedication never appeared on a published edition. There are several possible reasons for this. Up to this time all of Mendelssohn’s dedications had been to well-known figures or other musicians. The only exception is op. 17, the Variations concertantes for violoncello and piano, dedicated to his brother Paul, an amateur cellist. Neither Betty Pistor nor her initials would have been recognized outside the Mendelssohn circle of family and friends, and since the dedication would not have had meaning for those outside that circle, Mendelssohn omitted it.

96 Ibid., 268.

97 Werner, 220.

98 Rudorff, 265.

46 Op. 12 was published in Leipzig in 1830 by Hofmeister.99 Op. 13, which had been composed two years before op. 12, was published the same year in the same city by Breitkopf and Härtel and received the later opus number. Mendelssohn left the opus numbers up to the individual publishers, and since Hofmeister had the E-flat quartet’s manuscript prepared for publication first, it came to have the earlier opus number.100 The Work Adagio non troppo The first movement of this sonata form opens with a sedate, slow introduction, marked Adagio non troppo. The opening chords are in A-flat major, moving to G minor; a passage that begins imitatively in C minor eventually arrives on the tonic E-flat major at the upbeat to m. 18 (see Diagram 3.5). This is where the main body of the movement begins, with a tempo marking of Allegro non tardante. The lyrical principal thematic material (P) is an asymmetrical period ending in m. 37. The transition starts at m. 38 and leads to S in B-flat major at m. 59. The languid S material appears in the first violin over a dominant pedal in the viola. After a two- measure ritardando (mm. 65-66) this same material reappears (m. 67), this time in the viola, followed two measures later by a third repetition of S in the cello. A fourth repetition of S occurs in the first and second violins at m. 71. At m. 75 the closing material (k) begins as a series of chords in the minor dominant. The exposition ends in B-flat major with two brief restatements of the P material in the first violin (mm. 86-89 and 91-94).

99 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Briefe an deutsche Verleger, edited by Rudolf Elvers (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1968), 288.

100 Ibid., 287.

47 DIAGRAM 3.5: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Intro- Adagio non a 4/4 O A , g, c 1-17 duction troppo Section 1 Allegro non a (expo, part P E : I 18-37 tardante 1)

Transition 38

Section 2 a (expo, part S B 59 2)

65-66 ritardando

S 67

S 71

K F 75

a P B 86-89

P 91-94

Section 3 a P E 94 (develop)

C 104-6

N F 107

N G 115

48 DIAGRAM 3.5: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

S 123

fugato with 124-49 S + P

a V/B 150

S G 151

175-76 ritardando

Section 4 a P E (recap)

S 194

S 196

K 211

N F 245

o N vii /g 259

a P E 259

The development section (m. 94), which in most sonata forms is unstable harmonically, starts with the P material firmly in E-flat major. This section thus begins as if it were the repetition of the exposition. After a brief tonicization of C major (mm. 104-6) a new theme (N) appears in F minor in the second violin at m. 107. This new theme is too lyrical for

49 developmental treatment (see Example 3.5). Instead of motivic work the N material repeats in G minor, followed by the S material at m. 123. This section continues with a fugato based on the S material and later (m. 131) incorporates the P material, as well. The development concludes with a retransition to the recapitulation that avoids the conventional preparation on the dominant of E- flat. The harmony moves to the dominant of B-flat and then to G minor, and finally the primary thematic material reappears in the tonic. A ritardando is the only forewarning of the appearance of the recapitulation (m. 177).

Example 3.5: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12, mvt. 1, mm. 107-14.

The recapitulation follows the events of the exposition, with the S material appearing in mm. 194 and 196, and k in m. 211. The N material reappears in m. 245, exactly as it did in m. 107, in F minor with the melody in the second violin. The N material continues with a secondary diminished-seventh chord in G minor to m. 259, where the P material returns in E-flat major. The movement ends quietly with restatements of P.

50 Allegretto The second movement is labeled Canzonetta and has a tempo marking of Allegretto. This movement is in composite ternary form, with each large section comprised of a rounded binary form (see Diagram 3.6). The A section begins in G minor with the humorous primary theme in the first violin. The melody resembles an instrumental folk tune; the rhythmically stable four-measure melody moves primarily in conjunct motion with only one leap of a perfect fourth.101 Measures 1-14 consist of a two-phrase parallel asymmetrical period followed by a cadential extension (mm. 11-14). After the repeat sign comes a passage eight measures in a quasi-orchestral unison (mm. 15-22). The P material reappears at m. 23, and the section ends with a perfect authentic cadence in G minor. The contrasting B section begins in the parallel major (m. 31) with an energetic melody in sixteenth notes heard in the first and second violins, supported by the lower voices on a droning tonic pedal. A change in texture occurs in m. 38, where arpeggiated secondary dominants are passed between the first and second violins. The first half of this rounded binary form ends with a brief (three-measure) return of the earlier texture (mm. 46-48), leading to a half cadence in G major (m. 49). After the double bar the section repeats, with the types of rhythmic activity inverting so that the upper voices have the pedal while the lower voices have the melody. At this point however, the viola and cello are in octaves and the inner part heard in the second violin in mm. 31-49 is omitted. At m. 60 the original notes and texture return. At the conclusion of this section there is a seven-measure section of transition back to G minor (mm. 79-85). An eleven-measure unison section follows (mm. 86-97). The key is G minor, and this section has a humorous character, emphasized by the asymmetry of the phrasing and the pizzicato at the end. The movement concludes with a repetition of the A section, but with no repeat signs. At m.120 fragmented P material is heard in pizzicato in the first and second violins, and again at mm. 122 and 124. An a tempo is found at m. 125, with P material to the end.

101 Although labeled Canzonetta, this particular theme is perhaps more reminiscent of a German folkdance.

51 DIAGRAM 3.6: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Canzonetta A Allegretto 2/4 a G 1 rounded binary cadential 11-14 extension

b 14 double bar

a G 23-30

B c G 31

change in 38 texture

return of 46-48 texture from m. 31 double bar, rhythmic G: V 49-53 activity inverted

c 60

Transition To g 79-85

G 86-97

no repeat A a 97 signs a (frag- 120 mented) a (frag- 122 mented)

52 DIAGRAM 3.6: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material a (frag- 124 mented)

a tempo a 125

Andante espressivo The third movement, marked Andante expressivo, is a simple two-part form in B-flat major (see Diagram 3.7). The first part (mm. 1-28) is followed by a more elaborate version of the same material (mm. 28-56) with quiet closing material marked tranquillo (mm. 57-65). The character of the movement is that of an expressive aria. The first violin has a melody that spans three octaves. Its soloistic nature is emphasized by embellishments in the melody and directions such as con fuoco.

DIAGRAM 3.7: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op.12, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Andante a A 3/4 B 1-27 expressivo

elaborate A1 Largo 27-65 version of A

Molto allegro e vivace The final movement, like the first, begins energetically in the “wrong” key, on the dominant of C minor, and does not arrive in E-flat major until m. 14 (see Diagram 3.8). This

53 really serves as a transition from the key of G minor at the end of the third movement to the principal thematic material of the fourth. The expressive P material begins in m. 14, ending on an imperfect authentic cadence at m. 24. The transition begins here and moves through C minor to reach B-flat major at m. 65. The quiet and calm secondary thematic material in B-flat major, is marked tranquillo. The P material reappears in a soloistic style (m. 77) before breaking off into running eighth-note triplets (mm. 82-88). At m. 90 the closing material is in G minor, and it picks up the eighth-note triplets from the preceding measures, turning into another “orchestral” unison. These measures are marked con fuoco in all parts. The exposition ends, with no repeat sign, in G minor.

DIAGRAM 3.8: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Molto Intro- transition Allegro e 12/8 O V/c 1-14 duction from m. 3 vivace Section 1 a (expo, part P E 14-24 1) a transition c, B 24-65

Section 2 a (expo, part tranquillo S B 65 2) soloistic P 77 style

con fuoco K G 90

end of exposition 4/4 105 (no repeat sign) Section 3 L’istesso N from 12/8 N f 106 (develop) tempo mvt. 1

54 DIAGRAM 3.8: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 12, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

O v/c 126-27

Section 4 a P E 128 (recap)

S F 181

soloistic 204-09 style

K c 210

O 222

O 225

L’istesso Coda 4/4 f 229 tempo

a E 237

253 vln. Solo

N 255 ad lib.

N f 259

a P from P E 272 mvt. 1

The development section begins at m. 106 with the lyrical N material from the first movement in F minor, exactly as it appeared in the first movement. The development sections of

55 both the first and last movements thus share the same material in the same key. After a brief restatement of that material there are two measures of O (on V of C minor) at mm. 126-27, directly followed by the recapitulation at m. 128. The development section is thus a mere 23 measures with no actual developmental treatment of any theme. As in the first movement, the recapitulation (m. 128) is not approached through the use of the dominant of E-flat. At m. 181 the S material returns in an agitated fashion in F minor. Just as happens in the exposition, the first violin has a six-measure (mm. 204-9) solo consisting of eighth-note triplets. At m. 210 the closing material begins, with the same eighth-note figure in the viola and cello, in C minor. Eventually (m. 216) the triplets are heard in unison in all voices, leading to a restatement of the opening material at mm. 222 and 225. The coda begins at m. 229 in F minor, moving to E-flat major by m. 237. At m. 253 the first violin has a six-measure solo marked expressivo, and in m. 255 the direction ad lib suggests free rhythm. Measures 255-56 consist of a fragment of the N material from the development sections of the first and last movements. At m. 259 there is a complete restatement of N material in F minor, followed by the principal thematic material from the first movement in E-flat major (m. 272). The movement ends quietly (m. 313) in E-flat major. Contradictions in the World of the Work One contradiction in the world of the work is the second movement, labeled “Canzonetta.” In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the term was used to refer to a solo strophic song that was both musically and poetically simple. It was also used to describe a short instrumental work with a song-like character.102 The term “canzonetta” was used in England to describe English parlor songs. Mendelssohn completed the quartet while in England and in all likelihood would have been familiar with English canzonettas. If this movement is the “scherzo” that Fanny referred to in her letter cited above, Mendelssohn would have composed it while still in Berlin. The title Canzonetta could have been added after his arrival in England (if it had been originally titled Canzonetta, Fanny would presumably have referred to it using that term). Another contradiction in the world of the work is the incorporation of an aria style in the third movement. The overwhelmingly vocal nature of this movement introduces a contradiction

102 Suzanne G. Cusick, “Canzonetta,” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 3: 747.

56 because it draws elements of specifically vocal music into the genre of the string quartet.103 It is certainly not unusual for a composer to include an aria-style movement as the slow movement of a string quartet. What is unusual here are the consistent interjections of vocal material throughout this string quartet. Persona The vocal aspect of the quartet is pronounced. The second movement, Canzonetta, has a theme with many folk-like elements, such as limited melodic and harmonic ranges, and square rhythm. The third movement, however, alludes to more sophisticated vocal music in its aria-like style. Although both movements allude to vocal music, the vocal music referred to differs significantly in character. There is evidence of socially different styles in the quartet, the canzonetta and aria, so the persona has experiences of both sophisticated and folk-like music idioms. The persona of op. 12 is a musician who has absorbed diverse experiences. The persona addresses the quartet to “B. P.” The persona of the quartet, however, is a musician and is addressing B. P. as a fellow musician to whom vocal style appeals rather than intensive instrumental work. Paradoxes Specific to the Work Op. 12 presents several paradoxes. In the first movement the opening material begins in A-flat major, moves to G minor and C minor, and eventually arrives at the tonic, E-flat major. In contrast, section 3, which is usually unstable harmonically, begins firmly in E-flat major. The development section sounds, therefore, as if it is the repetition of the exposition rather than a new section. The return of the P material in E-flat major, followed by a new lyrical theme in F minor, highlights a crucial paradox, the complete lack of developmental material in this movement, and indeed in the entire quartet. The second movement, in composite ternary form with a rounded binary A section, also demonstrates the lack of developmental treatment. Although there is not a development section per se in a rounded binary form, developmental treatment of themes sometimes occurs. In this rounded binary form, however, all the material is expository in nature, again emphasizing the paradox of a string quartet with no developmental treatment. The third movement is a two-part

103 The appearance of aria-style slow movements goes all the way back to Haydn’s op. 1 no. 1 and his op. 33 (find a specific quartet). Vocal allusions can be found in Mozart’s Haydn Quartets K. 169 and 170, and continue through Beethoven’s late quartets (one of the most well-known is the slow movement of op. 132, which is a hymn).

57 form in which the second section is an elaborated version of the first and so also has only decorative but not developmental treatment of themes. In the final movement the development sections contain the N material from the first movement, and once again there is no developmental treatment. One of the most interesting features of op. 12 is the cyclical nature of the quartet. Material from the first movement reappears in the last movement. In the final movement at m. 252, the N material from m. 107 of the first movement returns in F minor (as part of the violin ad lib section). And at m. 273 P from the first movement returns. Transcendence Op. 12 is the counterpart to op. 13 in that it deals with the same world of issues as op. 13, but it frames them differently. Both string quartets address the issue of meaning in music. Op. 13 is based on op. 9 no.1, a song, which, however, is not a particularly song-like piece. The opening phrase of Frage lends itself to instrumental development rather than vocal style. Op. 13 begins with instrumental material and ends with a direct quotation of Frage. It thus creates a vocal piece out of instrumental material and in so doing emphasizes that music itself expresses feeling and meaning, and words are a response to that meaning. Op. 12 approaches the issue of meaning from another perspective. Op. 12 uses vocal-style music to create a string quartet, the most abstract of all genres. The direct references to vocal styles allow op. 12 to demonstrate vocal aspects of instrumental music. Where op. 13 began with instrumental style music and ended with a song, op. 12 uses vocal style music to build an instrumental work. Each quartet makes a point about the truth that music is precise in its meanings, and that words are a reaction to those musically expressed meanings. The N theme that appears in the development sections of both first and last movements is a vocal intrusion into the instrumental work. The return of this material in the development sections further emphasizes Mendelssohn’s conception of the relationship between words and music. The N material does this by appearing, with its lyrical nature, in the development sections, where one traditionally expects the most complex and sophisticated treatment of instrumental music (such as sequence, variation, repetition, fragmentation, juxtaposition, augmentation, and diminution). The cyclical nature of this particular material is yet another reinforcement of Mendelssohn’s point. The constant intrusion of vocal style music in an instrumental work further reminds the listener of this paradox which underlies Romantic irony.

58 String Quartets op. 44 nos. 1-3 The quartets of op. 44 differ from opp. 12 and 13 in that they were published together as a group of three. In the following, therefore, there is a collective discussion of the Perceivable World of the Work for the three quartets as a set, followed by the first four topics (Perceivable World of the Work, The Work, Contradictions in the World of the Work, and Paradoxes Specific to the Work) for each individual quartet. The final two issues (Persona and Transcendence), however, are considered following the discussion of the individual works. The string quartets are taken up in the order of their composition rather than in their placement in the published set to preserve the chronological nature of the discussion. Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44 An important articulation point in Mendelssohn’s career occurred in 1835, when he moved from Düsseldorf to Leipzig to take over as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. This position was a significant step in the establishment of his status and influence in Germany. In the summer of 1836 the director of the Cäcilienverein in Frankfurt am Main, Johann Nepomuk Schelble (1789-1837), was ill and asked Mendelssohn to come and conduct for six weeks in June and July.104 Mendelssohn acquiesced, and he arrived in Frankfurt on 7 June 1836. Also living in Frankfurt that summer was Mendelssohn’s friend the pianist, conductor, and composer Ferdinand Hiller (1811-85).105 Although they had previously been acquainted, Mendelssohn and Hiller became particularly close during this time. The two men often discussed composition, and Mendelssohn consulted Hiller when composing op. 44 no. 2.106 Mendelssohn frequently visited his father’s sister, Dorothea Schlegel, who lived in Frankfurt at this time. She had been widowed at the death of her second husband, Friedrich Schlegel, and was living in the home of her son from her first marriage, Philipp Veit, who was

104 Werner, 252, 296.

105 Werner, 296.

106 Hiller, Letters, 97.

59 the director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut.107 Dorothea Schlegel possessed a shrewd intellect and a brilliant cultural background. Mendelssohn enjoyed her company.108 It was also during his Frankfurt summer of 1836 that Mendelssohn met his future wife, Cécile Sophie Charlotte Jeanrenaud (1817-53). She was the second daughter of Auguste (1788- 1819) and Elisabeth (née Souchay) (1796-1871) Jeanrenaud. Auguste Jeanrenaud had been a pastor of the French Reformed Church, and Elisabeth came from a family not unlike the Mendelssohns. They were a close-knit family, whose fortune had been built in trading, textiles, and the merchant banking business. After her husband’s death Elisabeth had moved the family from Lyons to her parents’ home in Frankfurt.109 Mendelssohn and Cécile met in early summer of 1836, became engaged on 9 September, and were married on 26 March 1837.110 The three quartets of op. 44 were written soon after the Mendelssohns’ marriage; the earliest one, no. 2 in E minor, was completed on 18 June 1837; no. 3 in E-flat major was completed on 6 February 1838; and no. 1 in D major followed on 24 July 1838. The set was published by Breitkopf and Härtel as op. 44 in the summer of 1839. Op. 44 was dedicated to the Crown Prince Oscar of Sweden. Oscar, who became King Oscar I, was the son of Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte (1763-1844), a member of the French army, who, through a palace coup, had become King Karl XIV Johann of Sweden.111 The Crown Prince was born in 1799, crowned Oscar I in 1844, and reigned until his death in 1859. The Prince was particularly interested in music and studied with Mendelssohn’s longtime friend Adolf Lindblad (1801-78). The Swedish composer and Mendelssohn had become acquainted when Lindblad came to Berlin in 1825 to study with Zelter. Lindblad’s students included not only the Crown Prince of Sweden but also his son Prince Gustav and the singer

107 The Städel Art Institute was a bequest by the banker Johann Friedrich Städel (1728-1816) and housed an important art collection. Mendelssohn’s cousin Philipp Veit (1793-1877) was the director from 1830 to 1843. See The Mendelssohns on Honeymoon: The 1837 Diary of Felix and Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy Together with Letters to their Families, edited and translated by Peter Ward Jones (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 50.

108 Ibid., xiii.

109 Ibid.

110 The Mendelssohns on Honeymoon, xv, xviii, xxi.

111 Dictionary of Scandinavian History, edited by Byron J. Nordstrom (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1986), 321.

60 Jenny Lind (1820-87).112 Prince Oscar’s ability in music was such that when his friend the composer Eduard Brendler (1800-31) died before completing his opera Ryno, the Crown Prince completed the final six numbers. The work was performed by the Swedish Royal Opera in May of 1834.113 Mendelssohn and Oscar I shared many political ideals. Oscar I had progressive views regarding social reform. During his reign reforms in education, poor relief, tariffs, prison conditions, religious freedom, and women’s rights were all enacted. In spite of these progressive ideas concerning social issues, however, Oscar I adamantly opposed constitutional reforms of any sort.114 He belonged firmly in the eighteenth-century tradition of enlightened despotism. Mendelssohn met the Crown Prince during his honeymoon. An entry by Cécile in the couple’s honeymoon diary for Sunday, 4 June, reads, “visits in the morning, when Felix met the Crown Prince of Sweden in the Städel Institute.”115 A second meeting between the two took place two days later, on Tuesday, 6 June. Cécile wrote, “Meeting with the Crown Prince of Sweden on the way home. Felix conversed with him.”116 Mendelssohn’s op. 44 was intended for a very different audience from that of his earlier quartets. As has been established earlier in this chapter, both opp. 13 and 12 were most likely conceived for performance either as part of an afternoon or evening of domestic music-making, as in the case of op. 13, or by professional musicians for a small, invited audience, as in the case of op. 12. The three quartets of op. 44, however, were conceived as works performed by professional musicians in a concert hall. The public rather than private venue of op. 44 would also have affected Mendelssohn’s choice of dedicatee. Mendelssohn never dedicated public works to a relative or family friend,

112 Kerstin Linder, “Lindblad, Adolf Fredrik,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 14:712.

113 Anders Wiklund, “Brendler, Eduard,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 4:317.

114 Dictionary of Scandinavian History, 441.

115 Honeymoon, 50.

116 Ibid., 51.

61 and therefore his dedication of op. 44 to a public figure, the Crown Prince of Sweden, seems consistent with the public nature of the quartets.117 Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44 no. 2 Mendelssohn discussed op. 44 no. 2 in some detail in his letters home. In a letter to Fanny dated 10 April 1837 he wrote “I have almost finished a string quartet, and shall soon begin another. I am in the right vein for working now.”118 On 13 July he wrote to Hiller, I have not worked much here, I mean not written much, but I have a new violin quartet, all but finished, in my head, and I think I shall finish my pianoforte Concerto [op.40] next week. I have mostly followed your advice in the alterations in the E minor violin quartet, and they improve it very much; I played it over to myself the other day, on an abominable piano, and quite enjoyed it, much more than I should have imagined.119

Mendelssohn quite often expressed a seemingly reluctant pleasure in his own work. These ambivalent sentiments were echoed in a letter of 29 October 1837 to his brother Paul, Fanny will probably give you to-morrow the parts of my new quartett from me. Whether it will please you or not is uncertain; but think of me when you play it and come to any passagewhich is peculiarly in my style. How gladly would I have given you something better and prettier in honor of your birthday! But I did not know what to send.120

And on 10 December Mendelssohn wrote, again to Hiller,

David played my E minor quartet in public the other day, and is to repeat it to-day “by special desire”; I am curious to know how I shall like it; I thought it much prettier last time than I did at first, but still I do not care much about it. I have begun a new one which is almost finished and which is better.121

117 Mendelssohn’s dedications always reflect a deliberate intent. In a letter of 7 February 1834, Mendelssohn had written to Moscheles requesting permission to dedicate his Rondo brillant, published as op. 29 to Moscheles. He wrote, “In general, I am not very partial to dedications, and have seldom made any.” See Moscheles, Letters, 85.

118 Mendelssohn was referring here to op. 44 no. 3, in E-flat major. See Hensel, The Mendelssohn Family, 2: 34. 119 Ferdinand Hiller, Letters, 97.

120 Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847, edited by Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy, translated by Lady Wallace (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1864, reprinted 1970), 126.

121 Ibid., 107.

62 Mendelssohn often wrote about his compositions in a self-deprecatory manner and seemed surprised when his works succeeded as well as they did. These comments contain a polite self- effacement mixed with the eternal self-criticism characteristic of many of Mendelssohn’s comments about his own work.122 The Work Allegro assai appassionato The first movement, in sonata form, is marked Allegro assai appassionato and opens immediately with the principal thematic material (see Diagram 3.9) in E minor, featuring bold, wide-ranging arpeggiated figures, symphonic in the style of the so-called “Mannheim rocket,” in the first violin. In m. 25 the transition begins with its own thematic material, consisting of sixteenth notes moving primarily in scalar motion passed, dialogue-fashion, among the parts. By m. 39 the key moves to the dominant, B minor, which seems unusual, because one does not expect the dominant to arrive so early in the transition. This proves a misdirection, for the contrast key is really G major, which arrives at m. 53 with the S theme (see Example 3.6). In a move whose significance we will turn to later, the transition never actually leads to the true secondary key, G, but instead sets up B minor. The early appearance of the dominant in the transition and the long pedal on V/V immediately prior to S in the relative major misleads the listener.

DIAGRAM 3.9: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 1 Allegro assai (expo, part 4/4 P E 1 appassionato 1)

transition T 25

B 39

122 Marion Wilson Kimber, “‘For art has the same place in your heart as mine,’ Family, Friendship, and Community in the Life of Felix Mendelssohn,” in The Mendelssohn Companion, edited by Douglass Seaton (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2001), 49.

63 DIAGRAM 3.9: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Section 2 (expo, part S G 53 2)

S 61

T 69

P G 84

Section 3 P 98 (develop)

T & P 122-53

V/e 146

S C 155

partly in P C 160-67 diminution Section 4 P e 168 (recap)

T 187

S E 193

T e 215-22

K 223

Coda P e 230

64 DIAGRAM 3.9: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

T e 250-59

S e 261-63

tonicized C 264-68 briefly in P 269-71 diminution

P 275-77

The lyrical S material is taken up by the cello at m. 61, and the T material returns in the first violin in m. 69, leading to a forte, very aggressive closing passage in dotted rhythm at m. 77. The P material returns in G major at m. 84, and a first ending begins at m. 97. After the repetition of the exposition, the development section begins at m. 98 with the P material in diminution. From m. 122 to m. 153 the T material passes through all the voices, eventually joining with the rising arpeggiated figure from the P material. At m. 146 the dominant of E minor appears, seemingly preparatory to the recapitulation. The S material, however, first enters, in C major, diverting the expected course of events both thematically and tonally. The P material, partly in diminution, appears in the first and second violins, still in C major, from m. 158 to m. 167. The recapitulation, beginning with the arrival of the P material in the tonic and in its original note values, but introduced over a dominant pedal, starts unobtrusively at m. 168. At m. 187 there is a four-measure section of material related to T as it appears in the development. This running sixteenth-note figure is similar to but not identical with T. It is passed among all the voices, leading to a restatement of S in the parallel major at m. 193. The T material, this time in E minor, appears in mm. 215-22. K occurs in m. 223 and leads directly to the coda, which is particularly rich thematically, restating the P, T, and S material. The P material appears in the tonic at m. 230. The T material makes its final appearance, again firmly in E minor, in mm. 250-

65 59, followed by a brief restatement of S (mm. 261-63). The key of C major is again tonicized briefly (mm. 264-68) before P reappears in diminution in mm. 269-71. The movement ends with an allusion to P in the first violin.

66 EXAMPLE 3.6: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 1, mm. 39-53.

67 Scherzo: Allegro di molto The second movement, labeled “Scherzo,” is an example of Mendelssohn’s famous elfin- scherzo style. It is not, however, in the conventional ternary form of a scherzo movement but rather is a sonata-rondo (see Diagram 3.10). The movement opens with the rondo theme in E major. This R material emphasizes the scherzo-like character of the movement; it is a light and bouncy theme consisting of rapidly moving passages with abrupt dynamic changes. After a half cadence at m. 8, P repeats, ending with an imperfect cadence at m. 16. The transition to B major begins at m. 16, leading to the first episode and the secondary key area. This episode has its own homorhythmic and metrically regular thematic material (X), beginning at m. 25, and continues in B major, ending in this key at m. 51. The rondo section, with R in E major, returns at m. 53. A developmental variant of X appears at m. 65, followed by a second episode, which begins at m. 77. This section consists of a fugato whose theme is derived from the rondo theme. The fugato theme is inverted at m. 93 and remains in inversion for the next seven measures. The original fugato theme is restated in an orchestral, homorhythmic setting at m. 105. The retransition occurs at mm. 111-24, leading, however, not to R but to X (m. 125) in C-sharp minor. At m. 141 a striking moment occurs when the viola enters with new thematic material (N) in a homophonic texture, still in C-sharp minor (see Example 3.7). The particularly lyrical character of this melody contrasts with the scherzo style that preceded it, and the change from polyphonic to homophonic texture is especially startling. The sharp contrast provides a particularly strong emphasis to the emergence of the viola’s melody. The addition of pizzicato in the cello also adds to the distinctness of these measures. The rondo section returns, with R in E major, at m. 151. The X material from the first episode follows at m. 175, this time remaining in the tonic key. The R material returns at m. 209 (in E major), followed by a restatement of the viola line from mm. 141-49, presented here in the same striking manner as earlier but in the tonic key. The movement ends with a final, pianissimo restatement of R.

68 EXAMPLE 3.7: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 2, mm. 141-50.

DIAGRAM 3.10: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Allegro di Rondo 3/4 R E 1 molto

T 16

st 1 episode X B 25

Rondo R E 53

69 DIAGRAM 3.10: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material develop- mental 2nd episode X 65 variation of X

Y 77

retransition 111-24

X C# 124

Homo- N C# 141-49 phonic

Rondo R E 151

rd 3 episode X E 175

Rondo R E 209

N E 217-29

R E 231

Andante The third movement, like the second, is a standard string quartet movement. This movement is an aria-like Andante; it is homophonic in texture with a long, expressive melody in the first violin. This movement, too, is a variant of sonata form (see Diagram 3.11). The movement opens in G major with a two-measure introduction before the particularly expressive P material begins. The principal thematic material is a two-phrase, parallel, symmetrical period. The transition to D major takes place at mm. 21-25, and the secondary thematic material appears (m. 25) in the first and second violins, supported by a running, sixteenth-note figure in the viola.

70 At m. 36 we again find homorhythmic material, this time closing material. At m. 42 the P material reappears in a rhythmically altered variant to form a very brief (five-measure) development-like section. The recapitulation takes place at m. 47, in G major, with P in the cello. The transition in the recapitulation does not actually involve a change of key, because the S material reappears in the tonic, as expected, but the pseudo-transition incorporates a series of unstable chords (mm. 53-56), consisting of V7, V/V, Ger 6, vi, V/V, and V (see Example 3.8). This unusual detour comes to a conclusion with the appearance of S firmly in G major (m. 57). This harmonic diversion is another instance of the tactic that occurs in the transition in the exposition of the first movement. In both movements an interruption in the formal harmonic structure misleads the listener. After a restatement of S the movement continues with the closing material (m. 67) and concludes quietly at m. 83.

DIAGRAM 3.11: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Intro- Andante 4/4 O G 1-2 duction

Section 1 (expo, part P 1)

T 21-25

S D 25

K 36

develop- P 42-47 mental Section 3 P G 47 (develop)

71 DIAGRAM 3.11: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 4 unstable T 53-56 (recap) harmony

S G 57

S G 67

EXAMPLE 3.8: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 3, mm. 53-56.

Presto agitato

The Presto agitato final movement of this quartet is in sonata-rondo form. The rondo theme appears immediately in the first measure of the rondo section, in the tonic key, E minor.

72 The R material is a wide-ranging and lively theme that exploits dynamic contrast. After the R material is stated (m. 21), a fragment of the theme is presented in a homophonic texture (mm. 23- 31). At m. 32 another fragment is treated imitatively. The section continues, becoming transitional at m. 40 and leading to the first episode (see Diagram 3.12), which begins at m. 75. The softer, lyrical theme (X) appears in the first violin on the dominant of G major. The X material is repeated, momentarily doubled in the viola. The R material returns at m. 111, now in G, and continues to m. 124. An extension of the first episode occurs at m. 125, its Animato tempo marking reflected in the running eighth notes heard in the first violin. The retransition begins at m. 155, with the running eighth notes acting as a counter-theme to X material, which is found in the second violin and viola. At m. 175 the running eighth notes continue in all parts to m. 178, when they are found only in the first violin to m. 182. The key of C major appears briefly before the rondo section returns (m. 185) with the R material in E minor. The second episode begins at m. 212 and includes a fugato on a fragment of the R theme (see Example 3.9). The X material returns again at m. 244 in the second violin, this time in E minor. The R material returns at m. 261. Although this statement of R is in the tonic, it does not yet constitute the beginning of the rondo section, because it appears an octave higher than heard previously and over a dominant pedal. The rondo section itself is reached at m. 266 with a statement of R in E minor. The transition begins at m. 286 and moves to C major (m. 300) before arriving at the third episode, with the X material, this time in E major (m. 329). At m. 345 the X material repeats as before in the first violin and viola. The R material appears at m. 365 in the second violin and is repeated in the viola (m. 369) and the first violin (m. 372), all in E major. There is an extension of this section beginning at m. 379 that remains in E major. At m. 404 the X material returns, doubled in the second violin and viola with the counter-theme in the first violin. This leads to the coda in m. 425, where a fragment of the X material is treated developmentally through repetition and imitation. At m. 437 the T section returns with the principal theme, this time in the original key of E minor (rather than the relative major). The coda emphasizes E minor, with multiple restatements of the R material and X fragments, until the end (m. 515).

73 EXAMPLE 3.9: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 4, mm. 213-16.

DIAGRAM 3.12: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Presto Rondo 3/4 R e 1-21 agitato Homo- 23-31 phonic

32 imitation

T 51

X V/G 75

R G 111-24

extension 125 of X

retransition 155

eighth C 175-78 notes in all parts

74 DIAGRAM 3.12: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

eighth 182 notes in vln. 1 only

R e 185

fugato on Y 212 fragment of R theme

X 244

octave R e 261 higher over a V pedal

R e 266

R e 286

C 300

with X X E 326 material

X 345

R E 365

similar to 379 m. 125

X 404

75 DIAGRAM 3.12: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 2, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material develop- mental X 425 treatment of X

R E 437

Contradictions in the World of the Work This string quartet, as discussed earlier in this chapter, has the contradictions in the world of the work inherent to all string quartets composed during this time. A contradiction that concerns the role of the string quartet as a genre lies in the idea of music composed both for a social use and as a personal expression of the composer. While op. 13 contains contradictions specific to genre and op. 12 incorporates stylistic contradictions, op. 44 no. 2 does neither. There are no specific contradictions in the world of the work for this quartet. Paradoxes Specific to the Work The paradoxes specific to this work provide important information about the identity of the persona. The discussion of op. 44 no. 2 will be clearer, therefore, if the paradoxes specific to the work are addressed first. The main paradox in this string quartet is the harmonic misdirection that often occurs in the transition sections of the movements. In the first movement the transition between P and S begins in E minor, and moves to B minor, setting up the dominant as the contrast key. This turns out to be deceptive, however, because the secondary key area will be G major. The second movement, labeled “Scherzo,” turns out to be a scherzo in style but not in form, as has already been observed. A striking moment in this movement concerns the appearance in m. 141 and m. 217 of new, lyrical thematic material in the viola, with a texture change from polyphony to homophony. Although these sections are not confusing harmonically, the placement of each interjection is significant. In both instances this new viola melody occurs

76 in a retransition to the rondo section. These measures will be discussed in more detail in connection with the persona of op. 44. The third movement introduces a destabilizing harmonic surprise in the reprise. After P, S is about to be recapitulated in the tonic, and therefore no modulation is necessary. Between measures 53 and 56, however, a passage of strikingly unstable harmony gives the impression of a modulation but leads abruptly back to the tonic (see Example 3.7). In this instance the harmonic misdirection occurs in an area that could be tonally static. The final movement also treats passages of articulation in the formal structure in such a way as to misdirect the listener. At the close of the exposition of the sonata-rondo the movement proceeds as if leading either to a repeat of the exposition or the beginning of the next episode. The exposition never does come to a close, however; instead, the next episode begins before the listener is aware of the end of the exposition. Another example of harmonic misdirection, this time on a large scale, is that the final movement begins in a minor key, recapitulates in the parallel major, and then ends in the original minor. It is not unusual for a movement in a minor key to recapitulate in the major. In this case, however, the tonic returns in the coda, which is far less common. Further, the two inner movements, as well as the two outer movements, adopt variations of sonata form. The second and third movements of a string quartet are typically in simpler, less dramatically designed forms, such as binary, ternary, and variation forms, providing contrast to the more intense outer ones. In sonata form, however, the transition sections provide more opportunity for harmonic misdirection than they do in the clear sections of ternary form. Mendelssohn may have chosen to use sonata form for all four movements precisely because of the opportunity it provided him to misdirect the listener. Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44 no. 3 After their wedding in March of 1837 Felix and Cécile Mendelssohn spent much of the summer on their honeymoon tour, traveling to Freiburg and the Black Forest. On 24 August Mendelssohn left for his fifth trip to England to conduct a performance of St. Paul at the Birmingham Music Festival. He returned to Frankfurt, and, reunited with his wife, traveled to Leipzig, arriving on 1 October.123

123 R. Larry Todd, “Mendelssohn, Felix,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 16:398.

77 Mendelssohn’s letters to his family and friends contain few references to op. 44 no. 3. Although the quartet was not completed until February of 1838, Mendelssohn began thinking about it much earlier. Cécile wrote in their honeymoon diary on 24 June 1837, “Felix immediately wrote to Mr Moore in Birmingham, and to Herr Klingemann, then in the afternoon sent a letter to Berlin and began a new quartet.”124 In a letter to Hiller dated 13 July, however, Mendelssohn stated that he had “a new violin quartet, all but finished, in my head.”125 On 22 July he wrote to his family, “I also have a new string quartet and a new psalm almost completely in my head, and moreover intend to finish them in part here.”126 There is thus some confusion about precisely when Mendelssohn actually started writing the quartet. According to his wife Mendelssohn began the quartet, which presumably meant in written form, much earlier than Mendelssohn himself indicated. This discrepancy could be explained in many ways. Either Mendelssohn or Cécile may have made an error, or perhaps Cécile’s diary entry referred to sketches rather than a complete draft. In a letter Mendelssohn wrote to Hiller dated 20 January 1838 he reported, “In the way of new things I have almost finished the violin Quartet.”127 Three weeks later, on 6 February, Mendelssohn completed his string quartet in E-flat major, op. 44 no. 3. The next day his first child, Carl Wolfgang Paul, was born.128 Not until four and half months later, on 26 June 1838, does another reference to the quartet appear. In a letter to Moscheles Mendelssohn wrote, “I have composed a few new Quartets for string instruments.”129 The length of time between references to his compositions is not surprising, given the circumstances; Mendelssohn, after all, had other things with which to concern himself. The Work Allegro vivace The first movement is a sonata form in E-flat major, marked Allegro vivace. It opens directly with forceful principal thematic material, which is made up of three motives (see

124 Honeymoon, 56.

125 Hiller, Letters, 97.

126 The psalm is Laudate pueri. Honeymoon, 177.

127 Hiller, 113.

128 Honeymoon, xxvii.

129 Moscheles, 167.

78 Diagram 3.13). The first two, Pa and Pb, function as a contrapuntal pair. Pa, a turn-like sixteenth-note figure, appears in the first violin in mm. 1-3. Pb, in the second violin and cello, consists of the descending quarter notes introduced as a countermelody in mm. 2-3. Pc, a dotted eighth and sixteenth note followed by a quarter note, appears just before the half cadence in m. 5, and is set homorhythmically. This rhythm is extended for two measures and leads to a declamatory unison, after which another half cadence (m. 10) is followed by a fermata. The inconclusiveness of the half cadence and the pause makes the P material sound almost as if it were opening material rather than the principal thematic material. The material beginning in m. 11 is a modified version of P (with all three of its motives) in F minor. The repetition of P in a new key reinforces the ambiguity of the initial statement of P. This entire opening segment leads to confusion about exactly what is happening in the formal structure. The tonic, E-flat major, returns by m. 32, where the sixteenth-note upbeat figure of Pa is treated imitatively. Although the developmental texture suggests a transitional function for this passage, the harmony remains stable, emphasizing the tonic and dominant of E-flat major. After a relatively quick transition of only six measures (mm. 38-43), the secondary key, B-flat major, arrives at m. 44. The S material, a lyrical ascending figure in quarter notes, begins at m. 49 in the second violin, accompanied by Pa’s sixteenth notes in the first violin. Like the P material, S is stated once in its own key (B-flat major), moving to F minor before returning to B-flat major (m. 57). G minor makes a brief appearance (mm. 69-78) before the key returns again to B-flat major. After a perfect authentic cadence (mm. 91-92), K appears (m. 93) in the first violin.130

DIAGRAM 3.13: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 1 Allegro a (expo, part 4/4 Pa, Pb E 1-3 vivace 1)

Pc 5

130 This K material shares the melodic shape and rhythm found in the P material of op. 44 no. 2 movement 3.

79 DIAGRAM 3.13: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

V 10 fermata

Pa, b, c F 11

a Pa E 32

T 38-43

Section 2 a (expo, part B 44

2) a S B 49

S F

a S B 57

G 69-78

a B 91

K 93

Section 3 Pa, b, c, & 113 (develop) S

C 117

D 148

C 152

80 DIAGRAM 3.13: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

K 194

in K 198-99 diminution Section 4 Pa (recap)

Pa, b 207

Pa & pizz

Coda counter- 300

theme compact develop- 309 ment section

K 319

S 353

The development section begins (m. 112) in E-flat major with a scoring that is inverted from that found in the exposition: Pa (incomplete) is in the cello and Pb in the violins and viola. Pa, Pb, Pc, and S are all involved in developmental treatment in this section. The harmony moves through C minor (m. 117) and D major (m. 148), returning to C minor (m. 152), arriving at a German sixth chord in m. 162. The K material returns in the cello, the highest voice in the texture, at m. 163 on a vii07 chord of G minor. Measure 194, with the K material in the viola and in duet between the first and second violins, begins the dominant preparation for the recapitulation. This time the second violin is the highest voice in the texture. The K material appears in diminution at mm. 198-99, and this is quickly followed by Pa material, leading to the recapitulation at m. 207. Pa appears this time in the second violin and viola, with Pb in the cello

81 and double stops in the first and second violin. The first violin has rapid scalar figuration that serves as an accompaniment. The order of events in the recapitulation follows the order of events in the exposition. The coda begins at m. 297, with new motives combined with the Pa material. The coda includes a compact developmental section, beginning at m. 309 with imitative treatment of Pa material. The K material returns at m. 319, and S reappears at m. 353. Scherzo: Assai leggiero vivace The second movement, a composite ternary form, is labeled “Scherzo” and bears a tempo marking of Assai leggiero vivace (see Diagram 3.14). It opens with a section in rounded binary form (mm. 1-76). The principal motivic material is introduced in the cello in the key of C minor. This four-measure theme is conjunct and harmonically conservative, in a style conventionally found in a dance-based movement. After the repetition the movement continues with the principal theme repeated in the viola (m. 17) with fragments of that same theme in the first violin. At m. 24 the key alternates between G major and G minor, coming to rest in the minor mode at m. 41. At m. 49 the P material returns, this time in the viola, in the original key of C minor. Closing material appears in the first violin at m. 64, bringing the rounded binary form to an end (m. 76). The trio section (in G major) of this movement begins, in an unusual manner, with a fugato (m. 77).131 The playful, scherzo-like subject enters successively in each instrument, heard first in the viola, followed by the second violin, first violin, and much later in the cello. The harmony moves to G minor with a brief tonicization of D major at mm. 98-110. At m. 114 new material (N) is heard in the first violin, with P as a counter-theme in the viola (see Example 3.10). The N material is lyrical, and the marking is expressivo. The principal thematic material then reappears in the first violin, with N doubled in octaves in the second violin and cello at m. 131. Fragments of P continue to closing material (mm. 156-65). At m. 166 material from the beginning of the movement returns, this time with P in the viola, in the key of A-flat major. The N material reappears at m. 186 in the first and second violins and viola in C minor, with the P material as a counter-theme, now in the cello. A unison passage is found from mm. 208 to 210 with homorhythm continuing to m. 213, immediately followed by a return of the fugato, beginning at m. 214. The unison passage provides an orchestral “color” to the quartet. The subject of the fugue is the same as presented earlier in the fugato, but here it is treated in a

131 Another famous scherzo in C minor with a fugato trio familiar to Mendelssohn is found in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

82 very different manner. The subject is first stated in the second violin. At the second statement of the subject by the viola, the second violin has a descending chromatic counter-subject. The fugue subject and counter-subject continue to the beginning of the coda at m. 250. The coda is in C minor and consists of the opening material with P in the cello. At m. 266 P, in paired voices, is treated imitatively. At m. 276, however, a startling change in texture occurs with the introduction of homorhythm, with the P material stated in all voices in unison. The unison passage continues to m. 291, and the homorhythmic texture to m. 296. The repeated use of material presented in unison enhances the orchestral effect. The final passage of the movement has abrupt juxtaposition of dynamic markings, growing through a crescendo to sforzando and diminishing to piano quite rapidly.

EXAMPLE 3.10: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 2, mm. 114- 22.

83

DIAGRAM 3.14: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material rounded A 6/8 P C 1 binary

17

G/g 24

G 41

P C 49

K 64

76 end of A

B G 77 fugato

P as

N G 114 counter-

theme

N 131

viiø with P K 156-65 fragments

a A P A 166

P as

N C 186 counter-

theme

208-10 unison

84 DIAGRAM 3.14: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

g 214 fugue

P c 250

Coda P 266 imitative

P 276 unison

Adagio non troppo The quiet and religious style of the third movement is evident from the very beginning. The tempo marking of Adagio non troppo and the subdued opening dynamic lend a contemplative air to the movement. This A-flat major movement, in sonata form, begins quietly with accompaniment in the second violin, viola, and cello (see Diagram 3.15). At m. 2 the subdued P material enters in the first violin. This quiet theme is an asymmetrical period ending in m. 18, and, with a range of just over two octaves and leaps of a fifth or more, has a particularly instrumental character. At m. 19 two statements of a decorated fragment of the P theme are heard in the first violin, beginning the transition, which continues to feature elements from the P section. In m. 25 the first violin introduces a new accompaniment figuration, consisting of a rocking figure in pairs of sixteenth notes. The accompaniment material from the movement’s first measure appears successively in the second violin, viola, and cello. The rocking figuration then appears in the paired second violin and viola, with a figure derived from P in the first violin at m. 30. The secondary key area, E-flat major, with its own theme, begins at m. 35 in the second violin and viola. The S material, paired in the second violin and viola, mostly outlines an E-flat triad. At m. 39 the S material repeats in the first violin, soon devolving into a sequential flourish in sixteenth notes (m. 42-46). The decorated fragment of the P theme from the transition (m. 25) reappears at m. 47 in the second violin, leading to the development,

85 which begins at m. 51. New material (N), m. 56, marked expressivo, is heard at the beginning of the development section and appears throughout this section, alternating among all four voices. This passage includes material from T and S and also N, and continues to m. 70, where a homorhythmic statement of the rocking sixteenth-note T material appears in all four instruments. Once again transition (mm. 74-82) through multiple restatements occurs. The recapitulation arrives at m. 83 with the P theme in the tonic key of A-flat major, but the lower parts are rescored to let the second violin continue the figuration of T. After a repetition of P at m. 93 the S material returns in the first and second violins at m. 99, leading to a fermata (m. 106) on a vii07 of the dominant (the key has remained A-flat major). The N material returns at m. 113 in the second violin, accompanied by the rocking T material in the first violin. Three measures later the N material begins in the first violin and viola, with the T figuration in the second violin. The final statement of N is heard at m. 119 in the viola. The T material appears in the second violin. The movement ends pianissimo with fragments of P in the first violin over the accompanying material found in the opening measures of the movement.

DIAGRAM 3.15: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 1 Adagio non a Accompani- (expo, part 3/4 A 1 troppo ment 1)

P 2

P (frag.) 19

T

(decorated 25

P) Section 2 a (expo, part S E 35

2) S repeats to

S 39 mm. 42-46

decorated

86 DIAGRAM 3.15: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

47

54

N includes Section 3 N 56 frag. of T (develop) and S Homo- T 70 rhythm

T with N 74-82 retransition

Section 4 a P with T A 83 (recap)

P 93

S 99

a viiø/E 106 fermata

N with T 113

N 119

Molto Allegro con fuoco The final movement has a tempo marking of Molto Allegro con fuoco. It is in sonata- rondo form (see Diagram 3.16). The opening material (O) begins directly in the first violin with an ascending arpeggio in the tonic, E-flat major, while the three lower instruments have an anapestic rhythmic accompaniment. At m. 5 the principal thematic material appears in the first violin. This playful, leaping theme is accompanied by rapidly moving figuration in the second

87 violin and viola (the cello simply clarifies the harmonic function). The opening material returns at m. 14, remaining in the tonic, and continues as it first appeared. At m. 19, however, there is an extension of the O material that continues to m. 24, where the P material returns again in the first violin, this time stated an octave higher. By m. 29 the transition, through repetition of the P material, has begun. At m. 36 P-derived material, at first in unison and outlining diminished- seventh chords and secondary dominants of F major, leads to the key of E-flat minor at m. 54. Here a lyrical melody begins in the first violin, marked cantabile, while the P material is heard in the cello, with tremolos in the inner instruments (see Example 3.11). Five measures later (m. 58) the key shifts to D-flat. The first episode begins at m. 62 with the secondary theme (S) in the first violin.132 This section begins on the subdominant of D-flat major (G flat) and, through a tonicization of B-flat (V/E-flat minor), continues in E-flat minor (m. 70). A brief return to D-flat major occurs at m. 75 before a prolongation of the dominant of B-flat major (83-91), leading to a return of the rondo theme in that key. In most sonata-rondo forms the rondo theme reappears in the tonic key. In this case, however, it returns on the dominant. This rondo theme contains opening material only; the principal thematic material does not reappear.

132 Eric Werner states that this quartet is “the last instrumental composition in which Mendelssohn still operates with cyclic ideas.” According to Werner the principal theme of the third movement appears in the finale as the secondary theme. See Werner, 360. While the contours of the two melodies bear a resemblance, they are set very differently, with different harmonies; the S theme in the final movement does not bring to mind the principal theme of the third movement.

88

EXAMPLE 3.11: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 4, mm. 54-70.

89 DIAGRAM 3.16: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Molto Intro- a Allegro con 4/4 O E 1 duction fuoco Section 1

(expo, part P 5

1)

O 14

extension 19-24 of O

P 24

T 29

P-derived F 36 material

a P in cello E 54

lyrical a D 58 melody in

vln. 1 a 1st episode S IV/D 62

a e 70

a D 75

a Rondo R V/B

a from mm. B 106-131 11-12

90 DIAGRAM 3.16: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

a arpeggios 2nd episode P frag. B 129 in all inst.

a Rondo O + N E 131 N in vln. 2

half- cadence in

P frag. 158 a D

O G 164

P 169

O 170

P + O 171-189 frags. Homo- P frag. 190 rhythm

S F 195

prep. for a recap, V/E 205 material from m. 75 Section 4 a O + N E 231 (recap)

P + O 239

Homo- P 251 rhythm

91

DIAGRAM 3.16: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

P frag. 255

S 270

material

T 276 from mm.

75 and 205 soloistic material derived Coda 292 from O + P-related theme

The second episode begins at m. 106 in B-flat major (the same key as the preceding rondo section). A fragment of the P theme (from mm. 11-12) appears at the start of this section and is treated developmentally. This section, which continues to m. 131, has a very sparse texture, dominated by arpeggios derived from the opening material that alternates among all the instruments and pizzicato notes in the viola and cello. Toward the end of the passage (m. 129) all instruments have the scale fragments. This episode is harmonically stable, remaining firmly in the key of B-flat major until m. 116, where, over a B-flat pedal in the cello, the harmony moves to a vii07 of F (the dominant of B-flat), to the dominant of E-flat (m. 121). Although this section at first seems developmental, that is mainly an impression given through the texture and the treatment of the material rather than a product of any harmonic instability. The rondo section returns at m. 131 with the opening material in the first violin in the tonic, E-flat major. Although the viola and cello have accompaniment material similar to that found in the beginning of the movement, the second violin has new lyrical material (N) (see Example 3.12). Immediately after the N material a restatement of the P material occurs at m. 136 in the first violin, imitated in the cello at m. 139 and in the second violin at m. 140. Although the rondo sections usually are the most harmonically stable in a sonata-rondo form,

92 this section is developmental, the most unstable section of the movement. Imitation and juxtaposition of fragments of P and O continue throughout this section. In m. 159 fragments of P are juxtaposed in all four instruments (see Example 3.13). The opening material returns in the first violin at m. 166 and moves to G major (m. 164). Two measures later, at m. 169, a fragment of the P material is heard in unison in the second violin, viola, and cello, while the first violin has a fragment of P immediately followed immediately by a fragment of O (m. 170). Fragments of P and O continue to be found in all four instruments to m. 190, where a fragment of the P material homorhythmically returns in all instruments. Material from the first episode returns with the S theme in F minor at m. 195. Preparation for the recapitulation begins at m. 205 with B-flat major chords, the dominant of E-flat major, with material from m. 76. The dominant pedal in the cello continues to m. 223. The recapitulation begins at m. 231 with opening material in the tonic and N material in the second violin until m. 235. The P material returns in the first violin at m. 239, over O material in the second violin and viola. The P material returns homorhythmically in all instruments at m. 251, and by m. 255 fragments of the P material are found in the first violin over tremolos in the second violin and viola. The S material reappears at m. 270, followed by the transitional material (m. 276) originally found at m. 75 and again at m. 205, leading to the coda. The coda begins at m. 292 with soloistic figuration derived from O in the first violin. This figuration, however, acts as accompaniment to a new coda theme stated in the three lower instruments, related to the P theme. The solo figuration in the first violin over the melody in the other instruments continues to the final unison measures of the movement.

93 EXAMPLE 3.12: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 4, mm. 131- 35.

94 EXAMPLE 3.13: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 3, mvt. 4, mm. 159- 90.

95

96

Contradictions in the World of the Work Evocation of religious contemplation is brought into the world of the op. 44 no. 3 in the third movement. This movement belongs to the religious adagio type, a category originally associated with character pieces for organ. The religious adagio, notable for its slow tempo, homophonic texture, and melody supported by a “predictable and lifeless chordal accompaniment,” often appeared in incidental service music for the early nineteenth-century Protestant church.133 The purpose of this type of composition was to create a devotional atmosphere which would not be interrupted by music that draws attention to itself through complex compositional forms or technical difficulty. To that end the harmony in this movement is largely static, with particularly quiet dynamics. The appearance of a new melody in the development is not uncommon in the religious adagio and serves to prevent the movement from becoming so static that drowsiness, rather than contemplation, results. Paradoxes Specific to the Work As in op. 44 no. 2, the paradoxes within op. 44 no. 3 seem to consist of misdirection. The P material in the first movement, mm. 1-10, is in E-flat major, ending with a half cadence, followed by a fermata. This fermata makes the preceding measures sound like an introduction rather than like principal thematic material, and this impression is further reinforced by the material in m. 11 after the fermata. At m. 11 the P material is repeated but modulates to F minor, which initially sounds like a transition. After several measures in F minor, however, E-flat major returns at m. 28. Pa appears at m. 32 treated imitatively, which again sounds like transitional material. This material, however, emphasizes the tonic and dominant and therefore remains

133 Robert C. Mann, “The Organ Music,” in The Mendelssohn Companion, edited by Douglass Seaton (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2001), 626.

97 harmonically stable. The transition does not begin until m. 38. The coda, with its developmental section, contributes to the sense of misdirection prevalent in all the quartets of op. 44. This texturally and harmonically interesting section creates a situation where the coda, instead of emphasizing the tonic, actually undermines the sense of conclusion. In the second movement a paradox concerning texture occurs. Polyphony is juxtaposed with homorhythm, and this is especially noticeable at m. 276, where not only is the texture homorhythmic but all voices appear in unison. A positively jarring effect results. The second movement as a whole provides another example of misdirection. Although the movement begins with a rounded binary form, the expectations of a traditional scherzo and trio are denied. After the rounded binary form the movement continues not with a trio but with a fugato. The movement follows no conventional formal structure, which is especially surprising given the title of Scherzo and the opening part in rounded binary form. Paradoxes in the final movement include unexpected deviations from a standard sonata- rondo form. Within the first appearance of the rondo section (mm. 1-62) there is opening material followed by the principal thematic material. At m. 14 the O material is repeated with an extension (mm. 19-24). The principal thematic material follows again at m. 24. The rondo section is thus essentially stated twice before the transition to the contrasting section begins. An example of harmonic misdirection occurs between m. 54 and m. 70. The harmony meanders through E-flat minor (m. 54), D-flat major (m. 61) to the subdominant of D-flat (m. 62), and the dominant of E-flat major (m. 69) to E-flat minor (m. 70). Measures 54 to 70 have no structural function; the downbeat of m. 70 could just as well have been heard at m. 54. The first episode (m. 62) is in the subdominant of D-flat major in an E-flat major movement. It would be more usual to move to the key area of greatest tension, the dominant, rather than to the subtonic. Harmonic deviations from sonata-rondo form continue with the return of the rondo section in B- flat major instead of the tonic E-flat major. In a typical sonata-rondo all statements of the rondo theme appear in the tonic.134 The third rondo section (m. 131) is paradoxical in that it is harmonically stable but texturally developmental. This is another example of formal misdirection, and its position in the final movement of op. 44 gives it a particular emphasis.

134 The return of the main theme in a key other than the tonic characteristically occurs in ritornello form, characteristic of the Baroque concerto, but not in the classic rondo.

98 Paradoxes concerning harmonic movement, texture, and conventional genre expectations all occur. Perceivable World of the Work: op. 44 no. 1 In April of 1838 Mendelssohn and his family (Cécile and their first child, Carl) traveled from Leipzig to Berlin. Mendelssohn’s family had not met Cécile during their courtship, and none was able to attend the wedding. This was therefore the first meeting between the Mendelssohn family and Cécile. Although the long wait to meet Cécile caused tension, it does not seem to have stemmed from any objection to Cécile herself but rather from the circumstances that prevented an earlier meeting between Mendelssohn’s family and his bride.135 In July Mendelssohn directed the Lower Rhine Music Festival held in Cologne. Mendelssohn’s quartet in D major op. 44 no. 1 was completed on 24 July 1838. On 30 July 1838 Mendelssohn wrote from Berlin to the violinist Ferdinand David that “I have just finished my third Quartet, in D major, and I would like it a lot if it pleased you too. I almost believe it will, since, it appears to me, it is more fiery and more grateful to the players than the others.”136 In a letter to Hiller dated 17 August 1838, Mendelssohn wrote, “My third violin quartet in D, is finished; the first movement pleases me beyond measure, and I wish I could play it to you,-especially a forte passage at the end which you would be sure to like.”137 The Work Molto Allegro vivace This string quartet opens with a movement marked Molto Allegro vivace, with the principal thematic material beginning in the first measure in D major (see Diagram 3.17). The P material, in the first violin, consists of a rapidly ascending arpeggio followed by descending dotted-quarter notes followed by eighth notes. After a half cadence on V of iii in m. 5, the P material repeats at m. 6 and yet again at m. 10, ending on a perfect authentic cadence (m. 13). The transition material (T) begins at m. 13 but at first remains firmly in the key of D major. The

135 Marian Wilson, “Mendelssohn’s Wife: Love, Art and Romantic Biography,” Nineteenth-Century Studies 6 (1992), 2.

136 “Ich habe mein drittes Quartett in D-dur und habe es sehr lieb, wenn es Dir nur auch so gut gefällt. Doch glaube ich das fast, denn es ist feuriger und auch für die Spieler dankbarer, als die anderen, wie mir scheint.” Ferdinand David und die Familie Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Aus hinterlassenen Briefschaften, edited by Julius Eckhardt (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1888), 94.

137 Hiller, 130.

99 T material consists of running eighth notes in the lower voices, while the first violin enters two measures later with an expressive theme. There is a quasi-improvisatory Eingang in the first violin at m. 31-35. The P material returns at m. 37. For the first several measures this sounds as if it is a repetition of the beginning of the exposition. After seven measures the harmony changes, and it remains on an F-sharp minor chord (iii in D) to m. 49. At m. 52 the actual harmonic transition begins in E major. The viola has a particularly prominent line, employing fragments of the P material. The T material found earlier (at m. 13) reappears and leads to the secondary key area (A major) at m. 72. The S material is striking; it is set homorhythmically (as opposed to the preceding material, which has a polyphonic texture), the dynamic marking in all four instruments is pianissimo, and it lies in the lower range of each instrument. At m. 90 a vii07 chord in E major (the dominant of A major) introduces fragments of P. Closing material appears in the first violin at m. 97.

DIAGRAM 3.17: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Molto Section 1 allegro 4/4 P D 1 (expo, part 1) vivace half 5 cadence

P 6 repetition

P 10 repetition

T D 13

vln. 1 15-17 enters Eingang in 31-35 vln. 1

100 DIAGRAM 3.17: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

P 37

Iii/D 49

harmonic P, T E 52-72 transition begins

Section 2 S A 72 (expo, part 2)

K 97

120

Section 3 P (frag.) 130 (develop)

T 132

material 136-39 from mm. 15-17

T1 140

T 148

P c 166 false recap

concerto- like 170 figuration in vln. 1

N 181

101 DIAGRAM 3.17: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

P (frag.) 202

V/D 222

Section 4 P D 230 (recap)

S 270

Coda 288

florid 329 passage for vln. 1

After a repetition of the exposition the development begins in m. 120 with fragments of the principal thematic material distinguished among the four instruments. The T material returns at m. 130 in the viola, joined by the second violin one measure later. At m. 132 the first violin enters with the theme heard earlier (in mm. 15-17); the cello echoes this theme in mm. 136-39. The T material continues, with a variation of the theme found in the cello at m. 140. At m. 148 the second violin has the T material. The three upper instruments trade this material to m. 165, where the first violin and cello have C major scales in contrary motion leading to a false recapitulation of the P material (in C major) at m. 166. The P material is presented in a manner similar to the opening of the movement, with tremolos in the second violin and viola. At m. 170 the first violin begins concerto-like figuration consisting of scalar passages and arpeggios. At m. 181 (see Example 3.14) the second violin and viola enter with new material (N); this is the only appearance of N. The lyrical impression of these measures is enhanced by the dynamic markings of piano and pianissimo, and by the pizzicato quarter notes in the cello. The direction leggiero in m. 188 for the second violin and viola contributes to the overall impression. A fragment of the P

102 material returns homorhythmically in the three lower instruments at m. 202, followed by P in the first violin at m. 203. This fragment is repeated in all instruments, leading to the conventional dominant preparation (mm. 222) of the recapitulation. The recapitulation, with the P material in the tonic key, occurs at m. 230. The recapitulation follows the events of the exposition in order. At m. 270 the S material returns, followed immediately by the coda, which begins at m. 288. A florid passage for first violin occurs at m. 329, marked con fuoco, and leads to fragments of P in the first and second violins. The movement comes to a close with multiple restatements of the P material in a sustained fortissimo passage, as mentioned in Mendelssohn’s letter to Hiller.

EXAMPLE 3.14: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 1, mm. 182- 87.

Menuetto: Un poco Allegretto The second movement, labelled Menuetto, has a tempo marking of Un poco Allegretto. This movement is in composite ternary form, each of its three parts consisting of a rounded binary form (see Diagram 3.18). This movement is structurally the most conventional among those of op. 44. The first part opens in the first measure with the principal thematic material in D

103 major. The minuet theme is a two-phrase melody in the first violin, with the first phrase ending on the tonic, while the second ends on a half cadence. The second part of the rounded binary form begins with the melody in A major (m. 19). There is a return of the opening in the tonic at m. 39. After a complete restatement of the theme, the first two measures appear in imitation, beginning in the cello (m. 54) and continuing with the viola (m. 56) and the first and second violins (m. 57) in paired voices. This section is repeated. The trio section, with its theme of running eighth notes, appears in the first violin at m. 64, in B minor, featuring soloistic figuration in the first violin. This sixteen-measure section is homophonic, with the lower voices holding sustained chords, and ends on the major dominant of B minor. The second part of this rounded binary form begins at m. 79, where the running eighth-note theme is transferred to the second violin and viola, while the first violin has new, more lyrical material. The trio theme returns in B minor at m. 113 over sustained notes in the second violin, viola, and cello. The texture becomes polyphonic, with the theme in all four instruments (m. 126). The return of the Minuet begins at m. 142 in D major. This is an almost exact repetition of the original Minuet section (without repetition) and is followed by a coda beginning at m. 205. The theme from the trio section returns, this time in G minor. The harmony alternates every four measures between G minor and D major (see Example 3.15). The viola and cello have the principal thematic material from the minuet at m. 213 until m. 217, when it returns to D major and remains in that key to the end of the movement (m. 225).

DIAGRAM 3.18: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Un poco A 3/4 a D 1 Menuetto Allegretto

b A 19

a D 39

in a 54-57 imitation

104 DIAGRAM 3.18: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

soloistic B trio theme b 64 figuration in vln.1 N, trio 79 N in vln. 1 theme

trio theme b 113

A a D 142

trio theme, trio theme Coda g 205 a in vln. 1

D 209

g 213

D 217

105 EXAMPLE 3.15: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 2, mm. 205- 25.

106 Andante espressivo ma con moto The third movement is in the style of a song without words but the form is a five-part rondo (see Diagram 3.19). The movement is in B minor with a tempo marking of Andante espressivo ma con moto. The R material is presented immediately in the tonic in the first violin, over a counter-melody (C) in the second violin consisting of running sixteenth notes. An accompaniment figure of pizzicato eighth notes alternating with rests that appears in the viola and cello contributes to the effect of lightness and motion in this movement. At m. 21 the transition begins with a repetition of the R theme, which moves to V/V in the relative major, D major. The cello has a prominent arpeggiated line at mm. 24-25. The first contrasting section begins at m. 37 with its own theme. This theme (X), marked cantabile, is found in the first violin and consists of a descending line of dotted-eighth notes followed by sixteenth notes. Retransition to the rondo section, through imitation, occurs at mm. 56-69. The R material then returns in B minor, marking the beginning of the second appearance of the rondo section. Transitional material appears at mm. 82-94; however, there is no movement to a new key. After a series of secondary dominants and diminished-seventh chords, the X material found in the first episode, again marked cantabile, reappears in the tonic key, B minor, at m. 95. This second episode is the longest section in the movement and sounds the most unstable. After a restatement of the X material the transitional material returns, without, however, actually modulating to a new key. The polyphonic texture of these measures (mm. 105-22), along with the dramatic dynamic contrast, gives a strong impression of motion and movement. Following a vii07 of the dominant, a German augmented-sixth chord, and a second inversion tonic chord, the first violin launches into seven measures of solo figuration reminiscent of a cadenza (m. 124), (see Example 3.16). The second violin and viola enter at m. 131 with an example of Mendelssohn’s elfin-scherzo style that continues in the cello at m. 134. The dominant of B minor is heard at m. 141, and an abbreviated return of the rondo section is found at m. 143 and continues to the end (m. 155).

107 DIAGRAM 3.19: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Andante expressivo R 2/4 P, C b 1 ma non con moto

transition R D: V/V 21

arpeggiated 24-25 cello line

st 1 episode X 37

through retransition 56-69 imitation

R R b 70

transitional material but 82-94 no mvt. to a new key

nd 2 episode X b 95

transitional material but 105-22 no mvt. to a new key cadenza- like 124-130 figuration in vln. 1 elfin- 131 scherzo style

V/ b 141

R b 143-55

108 Presto con brio The final movement of this quartet has a tempo marking of Presto con brio (see Diagram 3.20). It begins with opening material (O) presented chordally in all parts in the first measure followed by a rising unison passage in eighth notes. The principal thematic material of this sonata-form movement begins at m. 10. This quiet but lively theme is heard in the first violin over tremolos in the second violin and viola and quarter notes in the cello, and repeats at m. 18. At m. 22 a fragment of P appears, in the first violin, over a homorhythmic accompaniment in the three lower instruments. At m. 25 P is heard homorhythmically, eventually in all the instruments, followed by opening material at m. 30. A florid, soloistic passage derived from the O material in the first violin continues to m. 40, where the viola and then the cello take up the line. At this point the florid passage from the O material becomes a counter-theme to the transition, which occurs in the first and second violins. An agitated tremolo figure appears at m. 46, first in the cello, and then successively in all instruments, leading to the secondary key area, which begins at m. 61. The S material, in A major, occurs in the first violin over a tonic pedal in the cello. A variant of S appears in the viola at m. 74. At m. 81 P returns in the first violin, which leads to a florid, soloistic passage featuring the first violin, again derived from the O material, supported by a dotted-quarter-note, homorhythmic accompaniment in the three lower instruments.

DIAGRAM 3.20: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Intro- Presto con 12/8 O D 1-9 duction brio

Section 1 (expo, part P 10 1)

P 18

P (frag) 22

109 DIAGRAM 3.20: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

P 25

O 30

vln. 1 soloistic O-derived, passage 31- 40 T becomes counter- theme to T Section 2 (expo, part S A 61 2)

S1 74

P 81

soloistic O-derived 89-106 passage for vln. 1

A 107

Section 3 O 127 (develop)

P V/D 136

145 from m. 22

P (frag) 151

S 169

110 DIAGRAM 3.20: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

O 180

O V/D 204

Section 4 P D 208 (recap)

S 228

S 236

includes florid Coda O 290 passage for vln.1

111 EXAMPLE 3.16: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 3, mm. 124- 37.

The development section begins in A major at m. 107 with the opening material, followed immediately by the tremolo figure from m. 47. The O material returns again at m. 127, this time leading to the P material at m. 136 on V of D major. At m. 145 the fragment of P from m. 22 appears. The S material, set homorhythmically in the first and second violins and viola, returns at m. 151, and S occurs in all instruments at m. 159 over the marking cantabile. Beginning at m. 169 the first two measures of the O material are quietly repeated. At m. 180 O appears in imitation, heard in the first violin, followed by the cello (m. 183), the second violin (m. 185), and finally the viola (m. 187). The dominant preparation for the recapitulation begins at m. 204, followed immediately by the recapitulation itself, with the principal thematic material

112 in the tonic key (m. 208). The events of the recapitulation follow the events of the exposition, with S heard at m. 228, and again at m. 236. The coda begins at m. 290 with O material, that includes a florid passage for the first violin. Contradictions in the World of the Work Extra-generic associations referring to the genre of concerto occur throughout this quartet. Examples of concerto-like style are found in all four movements of this quartet. The opening of the first movement consists of a soloistic melody in the first violin with a particularly orchestral accompaniment in the second violin and viola. These two instruments have double- stop tremolos, contributing to the orchestral sound. At m. 31 the first violin has a passage that resembles the Eingang, that is a common feature of concertos. In this case the Eingang leads to a restatement of the P material, which again is soloistic in nature. The first violin has a concerto- like scalar passage, marked con fuoco, at mm. 118-19. Virtuosic figuration occurs again in the first violin at mm. 166-203, and the first movement concludes with more of the same figuration in the first violin from m. 354 to m. 374. In the second movement references to the genre of concerto are found in the second section of the composite ternary form. From mm. 64 to 77 the first violin has scalar passages over sustained notes in the lower instruments. Again, the double stops in the second violin and viola increase the orchestral effect of the accompaniment. This movement ends with more soloistic figuration over sustained notes in the three lower instruments. The third movement has an exceptionally clear example of extra-generic association with a concerto. At mm. 124-29 there is a cadenza for first violin over a tonic six- four chord that eventually resolves to the dominant. The final movement of this quartet is filled with soloistic figuration in the first violin. These quartets also demonstrate the influence of Mendelssohn’s friend and concertmaster, the brilliant performer Ferdinand David (1810-73). David studied violin with the virtuoso Louis Spohr and began touring at the age of 15. Mendelssohn and David met and became friends in 1825. In 1836 David was invited by Mendelssohn to become concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, and eventually David assumed the same duties at the Theater orchestra, the directorship of church music in Leipzig, and teaching violin at the Leipzig

113 Conservatory. He and Mendelssohn would work close on Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor in 1845.138 In contrast to the concerto, which derives its essence from the opposition between a soloist and a larger group of instruments, the string quartet as a genre conventionally relies on all four instruments equally. The two genres are mutually contradictory. The social functions of both genres also create contradiction in the world of the work. String quartets as a genre invoke the world of amateur musicians performing in domestic situations; the string quartets of op. 44, however, were intended for the Gewandhaus concert stage and the orchestra’s eminent concertmaster. The concerto-like nature of op. 44 no.3 highlights the contradiction between domestic and professional performance. Paradoxes Specific to the Work The first paradox in this quartet occurs in the coda of the second movement. Beginning at m. 204 the harmony alternates every four measures between G minor and D major to the end of the movement (m. 225). The key of this movement is D major for the Minuet and G minor for the trio; the final measures move back and forth between these two keys. The thematic material, however, is taken entirely from the trio section. It is unusual to find the kind of clear alternation of keys, combined with thematic material taken from the trio section in the coda of a composite ternary form. Another paradox concerns harmonic misdirection in the third movement. From mm. 82 to 89 there is transitional material that does not, however, move to a new key (the previous key was the tonic, B minor). A series of diminished-seventh chords and secondary dominants are followed immediately by the S material, which returns in the tonic. It appears, through the use of transitional material, that there will be harmonic movements, but that expectation is confounded when the key remains B minor. Persona: op. 44 The persona of these quartets adopts a character that we might describe as a perverse guide139. In each of the quartets of op. 44 there is calculated misdirection within sections of the formal structure. (These areas are examined in the Paradoxes Specific to the Work found in the

138 Albert Mell, “David, Ferdinand,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), 7:49-50. 139 The character of Puck, from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the archetypal figure of a misguiding guide. Mendelssohn, who composed an overture to that play, would of course have been quite familiar with the character.

114 discussion of each quartet.) The persona repeatedly misleads the listener through harmonic misdirection that often consists of either delaying the arrival of an expected key, moving to a key that turns out to be the “wrong” one, or wandering through a series of chromatic chords before returning to the starting key. In these quartets not only can the activity of the persona be discerned; the voice of the persona is also evident. The voice of the persona emerges clearly in several places through allusions to vocal style. In each case it is the melodically-oriented and more lyrical line that brings attention to the vocal aspect of a particular passage. The vocal “signature” of the persona appears either immediately before, after, or occasionally simultaneously with the harmonic misdirection that is the activity of the persona. The narrative voice of the persona thus exists outside the formal structure of the work, allowing it effectively to draw attention to the main paradox of these quartets, that is the dual nature of the persona; i.e, the voice of the persona and the activity of the persona. One example of the voice of the persona is found in the first movement of op. 44 no. 1 at m. 181.140 The second violin and viola are paired in a sustained lyrical line supported by pizzicato quarter notes in the cello and rapid scalar passages in the first violin. This new melodic material (N) appears immediately after harmonic misdirection occurs in the form of a false recapitulation. The persona appears as if to say “Here I am,” directly after the listener has been misled. Another example of the voice of the persona is found in the second movement of op. 44 no. 2, in mm. 141ff and 217ff. In both instances the texture changes from polyphonic to homophonic, with the melody in the viola. Polyphonic texture predominates in this particular movement, and the sudden change of texture is arresting. Measures 141ff and 217ff each belong to separate retransitions back to an A section of sonata rondo form. Through a drastic change in texture and melodic instrument the homophonic viola melody interrupts the narrative and draws attention to the persona. The final movement of op. 44 no. 3 contains another example of the voice of the persona. At m. 54 the first violin has a lyrical and predominantly conjunct melody marked cantabile. The voice of the persona is expressed through this song-like melody. The line (V) is a counter-

140 The string quartets of op. 44 have previously been referred to in the order in which they were composed. In this section, however, they will be considered as a cycle and so will be discussed in the number order in which they appear in op. 44.

115 melody to the principal thematic material heard in the cello and is accompanied by tremolos in the second violin and viola. It occurs immediately prior to the first episode of a sonata-rondo form. The episode has its own theme (S). In this instance not only does the voice of the persona appear, but so does the activity of the persona. The key at the downbeat of m. 54 is E-flat minor, the same key that begins the episode. Harmonically the episode could have begun at m. 54; there is, however, a delay of eight measures. This delay is another example of the activity of the persona, harmonic misdirection, while the particularly vocal aspect of the first violin line indicates the presence of the voice of the persona. The two aspects of the persona contribute to an understanding of how the complete persona is manifested in op. 44. The activity of the persona is concerned with misdirection, while the voice of the persona manifests its presence. The voice of the persona says, “I am here,” while the activity of the persona misdirects the listener. In both opp. 13 and 12 the persona directed attention to the main paradox in each work. In this case the two aspects of the persona are used to draw attention to the main paradox of op. 44, that musical passages that should guide the listener deliberately mislead. The persona draws attention to itself rather than to other paradoxes, and that is the main irony of the work. Through the persona’s misguiding guidance attention is focused directly on the persona, rather than on any of the other paradoxes. Transcendence In these quartets transcendence operates on two distinct levels. The first is the misguiding guidance of the persona, based within the music itself. The harmonic misdirection prolongs the uncertainty of the expected events in the quartets, preventing the listener from becoming too comfortable. This uncertainty, caused by the actions of the persona, distances the listener from the work, and causes the actions of the persona to be evident. The presence of the persona is pushed to the forefront of the listening experience. The second aspect of transcendence has to do with the paradox inherent within the persona itself. That the persona contains two differing aspects reminds the listener that the persona is not necessarily so easily identifiable. The transcendent understanding embodies the idea that a persona is not necessarily reliable, and emphasizes the need to watch out for deception even from a persona. The idea that a persona, like a person, is defined not by what they say, but rather what they actually do is reinforced.

116 Op. 44 is a relatively rare example of three string quartets published together as a set. Mozart and Haydn often published string quartets in groups of six. Beethoven’s String Quartets (Razumovsky) op. 59 were the first published as a set of three, and may have served as an example for Mendelssohn. Beethoven completed these quartets during the final months of 1806.141 Mendelssohn’s other quartets (opp. 13, 12, and 80) were all published as single works. It is possible that one of the reasons Mendelssohn chose three quartets for op. 44 is that the multiple quartets allow more opportunities for an expanded view of the persona. String Quartet in F Minor, op. 80 The Perceivable World of the Work Mendelssohn’s last eighteen months were particularly busy. On 26 August 1846 he conducted the premiere of his oratorio Elijah in Birmingham, England. The final months of 1846 were occupied by his plans to compose an opera and also with the direction of the Leipzig Conservatory, which he had founded in 1843. In April of 1847 Mendelssohn made his final journey to England to conduct six more performances of Elijah. While he was in England he attended Jenny Lind’s London debut and a reception at Buckingham Palace, where he visited with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.142 On 14 May 1847 Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny Hensel died at her home in Berlin while rehearsing her brother’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht for a Sunday musicale. The news upset Mendelssohn greatly. In hope of finding comfort in each other’s company, and in surroundings unaffiliated with memories of Fanny, Mendelssohn and his brother Paul, along with their families, spent the summer (June to September) in Interlachen, Switzerland. During this time Mendelssohn composed his String Quartet in F minor, published posthumously in 1850 as op. 80, as well as songs and English motets.143 In September Mendelssohn and his family returned to Leipzig. Mendelssohn intended to conduct the first German performance of Elijah on 3 November, but he canceled those plans after he visited the family home on Leipzigerstrasse in Berlin. According to Sebastian Hensel, this visit “upset him again, and destroyed all the good effects produced by the journey to

141 Maynard Solomon, Beethoven (New York: Schirmer Books, 1977), 200.

142 Werner, 474-75.

143 Ibid.

117 Switzerland.”144 In early October Mendelssohn was afflicted with several nervous attacks, and on 1 November he suffered a stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. A second stroke occurred two days later, and Mendelssohn died the evening of 4 November.145 Op. 80 is often referred to in biographical terms, and Mendelssohn’s contemporaries specifically associated this quartet with Fanny Hensel’s death. Sebastian Hensel wrote, Felix and Paul, with their families, met Hensel in Switzerland, and endeavoured to find support and comfort from imperishable nature, but they did not succeed. Any one reading Felix’s letters after Fanny’s death and hearing the intensely sad, passionate F-minor quartet which he wrote in the summer of 1847, will at once feel the change which had come over his spirit: the blow was mortal.146

Henry Chorley (1808-72), the English writer on music, spent the last days of August with Mendelssohn in Interlachen. Chorley reported, He had composed much music, he said, since he had been at Interlachen; and mentioned that stupendous quartett in F minor which we have since known as one of the most impassioned outpourings of sadness existing in instrumental music – besides some English service music for the Protestant church. “It has been very good for me to work,” he went on, glancing for the first time at the great domestic calamity (the death of Madame Hensel), which had struck him down, immediately on his return from England; “and I wanted to make something sharp and close and strict” (interlacing his fingers as he spoke) – “so that church music has quite suited me. Yes: I have written a good deal since I have been here – but I must have quiet, or I shall die!”147

A diary entry of Moscheles dated 5 October 1847 reads, I spent the whole afternoon with Mendelssohn. He was pleased to see me, and we chatted confidentially on art and artists and Leipzig affairs generally. He played me a manuscript Quartet for string instruments in F minor, the four pieces of which are all in that somber key. The

144 Hensel, 2: 338.

145 Ibid., 2: 489-90.

146 Ibid., 2: 337-38.

147 Henry F. Chorley, Modern German Music, new introduction and index by Hans Lennenberg (New York: Da Capo, 1973), 2: 387-88.

118 impassioned character of the whole seems to me in keeping with his present frame of mind, shaken as he is to the heart’s core by the loss of his sister.148

Julius Benedict (1804-85), a German composer with a long career in England, expressed similar sentiments about op. 80:

It would be difficult to cite any piece of music which so completely impresses the listener with a sensation of gloomy foreboding, of anguish of mind, and of the most poetic melancholy, as does this masterly and eloquent composition.149

Stephen S. Stratton echoes earlier themes with his comment During the summer Felix sought relief in work. Many of the greatest creations in musical art have been wrung from the heart in times of keenest suffering; so Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor, op. 80, written at Interlachen, has a depth of expression, a sad passion, not found in his earlier works of the same class.150

Mendelssohn’s grief at his sister’s death and the F-minor quartet continue to be intertwined. According to Werner, “The Quartet is intentionally autobiographical, a great rarity in Mendelssohn. It is one long lament for his sister; one hears everywhere the cry of grief, hardly formalized, of the suffering creature.”151 And Krummacher states the work is “often linked with the sudden death of Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny, or with Mendelssohn’s premonition of his own death.”152 Mercer-Taylor writes of p. 80, “As always in times of mourning, Mendelssohn turned towards music for consolation – or at least distraction – undertaking what

148 Moscheles, 289-90.

149 John Horton, BBC Music Guides: Mendelssohn Chamber Music (Seattle: University of Washington, 1972), 61.

150 Stephen S. Stratton, Mendelssohn (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1901), 161.

151 Werner, 496.

152 Friedhelm Krummacher, “Mendelssohn’s Late Chamber Music: Some Autograph Sources Recovered,” Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays in their Music and its Context, Jon W. Finson and R. Larry Todd, editors (Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press, 1984), 80.

119 would turn out to be his last creative effort.”153 And R. Larry Todd notes, “Felix confessed a desire to return to the routine of composition; to dig and turn like a worm, he observed, was preferable to human brooding. In his diary he began to draft the strident scherzo of a string quartet in F minor.”154 From the time of its composition onward, the reception history of op. 80 indicates that it is specifically an expression of Mendelssohn’s grief. The Work Allegro vivace assai The first movement, with a tempo marking of Allegro vivace assai, is in sonata form (Diagram 3.21). It begins in F minor with opening material consisting of tremolos in all four voices (see Example 3.17). At m. 10 a fragment of what becomes the principal thematic material is found in the first violin, imitated in the second violin and viola, and in the first violin and cello at mm. 12 and 13. This interruption ends at m. 15 with the resumption of the opening material, which continues to m. 23. The P theme, this time treated homophonically, returns at m. 24, with accompaniment in the second violin and viola. This section remains in homophonic texture, with the P material in the first violin supported by the three lower instruments. The transition section, beginning in m. 41, is based on triplets alternating between pairs of instruments. The triplets begin in the viola and cello and continue to alternate with the first and second violins to m. 46. The dominant of A-flat major is reached at m. 51, immediately prior to the appearance of the S material in the relative major, A-flat, in the first violin (m. 53). The S theme is the most lyrical and rhythmically regular material in this movement. The rhythmically- oriented closing material appears in the first violin in m. 69. At m. 73 whole notes, heard in the first violin and followed by the three lower instruments one measure later, abruptly stop the so far constant motion of this movement. These measures resolve back to A-flat major by m. 76. The closing material returns in the cello at m. 78, and it is quickly heard homorhythmically in all parts (mm. 80-81). The whole notes from m. 73 are recalled at m. 82.

153 Peter Mercer-Taylor, The life of Mendelssohn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 210-11.

154 R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 558.

120 EXAMPLE 3.17: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 1, mm. 1-23.

121

DIAGRAM 3.21: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Intro- Allegro 2/2 O f 1-9 duction vivace assai frag. of P 10-15 imitative

O 15-20

122 DIAGRAM 3.21: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Section 1 Homo- (expo, part P 24 phonic 1) texture

T 41 triplets

a V/A 51

Section 2 a (expo, part S A 53 2)

K 69

whole notes 73 cessation of motion

K 78

whole 82 notes recalled Section 3 a O B 96 (develop)

111

chromatic 150-61 harmonies Section 4 P F 173 (recap)

T 190

N 196

123 DIAGRAM 3.21: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

S 215

K 229

whole 233 notes

O 253

f 259 stretta

Homo- Coda Presto 299 phonic texture

The development section begins at m. 96 with a repetition of the opening material clearly in B-flat major at m. 102. At m. 111 P again appears, followed imitatively by the second violin and viola (m. 112) and the cello and the first violin (m. 113). Throughout this section (mm. 111- 141) only the first violin has a rapidly-moving line, while the other instruments provide an accompaniment derived from the P material. At m. 129 the second violin and viola are paired, arriving at the key of D major. Fragments of P are heard in the second violin and viola to m. 147. Octave double stops are found in the first violin (m. 143). The three lower instruments enter with tremolos reminiscent of the O material at mm. 144, 148, and the cello alone has tremolos at m. 150. An eleven-measure section (mm. 150-161) begins that is predominantly homorhythmic with the first violin staggered. It is harmonically chromatic, moving through the minor dominant of F, the dominant of B-flat major, and a diminished-seventh chord in C major before the opening material reappears at m. 161 on a diminished-seventh chord in F minor. This section is followed immediately (m. 173) by the recapitulation, with the P theme in the tonic key. This return is of material from m. 24. The T material returns at m. 190 with the triplets treated in the same manner as in the exposition. At m. 196 a new theme is heard in the cello, underlying the T theme in the upper voices. This theme consists of half notes ascending in thirds and

124 eventually leads to a restatement of the S material in the parallel major, F, at m. 215. After this point the recapitulation follows the events of the exposition. The closing material returns (m. 229), with a similar whole-note interruption (m. 233). The opening material resumes at m. 253, leading to the coda at m. 259, in F minor. The coda closely follows the closing section of the exposition, to m. 270, where there is a new tempo indication of Presto (see Example 3.18). This section is a stretta, a “climatic, concluding section in a faster tempo” comparable to those found in the finales of Italian opera and in the conclusions of such instrumental works as the final movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.155 The first ten measures are homorhythmic and largely in octaves. At m. 299 the texture becomes homophonic, with rapid eighth notes in the first violin, while the three lower instruments continue with the figure heard in the first part of the stretta. The movement concludes at m. 323.

EXAMPLE 3.18: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 1, mm. 290-98.

Allegro assai The second movement, a scherzo in composite ternary form, opens with an A section in rounded binary form (Diagram 3.22). The tempo marking is Allegro assai, and the P material is stated immediately in the key of F minor. This syncopated theme (mm. 1-16) is heard in the first

155 Don Michael Randel, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), 807.

125 violin against a homorhythmic accompaniment in the three lower voices. After a double bar with repeat sign (m. 17) there is an eight-measure section featuring material based on the syncopated P theme. Measures 25-32 contain new material (N), in C minor, presented in octaves in all four voices. At m. 39 the second violin and viola are in parallel thirds with a variation of the N material. The key of F minor returns at m. 47, preparatory to the return of the P material at m. 51. A return of material from mm. 13-15 is heard at m. 62 with a fragmented theme in the first violin with homorhythmic accompaniment. Closing material begins at m. 70. The A section concludes at m. 85. The B section begins in F minor (m. 86) with a repeated figure in octaves in the viola and cello, based on the N material from the A section (see Example 3.19). After a complete statement of the ostinato, the S material (m. 103) appears in parallel sixths in the first and second violins. The entire A section returns in F minor at m. 179. At m. 264 there is a coda featuring the N1 material from the B section. This material returns as it was originally presented, in octaves in the viola and cello. The S material appears with the ostinato, again in parallel sixths, in the first and second violin (m. 266). At m. 280 the viola, which had moved in octaves with the cello, separates from the cello through a one-measure displacement. At m. 289 there is a subdominant in eighth notes in the upper instruments over a tonic pedal in the cello. At m. 293 the viola has an A natural, creating an F major chord. The cello has a fragment of the ostinato at m. 296, followed by another F major chord in the upper three instruments (m. 297). The movement ends with all instruments on a pizzicato F in parallel octaves.

126 EXAMPLE 3.19: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 2, mm. 86-102.

DIAGRAM 3.22: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Allegro A 3/4 P f 1-16 assai

16 repeat sign

P-derived 17-24

N C 25-32

vln. & vla. N1 39 In parallel 3rds

f 47

127 DIAGRAM 3.22: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

P f 51

material 62 from mm. 13-15

k 70

B N1 f 86 ostinato

vlns. 1&2 S 103 in parallel 6ths

P f 179

N1 264 ostinato

parallel S 266 6ths

1-measure 280 displaceme nt

IV 289

F: I 293

F: I 296

F in all F 297 instrument s

128 Adagio The third movement is a rondo in A-flat major (Diagram 3.23).156 It opens with a tempo marking of Adagio, with the expressive P material in the first violin. The transition begins at m. 17 with a non-melodic ascending line in the first violin that is supported by a gasping homorhythmic accompaniment in the three lower instruments. The harmony moves to E-flat minor, and eventually to the dominant of E-flat major. The first episode, with its own shuddering theme (X), begins in m. 39, in E-flat major. A rhythmic change occurs at the first episode, from sixteenth notes to dotted sixteenth and thirty-second notes. The rondo section returns briefly in m. 50, with the R material in the tonic, A-flat major. The X material returns briefly, this time passing through the distant key of E major (m. 71). This is the most dissonant section of the movement. The theme from the first episode returns at m. 94. After a half cadence in m. 107 the R theme returns (m. 109) in the first violin. The final measures are marked dolce and feature the first violin.

DIAGRAM 3.23: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

a Rondo Adagio 2/4 R A 1-16

a a T E , B 17-38

a X E 39

a R A 50

X E 71

156 Moscheles asserts that this movement is in F minor (Moscheles, 289-90). Either Moscheles was mistaken or Mendelssohn substituted the A-flat movement for an earlier one.

129 DIAGRAM 3.23: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

X 94

a R A 109

Finale: Allegro molto The last movement of op. 80 is in sonata form with a tempo marking of Allegro molto (Diagram 3.24). It is in F minor with the P material beginning in the second measure. The cello enters first with a tremolo, the P material is heard in the first violin, and the second violin and viola enter in mm. 2 and 3 respectively. This syncopated theme comes to a half cadence in m. 9, followed by sforzando tremolos alternating between the cello (mm. 9 and 11) and the three upper instruments (mm. 10 and 12). The P theme is repeated at m. 18 and there is a deceptive cadence in m. 30 before moving to the transition at m. 31. The transition consists predominantly of tremolos alternating between the cello, and the violins and viola. The secondary thematic material (S) is a lyrical, four-measure theme in A-flat major heard in the first violin and imitated in unison by the second violin and viola (m. 49). The development section begins at m. 81, with tremolos in the cello followed by a variation of the P material in the first violin, in m. 82 in the second violin, and in m. 83 in the viola. The development continues with sections of sforzando tremolos alternating with variations of the P material. New material (N) appears at m. 214 in the first violin, and this is repeated four times to m. 236. The retransition begins at m. 237, with material that has the illusion of motion; this material is animated but with no rhythmic direction. The loss of rhythmic forward motion, transparent texture, and soft dynamics make this section of the development a low point. It leads to the dominant of F minor at m. 265, followed by the recapitulation at m. 269. The P material is heard in the second violin and viola, with tremolos in the cello. The first violin now has a prominent ascending triplet motion (see Example 3.20). The triplets are eventually taken up by all the instruments in turn, in a transparent texture

130 consisting of whole notes in the three other instruments. The coda begins at m. 375 with a restatement of both the P material and the triplet theme. The triplets become homorhythmic in all instruments at m. 395 to m. 400, where all motion stops with the appearance of half notes, with the dynamic marking sforzando, in all parts. This pattern of alternating motion and stillness continues to m. 405. Half notes are found in the second violin, viola, and cello, while the first violin has an ascending triplet line. At m. 425 triplet eighth notes reappear in the first violin. The P material returns in the second violin, viola, and cello at m. 427. The triplets in the first violin continue to ascend to the upper reaches of the instrument’s range. The movement ends with fortissimo chords at m. 461.

131 EXAMPLE 3.20: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 4, mm. 396-461.

132

133

DIAGRAM 3.24: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 1 Allegro tremolo in (expo, part 2/4 f 1 molto cello 1)

P f 2

V 9

sforzando 9-12 tremolos

P 18

T 31

134 DIAGRAM 3.24: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 80, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 2 a (expo, part S A 49 2) Section 3 (develop- P1 81 tremolos ment)

N 214

illusion of 237 motion

retransition f: V 265

vln 1 Section 4 P F 269 ascending (recap) triplets homo- rhythmic Coda P 395-400 ascending triplets ascending 425 triplets

P 427

This movement, in particular, expresses tension in several ways. Dynamic markings of pianissimo and fortissimo are often sharply juxtaposed, creating a feeling of agitation. Sforzandos increase this agitated effect. The almost incessant use of syncopated material provides rhythmic propulsion to this movement that also generates tension.

135 Paradoxes Specific to the Work Mendelssohn’s contemporaries used many of the same expressions to describe op. 80. Hensel refers to op. 80 as “intensely sad, passionate.” Chorley states that it is “one of the most impassioned outpourings of sadness existing in instrumental music.” According to Moscheles op. 80 has an “impassioned character.” Julius Benedict found that the work has the “sensation of gloomy forboding, of anguish of mind.” Stratton refers to “a sad passion” in the string quartet. The terms “passion” or “impassioned,” and “sad” are always included in these descriptions. Mendelssohn’s own desire, according to Chorley, to create something “sharp and close and strict,” contrasts with “passionate” and “sad” to create a paradox.157 Convention and form are attributed to classicism, while nineteenth-century composers specifically employed contradictions of convention and form to achieve expression. Strictness and impassioned emotion are mutually exclusive, and the simultaneous exercise of both constitutes the contradicting paradox of the quartet. Four passages in op. 80 illustrate the paradoxical juxtaposition of both passion and strictness. The first of these occurs at the beginning of the first movement (Example 3.17). The rapid tempo and use of tremolo are conventional expressions of agitation. The statement of P in m. 9 is a polyphonic interruption of an otherwise homorhythmic texture, and this interruption creates tension that the return of the opening material does nothing to dispel. The agitated nature of the O material resembles a fantasia, while the strictness of the contrapuntal sections abruptly pulls the content back into a strict and structured texture. The work opens less like a rigorously structured sonata form (which it is) than like the more expressive fantasia. The second passage, also in the first movement, occurs at m. 290, and is the stretta section of the coda (Example 3.18). It employs a rapid tempo (Presto) with fortissimo dynamics, and it presents its first nine measures (mm. 290-298) in parallel octaves. In addition, the second violin, viola, and cello are in homorhythm throughout the remainder of the movement. Passion and energy are demonstrated in the rapid tempo and loud dynamics, as well as through the regular rhythmic structure. Sharpness and strictness are also evident, through the uniform parallel octaves. Each part is locked rigidly in step with the other parts. A third example is found in the trio section of the second movement (Example 3.19). The chromaticism of the ostinato in the piano dynamic, and the low registers of the viola and

157 Hensel, II: 338, Chorley, 387, Moscheles, 290, Benedict quoted in Horton, 61, and Stratton, 161.

136 cello express an intense feeling. The intensity is furthered by the crescendo and decrescendo in mm. 96-99, and the awkwardness of the rhythmic shift also adds to the effect. The ostinato itself provides structure through a repeated melodic and rhythmic figure that exemplifies strictness. The final instance is the coda of the fourth movement (Example 3.20). The triplet motion suddenly appearing in the first violin over statements of the P theme, the alternating measures of frantic motion and stasis found in mm. 395-405, and the extremes in range all produce an effect of passion and anguish. Sharpness and strictness come from the use of homorhythm. Part of that passage is not only in homorhythm but even more closely tied by parallel octaves. Homorhythm, sometimes in parallel intervals, appears consistently in the lower instruments until the end, producing a frantic, yet at the same time a constrained effect. One inherent way in which op. 80 expresses sharpness, closeness, and strictness is through the genre itself. The genre history of the string quartet indicates a relatively strict formal structure such that expressions of personal emotion in the genre (as, for example, in some of Beethoven’s late quartets) seem conspicuously extrageneric. All four movements of this string quartet are in established forms. The first movement is a fast-paced sonata form, the second is in composite ternary form, the third is a slow five-part rondo, and the quartet concludes with a sonata form marked Allegro molto. The form of the quartet thus reins in the emotionalism inherent in the content of the work. This quartet incorporates expressions of passion and intensity into the form, and then subjects these to the structure and restraint of the formal conventions of the genre. Contradictions in the World of the Work Thus the overarching contradiction in the world of this work is the genre itself to contain the expression of intimate, profound feeling, for a string quartet is not the obvious choice to express intensely personal emotions. More than most genres it tends to sublimate emotive content, and it is not a genre that necessarily and self-evidently pushes emotions out to the forefront. Further, Fanny herself never completed a string quartet.158 As a pianist she would not have played one, again making the choice of genre as an expression of her brother’s grief for her unexpected.

158 Fanny’s published works include songs for voice and piano, piano pieces, and a piano trio. While she did work on a string quartet in 1834, it was left incomplete and never published. See The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn, 681.

137 The incongruity of the genre of op. 80 has often been remarked upon. Several scholars have commented that the genre of string quartet does not provide a large enough scope for this piece. Werner writes, “Only in symphonic garb would the work have the desired effect.”159 Radcliffe finds that “regarded purely as quartet writing, this is not a good work; and it seems more than any of the others to cry out for a spacious medium”; specifically he finds that the finale “like the first movement, is frankly orchestral in texture, but has real energy and passion.”160 According to Vitercek, “The part-writing is often so stark that the work looks (and to a certain extent sounds) more like a sketch for a quartet than a finished work.”161 All of these statements indicate a perceived discrepancy between the genre and the content of op. 80. Persona Unlike in other string quartets by Mendelssohn the persona in this case is identified not only through the music itself but also by the comments made by the composer’s friends and contemporaries. All of the individuals who have written about op. 80 have assumed the persona is a mourner, and, as we noted at the outset, Mendelssohn’s contemporaries viewed this quartet as an expression of grief. According to Sebastian Hensel, “Any one hearing the intensely sad, passionate F-minor quartet which he wrote in the summer of 1847, will at once feel the change which had come over his spirit: the blow was mortal.” Moscheles wrote about this quartet that “The impassioned character of the whole seems to me in keeping with his present frame of mind, shaken as he is to the heart’s core by the loss of his sister.” Julius Benedict commented that “It would be difficult to cite any piece of music which so completely impresses the listener with a sensation of gloomy foreboding, of anguish of mind, and of the most poetic melancholy, as does this masterly and eloquent composition.” And Stephen S. Stratton believed that “Many of the greatest creations in musical art have been wrung from the heart in times of keenest suffering; so Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor, op. 80, written at Interlachen, has a depth of expression, a sad passion, not found in his earlier works of the same class.”162 Further, according to an anonymous review published in Dwight’s Journal of Music, the quartet

159 Werner, 496.

160 Radcliffe, 101-2.

161 Vitercek, 314.

162 Hensel, II: 338, Moscheles, 290, Benedict quoted in Horton, 61, and Stratton, 161.

138 was written under the poignancy of the grief occasioned by a much-loved sister’s loss; it is heard under the regret, which nothing but the brightness of his genius that evokes it can dissipate, for the loss of Mendelssohn; it may be strictly called her Monody; it must be felt to be his own. By the power of his genius the great musician stimulates, enforces our sympathies; our appreciation of this power defines their object; we cannot but feel all the beauty and all the pathos it embodies of his music; that we feel it and that we know it to be him who causes us to feel it, makes him the subject of the sorrow that it sings.163

This statement is not about the biographical details of Mendelssohn’s life, but rather about the identity of the persona as perceived by Mendelssohn’s contemporaries. A close examination of the above quote makes this clear. “It may be strictly called her Monody” indicates that the reviewer identifies the persona as a grief-stricken Mendelssohn mourning the loss of his sister. Mendelssohn’s fictionalized persona is the “voice” of the sorrow of the quartet. This quote also indicates that Op. 80 can be experienced by later listeners as a lament for Mendelssohn himself. “It may be strictly called her Monody; it must be felt to be his own” makes the audience the mourners for Mendelssohn himself. “That we feel it and that we know it to be him who causes us to feel it, makes him the subject of the sorrow that it sings” reinforces the reviewer’s identification. Although Mendelssohn creates the persona out of the paradoxes specific to the work, this reviewer, as well as others, identifies the persona from a fictionalized autobiography rather than from the composer’s actual biography. Transcendence From Mendelssohn’s biography we know that his reaction to grief often included renewed attention to work. This was demonstrated as early as 1827, when the eighteen-year-old Mendelssohn, at the deathbed of his friend August Hanstein, composed a fugue in E minor eventually published as op. 35 no. 1.164 After his father’s death in 1835, in a letter to Julius Schubring, he wrote, “The only thing that now remains is to do one’s duty, and this I strive to accomplish with all my strength, for he would wish it to be so if he were still present, and I shall never cease to endeavour to gain his approval as I formerly did, though I can no longer enjoy

163 Dwight’s Journal of Music 3/8 (23 May 1853), 61.

164 R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 172.

139 it.”165 Mendelssohn stated these sentiments even more firmly in a letter to Pastor Albert Bauer, in which he wrote, As for myself, when I tell you that I strive to do my duty and thus to win my father’s approval now as I always formerly did, and devote to the completion of “St. Paul,” in which he took such pleasure, all the energies of my mind, to make it as good as I possibly can, – when I say that I force myself to the performance of my duties here, not to pass quite unprofitably these first days of sorrow, when to be perfectly idle is most consonant to one’s feelings, – that, lastly, the people here are most kind and sympathizing, and endeavor to make life as little painful to me as they can, – you know the aspect of my inner and outer life at this moment.166

Mendelssohn’s response to grief is clearly articulated; even though he found himself inclined to idleness, work, in this situation especially, is a moral imperative. The idea of work as a response to strong emotion remained constant throughout Mendelssohn’s life. After his sister’s death he wrote, “I force myself to be busy in the hope that hereafter I may become so from inclination, and that I shall take pleasure in it.”167 Lampadius wrote, “It is evident that he sought alleviation for his grief in creative activity. At first he did not succeed in producing new music; he wrote in a letter, during the first weeks after Fanny’s death: ‘I can only work mechanically.’”168 The transcendent content in this piece likewise demonstrates Mendelssohn’s response to grief. Rather than sinking into despair at the death of his sister, Mendelssohn chose to create a “sharp and close and strict” piece, in this case a string quartet. The persona’s response to strong emotion is not to deny the feeling but to create something that expresses itself in a rigorously restrained manner. The four musical examples examined earlier demonstrate how passion and sadness can be contrasted with “sharp and close and strict” music. In each example the musical texture or structure reins in the emotional aspects of the music. The expression of intense

165 Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847, edited by Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy, translated by Lady Wallace (Freeport, N. Y.: Books for Libraries, 1864, reprinted 1970), 85.

166 Ibid., 87-88.

167 Schima Kaufman, Mendelssohn: A Second Elijah (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1934, and N. Y. Tudor, 1936, reprinted Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1971), 305.

168 Wilhelm Adolf Lampadius, Life of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, William Leonard Gage, translator (London: W. H. Reeves, 1877), 135.

140 emotion within a work that tends to enforce strict traditional conventions is a moral decision; it prevents sinking into an abyss of despair, which Mendelssohn would have viewed as a moral failing. At the same time, however, the genre, with its conventions, allowed him to create a work that expresses itself intensely, but under tight restraint. In the case of op. 80 the genre of the string quartet, with its scoring limitations and conventional formal characteristics, enforces the restraint, while the content expresses sad and passionate emotion.

141 CHAPTER 4

ROMANTIC IRONY IN ROBERT SCHUMANN’S STRING QUARTETS

OP. 41 NOS. 1-3

Like Mendelssohn’s op. 44, the string quartets of Robert Schumann’s op. 41 were published as a set. Unlike Mendelssohn’s op. 44, they were composed within a very short time, only two months. In the following discussion, therefore, the section on the Perceivable World of the Work will serve for all three quartets of op. 41, followed by individual discussions of The Work, Contradictions in the World of the Work, and Paradoxes Specific to the Work. The Persona and Transcendence sections found at the end will, like the Perceivable World of the Work, serve for all three quartets. The Perceivable World of the Work: op. 41 nos. 1-3 On 18 February 1842 Robert and Clara Schumann left Leipzig on a concert tour of Bremen, Oldenburg, Hamburg, and Copenhagen. The primary purpose of the tour was to promote Clara’s concert career, but Schumann’s music was also performed; his First Symphony was on several programs. Robert, however, found it difficult to thrive in the shadow of his wife’s fame. That and his responsibilities to the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (he had been the editor since 1835) prompted him to return home from Hamburg on 12 March. Clara continued the tour as planned, and the two were not reunited until 25 April.169 After his return to Leipzig alone, Schumann concentrated on exercises in counterpoint and fugue.170 During this time he also studied the string quartets of Haydn and Mozart in score. The quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were heard at regular quartet gatherings in Leipzig.171 In a series of private morning gatherings quartets were played by the violinist Ferdinand David and other members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.172 Quartets played included

169 John Daverio, “Schumann, Robert,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2002), 22: 776.

170 John Daverio, Robert Schumann: Herald of a “New Poetic Age” (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 244.

171 Linda Correll, “Structural Revisions in the String Quartets of Robert Schumann,” Current Musicology 7 (1968), 89.

142 those by established composers, such as Spohr and Cherubini, and also those by a younger generation, such as the Dutch composer Johann Verhulst (1816-91), the German composer Leopold Fuchs (1785-1853), and Schumann’s friend the German composer and critic Hermann Hirschbach (1812-88). Schumann had for some time planned to embark on quartet-writing. Already in March of 1838 he had written that he was “looking forward to writing string quartets, since the piano is getting too limited for me.”173 In a letter to Clara dated 11 February 1838 Schumann wrote, “For the past four weeks I have done almost nothing except to compose. Much still lies within me. Next I will write three string quartets.”174 In the summer of 1839 he began two quartets, in E-flat major and D major. At about this time, however, Schumann and Clara had to resort to legal action for permission to marry over her father’s objections. These distractions prompted Schumann to write to Clara on 13 June 1839, “Am I not really diligent now? But I cannot think about composition at all. I have begun two quartets – I can tell you, as good as Haydn – and now I lack time and inner peace – nor will the next little while bring any of these.”175 The two quartets were never finished. In the summer of 1842, however, all three quartets that made up Schumann’s op. 41 were composed within a period of two months. On 4 June 1842 Schumann began sketching op. 41 no.

172 Five years earlier, in 1837-38, Schumann had written that the other members of the quartet were the violinist Karl Wilhelm Uhlrich, the violist Karl Traugott Queisser (1800-46), and the cellist Friedrich Wilhelm Ganser (1805-59). See Schumann, On Music, and Hermann Mendel, Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon: Eine Encyklopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften (Berlin: Robert Oppenheim, 1886), 8: 201 and 4: 354.

In an entry in their marriage diary Clara wrote on 13 September 1842, “My Robert surprised me with many things, but what gave me the greatest pleasure was the present of his 3 quartets, which he had David, Wittmann, and others play for me that very same evening.” Presumably that was the cellist Franz Carl Wittmann (1814-60). See The Marriage Diaries of Robert and Clara Schumann: From Their Wedding Day through the Russia Trip, edited by Gerd Nauhaus, translated by Peter Ostwald (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993), 172.

173 Daverio, Robert Schumann,184, also 246, and Jugendbriefe, 280.

174 “Seit 4 Wochen habe ich fast nichts als componiert. Vieles liegt noch in mir. Das Nächste ich mache 3 violin quartetten.” Robert and Clara Schumann, Briefwechsel: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, edited by Eva Weissmueiler (Frankfurt: Stroemfeld/Roter Stern, 1984), 1:100.

175 “Bin ich nicht recht fleißig jetzt? Aber zum Componiren kann ich gar nicht kommen: zwei Quartette hab’ich angefangen – ich kan Dir sagen, so gut wie Haydn – und nun fehlt es mir doch Zeit und innerer Ruhe – und die nächste Zeit wird diese auch nicht bringen.” Kritische Gesamtausgabe 2: 570-71.

143 1 in A minor. The sketches for op. 41 no. 2 in F major commenced on 11 June.176 After both quartets were sketched, Schumann went back and completed them. The final quartet, op. 41 no. 3 in A major, was composed between 8 and 22 July.177 All three quartets were completed by 29 July. Later in that same year Schumann also composed the piano quintet in E-flat major, op. 44; the piano quartet, op. 47; and, by 28 December, the Phantasiestücke for violin, violoncello, and piano, op. 88. In six months Schumann had composed six important chamber works. Schumann greatly admired Mendelssohn’s music, especially his string quartets.178 Schumann’s three quartets of op. 41 were dedicated “to his friend Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with heartfelt respect,” and Mendelssohn appears to have approved of them.179 On 3 December 1847, in a letter to the publisher Raimund Härtel, Schumann wrote,

My quartets, which you published, have regained a special meaning for me through the death of Mendelssohn, to whom they are dedicated. I still consider them the best works of my earlier period, and Mendelssohn often said the same to me.180

Another element of the perceivable world of the work is the changing nature of performance situations for the string quartet. As we have had occasion to observe in the previous chapter, throughout the beginning decades of the nineteenth century string quartets were intended for performance in a private home, for family and friends, or for a small invited audience. Schumann wrote in 1838, “the four members of a string quartet, unlike the members of a symphony orchestra, ‘constitute their own public.’”181 By the end of the 1830s the performance occasions for string quartets were changing. In Leipzig especially, quartets were

176 Gerald Abraham, “Schumann, Robert,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 16: 841.

177 Marriage Diary, 159.

178 Daverio, Robert Schumann, 253.

179 Tagebücher, 249.

180 “Meine bei Ihnen erschienenen Quartette haben durch den Tod Mendelssohns, dem sie gewidmet sind, besondere Bedeutung für mich wiedergewonnen. Ich betrachte sie noch immer als mein bestes Werk der früheren Zeit, und Mendelssohn sprach sich oft in demselben Sinne gegen mich aus.” See Robert Schumann, Briefe: Neue Folge, edited by F. Gustav Jansen (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1904), 450. Mendelssohn had died the previous month.

181 GS I:336, quoted in Daverio, 541-42.

144 performed in public venues. This changing aspect of quartets would inevitably affect their composition.182 One of the first performances of op. 41 no. 1 took place on Sunday, 8 January 1843, as part of a Musikalische Morgenunterhaltung at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The program also included Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Lieder by both Robert and Clara, Beethoven’s A-major Piano Sonata op. 101, and a Prelude and Fugue by Bach, as well as his Ciaccona for solo violin. This was not a public concert; only those invited were permitted to attend.183 Thus this performance represents the changing performance venues for string quartets. It was not domestic music-making for friends and family, and neither was it a public performance, but rather it must be considered somewhere between those two. Another mention of a performance of the quartets comes from 29 September 1842, when Schumann, in an entry in the marriage diary, wrote,

About September I still have to report that on the 29th David played my quartets for Mendelssohn, who passed through here after his Switzerland journey. The only ones present were Hauptmann, who now [is] cantor at the Thomas School, and Verhulst; a small but good audience, on which the music did seem to have an effect. Mendelssohn told me later while leaving that he cannot really explain to me how much he likes my music. That made me very happy; since I consider Mendelssohn the best critic; of all living musicians he has the clearest vision.184

This example again highlights the changing nature of the performance of string quartets; the audience is a small group of invited individuals, either professional musicians or composers. The occasion was not a public event but more closely resembles a private conference of professional musicians. Schumann’s aesthetics constitute another part of the perceivable world of op. 41. Schumann had firmly held views on the subject of quartet aesthetics. Particularly important to him was the independent nature of the individual voices “and the contrapuntal integrity of the whole.”185 He felt strongly enough about this to write to Härtel,

182 Daverio, Robert Schumann, 254-55.

183 Ibid., 254.

184 Tagebücher, 249.

145 The published parts of such works [op. 41 nos. 1-3] seem to me like a man split into four segments: one can’t know how to grasp or seize hold of him. . . . There are seldom four musicians who, without a score, would know how to understand the difficult [motivic/contrapuntal] combinations of musical works like these even after several play-throughs. What is the result? The players set the pieces aside after a cursory reading. With a score in hand they could more easily do justice to the composer. Therefore, I’m certain that a published score would help the sale of the parts.186

According to Schumann it is imperative that each player contribute to the whole in a meaningful manner. In order for this to happen, it is necessary that each player understand the interplay of the parts and the relationship of each part to the whole. To that end Schumann recommended the unusual step of publishing the string quartet’s score, not just the parts. Schumann also held a determined position regarding the genre history of the string quartet. He considered it a genre with not only a rich history but also an important future. The composer of string quartets must know the history of the genre, most especially the quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.187 Beethoven in particular has a unique place in the history of the quartet. In a review of Hirschbach’s quartets Schumann wrote, He hopes to merit the title of “poet” through his avoidance of stereotypical forms; in this, Beethoven’s last quartets serve as the starting point for the new poetic era in which he plans to distinguish himself.188

Schumann maintained this as an ideal for all composers of string quartets. He believed that “we should not repeat the same thing for centuries, but should also think about creating something new.”189 The composer, therefore, cannot merely imitate older models; he or she must be capable of new innovations creatively drawn from the works of past masters. In 1842 Schumann wrote of the string quartet in Germany,

185 Daverio, Robert Schumann, 248.

186 Ibid., 542.

187 Ibid.

188 Ibid., 266.

189 “Wir sollen nicht jahrhunderte lang dasselbe wiederholen und auch auf Neues bedacht sein”, in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 10 (1839), 134, quoted in Nicholas Marston, “Schumann’s Monument to Beethoven,” in 19th- Century Music 14/3 (1991), 248.

146 The Quartets of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven! Who does not know them and who dare cast a stone at them? Though it is definite evidence of the indestructible vitality of those creations that, after the lapse of half a century, they still delight all hearts, it is not to the credit of the recent artistic generation that in so long a period of time nothing comparable has been created. Onslow’s quartets alone found a response, and after him, Mendelssohn’s, whose aristocratic-poetic nature was especially adapted to this musical form; moreover in Beethoven’s later quartets treasures may be found unknown as yet to the world, and among which we may search for many years. We Germans are, therefore, not poor in quartets; but very few among us have known how to augment the existing capital.190

String Quartet in A Minor, op. 41 no. 1

The Work Andante espressivo The first movement is in sonata form, and although it begins in the key of A minor, the main body of the movement is in F major (see Diagram 4.1). The stately and expressive 29- measure opening section, labeled Introduzione, has a tempo marking of Andante espressivo and opens in imitative texture. A four-measure transition following that leads to the exposition, which begins (m. 34) in F major. The principal thematic material has four components, Pa and Pb, and Pc and Pd (see Example 4.1). This lively material, marked Allegro, contrasts sharply with the expressive introduction. The Pa and Pb material appear in mm. 34-35. Motive Pc and Pd first appear in mm. 50-51. The entire tonic area (mm. 34-75) constitutes a sort of rounded binary form, tonally closed at the end. This leads the listener to anticipate a variation form or rondo form, rather than a sonata form. At m. 76 the transition begins, with an imitative treatment of motive Pb set in a manner that suggests a dance. The secondary key area is reached at m. 99, with a restatement of Pc and Pd in C major. There is no independent secondary thematic material. The exposition continues with restatements of Pc and Pd through the first ending. The development (m. 151) initially has restatements of Pa and Pb in A-flat major, and all four segments of the principal thematic material appear by m. 166, used in imitation, juxtaposition, and repetition. A ritardando followed by an a tempo indicates a false recapitulation of Pc and Pd, not in the tonic but in A-flat minor (m. 207). The recapitulation, when it eventually occurs

190 Robert Schumann, On Music and Musicians, edited by Konrad Wolff and translated by Paul Rosenfeld (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1946), 68.

147 (m. 231), is an almost exact repetition of the beginning of the exposition. At m. 273, although there is no actual movement to a new key, transitional material is treated imitatively, again based on motive theme Pb. A restatement of Pc and Pd follows (m. 317) in the tonic. The movement concludes quietly with multiple restatements of Pa.

DIAGRAM 4.1: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Introduzion Andante imitative 2/4 O a 1 e espressivo texture

transition T F 30

mm. 34-75 Section 1 a rounded binary form, Allegro 6/8 Pa + Pb F: V 34 (expo, part tonally 1) closed at end

Pc + Pd 50-51

transition transition T 76 through imitation Section 2 (expo, part Pc + Pd C 99 2)

129

in imitation, Section 3 Pa, Pb, 151-206 juxtapositio, (develop) Pc, Pd + repetition rit. followed a Pc + Pd A 207 false recap by a tempo Section 4 a tempo Pa + Pb F 231 (recap)

148

DIAGRAM 4.1: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Pc + Pd F: V 267-68

transitional material but t F 293 no harmonic mvt.

Pc + Pd F 317

Pa F 368-73

149

EXAMPLE 4.1: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 1, mm. 34-55.

Scherzo The second movement is a Scherzo in A minor in the style of Mendelssohn (see Diagram 4.2). The movement begins with a fast tempo (Presto) in 6/8 meter. The dynamics and articulation also contribute to the Mendelssohnian “elfin-scherzo” style; the effect arises from the abrupt juxtaposition of loud and soft dynamics, and much use of sforzando, as well as through

150 the articulation, which contrasts staccato and slurred notes. The structure is a symmetrical seven-part rondo (RXRYRXR).

DIAGRAM 4.2: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Scherzo rounded Presto 6/8 R a 1-10 (Rondo theme) binary

E 11-18

a 18

mm. 27-34 T 27 repeat mm. 35-46 repeat, 1st episode X G 35 followed by a 2nd ending

R a 55

Intermezzo rounded 2/2 Y C 82-114 (2nd episode) binary mm. 98-113

repeat, followed by a 2nd ending

6/8 R a 113

X G 148

R a 164

151 The rondo theme itself (section R) has an ambiguous design. At first the form seems to be rounded binary. After the initial homorhythmic three-measure opening the rondo theme begins in the tonic. At m. 11 the key is E major (the dominant) and a secondary theme enters, followed by the return of the rondo theme in A minor (m. 18). While this E major section (mm. 11-18) could be thought of as the second part of a binary form, it might also be considered the contrasting (B) section of a ternary form. The harmony indicates a binary form, but the non- developmental and contrasting treatment of the material itself contributes to the perception of ternary structure. A transition to G major begins at m. 27 and continues to m. 35, where the first episode (section X) begins. This section, m. 35 through the first ending, is in G major with frequent emphasis on the Neapolitan. This section has a short, choppy theme, the first violin alternating eighth notes with the three lower instruments. After the transitional second ending the introductory measures return, leading to a return of the rondo theme (m. 55). After the restatement of the rondo section in the tonic at m. 55, the second episode, section Y, appears (mm. 82-114). This section is labeled Intermezzo. It adopts a rounded binary form and contrasts with the previous sections in that it is in duple time and a slightly slower tempo, as well as in its slightly more lyrical melody, heard in the first violin. This section begins in C major (the relative major of the main key of the movement) and tonicizes G major (the dominant of C) before returning to C major. The rondo theme returns at m. 113 and is an almost exact repetition of the opening rondo section. Section X, again in G major, appears at m. 148, followed by a return of the rondo theme at m. 164. The overall design gives an impression of a seven-part rondo that could almost be heard as a ternary form with the Y section serving as a somewhat independent middle part i.e., a Trio for a three-part Scherzo movement. Adagio The third movement, marked Adagio, is an arioso and, like the second movement, is a symmetrical seven-part rondo form.191 The movement opens with introductory material in D minor (see Diagram 4.3). In the first measure the cello enters with a sweeping ascending passage, followed by an intense and impassioned diminished-seventh chord sounded in the three lower instruments. The final measure (m. 3) of the D-minor introduction has the same ascending passage found in m. 1, this time in the first violin. At m. 4 the cantabile and stately rondo theme

191 Daverio analyzes this movement, as well op. 41 no. 3 movement 3, as strophic variations. See Robert Schumann: “Herald of a New Poetic Age,” 253.

152 enters in octaves in the violins in F major, accompanied by ascending sixteenth-note broken chords in the viola and half notes in the cello. The first episode (section X) begins at m. 11 with a new theme in the violins, while the accompanying figure in the viola continues (see Example 4.2). The key of B-flat major, the subdominant, appears at m. 13, with violins in parallel octaves and the cello partly in parallel tenths below the second violin. The parallel minor (B-flat) appears at m. 17. At m. 20 the rondo theme returns, in F major, this time with the melody in the cello. The second episode, section Y (mm. 26-43), is in D-flat major and has a conversational texture. The motivic material, derived from the arpeggiated sixteenth-note broken chords of R, passes through all four instruments until m. 32, followed by development of X material. Fragments of the R material return, leading to a full restatement of the rondo theme in F major at m. 44. The third and final episode, a restatement of section X, begins at m. 52. When the section X melody returns, it is adjusted to allow a close in F. This section ends with a poco ritardando at mm. 61-62. The final measures are a repetition of the opening: measure 63, in D minor, presents the same ascending figure in the cello as the first measure of the movement, followed once again by the same impassioned diminished-seventh chord. The ascending figure returns in the first violin at m. 65. The final measures of the movement feature a sweeping sixteenth-note line passed from the first violin to the viola over a final cadence in F major.

DIAGRAM 4.3: Robert Schumann String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Introduction Adagio 4/4 O D 1-3

R F 4

X 11

a B 13

a b 17

153

DIAGRAM 4.3: Robert Schumann String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

R F 20

a Y D 26

R F 44

X F 52

O D 63-65

F 66-67

154

EXAMPLE 4.2: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 3, mm. 10-19.

155

Presto The final movement, in sonata form, has a tempo marking of Presto. The P theme appears immediately in m. 1 in A minor (see Diagram 4.4). A new, violin-oriented theme begins in m. 10, with use of i (m. 10), V (m. 11), and N6 (m. 13), and exploits a heavily syncopated rhythm. The decidedly ethnic sound is evocative of the nineteenth-century conventional idea of Gypsy music.192 The transition begins in m. 35, and the secondary key area arrives with P1 on the dominant of the relative major (C major) in m. 43. While P and P1 are not identical, they are remarkably similar, and thus the movement’s form is appropriately described as monothematic. Both begin with two quarter notes separated by quarter rests. Those quarter notes are followed, in both cases, by a leap to a dotted half note and a descending line of eighth notes. P1 repeats in all four voices to m. 64, where a derivative theme appears (labeled P1A in Diagram 4.4), functioning as K. This theme is an augmented version of the beginning of P, combined with the descending line of P1. The development begins in m. 81 with motive P1A in imitation. P1A appears consecutively in all parts, supported by running eighth notes as before. The eighth-note motion ceases for almost the first time with the sudden appearance of half notes in all voices (mm. 140 and 144). The half-note chords are the Neapolitan (now in G minor) in second inversion. These chords are striking for two reasons: first, because of the cessation of motion, and second, because the perfect fourth between the viola and second violin is particularly dissonant. At m. 152 the eighth-note motion resumes, leading to the recapitulation. The recapitulation of P, which begins in m. 214, is followed immediately by the repetition of the syncopated, Gypsy-style tune. The theme used in the development section (P1A) returns again as K (m. 243). At m. 254 the key changes abruptly to A major, and there is a new tempo marking of Moderato. A drone in the first violin and cello supports the folk-like tune heard in unison in the second violin and viola. Then this ten-measure section (m. 264) is unexpectedly followed by what appears to be an exercise in first species counterpoint, with the cantus firmus in the viola (see Example 4.3). A return to Tempo I indicates the material that expressed the secondary key (P1) in m. 286. The movement concludes in A major with restatements of P1A.

192 See Jonathan Bellman, The Style Hongrois in the Music of Western Europe (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993).

156

DIAGRAM 4.4: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 1 Presto 2/2 P a 1 (expo, part 1) vln-oriented 10 theme

T 35

Section 2 P1 V/C 43 (expo, part 2) Supported by C:V 64 running

eighth-notes Section 3 P1A 81 imitation (develop) Cessation of g: 140 motion

g: 144

Running 152 eighth-notes resume Section 4 P a 214 (recap) vln-oriented 243 theme folk-tune Moderato A 254 with drone st 1 -species counterpoin 264 t

157

Tempo I P1 A 286

1A P 305

EXAMPLE 4.3: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 1, mvt. 4, mm. 253-284.

158

Contradictions in the World of the Work The most striking contradictions in the world of this work are the extra-generic associations in the final movement. The first extrageneric material is in mm. 10-17, which contain elements reminiscent of ethnic music, specifically Gypsy music, a musical style not normally found in string quartets composed during this time. These measures are violin- oriented, in a minor key (A minor), and exploit a syncopated rhythm. A second extrageneric passage appears at m. 254, the folk-like melody in A major in unison in the second violin and viola, supported by octave drones in the first violin and cello. Then immediately following this, at m. 264, comes the 22-measure section in first-species counterpoint. The inclusion of species counterpoint in a string quartet is contradictory because it brings an “ancient” vocal style into the modern, instrumental world of a nineteenth-century string quartet. Further, the juxtaposition of

159 the style of a strict sixteenth-century counterpoint exercise with a folk-like melody is particularly unexpected, and the deliberate placement of the two styles is striking. Paradoxes Specific to the Work The very first paradox that we encounter in this quartet is that the first movement begins in A minor, but after the first 30 measures the movement continues as a sonata form in F major. This gives the impression of having begun in the “wrong” key, when in fact it is the whole body of the movement that takes place off the true tonal center. One of the paradoxes addressed here is of form. The P theme is tonally closed, and it seems more like a song form or a binary dance form than is usual for the P material of a sonata form. This type of tonally closed material is usually more indicative of a rondo form than a sonata form. The seeming ambiguity serves to confuse the formal structure. A similar misrepresentation of form occurs again in the third movement of this quartet. It is in rondo form, but the sections are not tonally closed, making it based more on continuing thematic material than tonally articulated structure. Another paradox is the heavy emphasis on “learned” counterpoint. In the first movement the introduction, transition, and P1A material all invoke the learned style. The glaring exception is the P material, which is never treated contrapuntally. The lack of contrapuntal treatment of this theme contributes to the closed-theme, rondo-like effect. In the second movement a paradox can be found in the ambiguity of the formal structure. Although this movement is in rondo form, it at first appears to be ternary (Scherzo, Intermezzo, Scherzo). Another related paradox is in the insertion into a Scherzo movement of an Intermezzo, which would more typically constitute an independent movement as opposed to a section within a large movement.193 If the Intermezzo is not an independent piece, then one might expect it to form the B section of a ternary form. In this case, however, it is merely the C section of a seven- part rondo form. String Quartet in F Major, op. 41 no. 2

The Work Allegro vivace The first movement, marked Allegro vivace, is in a modified sonata form (see Diagram 4.5). The movement begins with the cantabile P material heard immediately in the first violin in F major, accompanied by sustained notes in the second violin and cello and an eighth-note

193 Mendelssohn’s String Quartet op. 12, for example, has a second movement labeled Intermezzo.

160 pattern in the viola. There is no complete restatement of this material after the initial statement in mm. 1-8. The transition, beginning in m. 33, treats fragments of the P theme imitatively. At m. 65 there is a cadential gesture that consists of a dotted half note followed by an eighth-note descending line. This material appears on an E minor triad leading to G (m. 68). At m. 69 a quiet motive (m) is found in the first violin that is imitated in m. 70 in the second violin, followed by the viola in m. 73; the first violin has this motive again in m. 74. This material is in C major, but it never manages to establish that key. C does not even appear until the third measure (m. 71) of the motive. The secondary key area arrives with the dominant of C major at m. 76, leading to a restatement of the cadential gesture heard first at m. 65, this time in C major. At m. 81 the lyrical closing theme (K) is found, leading to the first ending or on to part 2. The development begins in G minor (m. 93) with fragments of the imitative material found at m. 69. At m. 97 fragments of the P theme are found in the first and second violins. After the music moves to C minor, returns to G minor, and eventually halts on the dominant of A minor, there is an abrupt appearance of a passage in homorhythm (mm. 169-73). This five-measure homorhythmic passage is sharply defined by its use of abrupt dynamic alternations (see Example 4.4). This section is followed by a variation of the cantabile P theme in the first violin, in C major (the dominant of F major), leading to the recapitulation of the P theme in F major at m. 177. The recapitulation follows the events of the exposition. After 32 measures (m. 209) there is a transition-like section that again features fragments of the P theme in imitation, moving to the dominant (C major) at m. 236. The imitative motive (m) then returns, beginning in the first violin at m. 237. Just as in the exposition, the K theme begins four measures later (m. 249) and leads to a seventeen-measure section in first-species texture (mm. 257-73). The movement ends with a perfect authentic cadence in F major. Andante, quasi Variazione The second movement is marked Andante, quasi Variazione. The qualifying term in its heading reflects the fact that this movement is not a traditional theme and variations, but rather a sixteen-measure theme followed by five independent segments in different figurational patterns (see Diagram 4.6). The theme (mm. 1-16) begins immediately, in A-flat major, in the first violin. This predominantly conjunct theme relies on rhythm and dynamics for movement rather than on the melody. After moves to the dominant of F minor and then to C major, A-flat major resumes at m. 16. The first new segment begins at m. 17 in the tonic with a rhythmic pattern in

161 the three lower instruments derived from that found in the presumptive theme. The first violin enters at m. 21 with the same rhythmic figure in a descending chromatic line. The next segment begins at m. 33 with dotted quarter-notes in the violin supported by conjunct eighth-note lines in the three other instruments.

DIAGRAM 4.5: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 1 Allegro 3/4 P F 1 (expo, part 1) vivace P treated Transition P 33 imitatively cadential e – G 65-68 gesture

m C? 69-74

Section 2 V/C 76 (expo, part 2)

cadential C 77 gesture leading to the first K 81 ending or on to section 3 Section 3 motive from g 93 (develop) m. 69

P fragments 7

Homo- 169-73 rhythmic passage

P C 174

Section 4 P F 177 (recap)

162 DIAGRAM 4.5: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material P treated Transition P 209 imitatively

C 236

motive from 237 m. 69

K 249

first-species 257-73 texture

F 276

EXAMPLE 4.4: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 1, mm. 169-76.

163 At m. 49 a more traditionally figured variation begins, with rapidly moving lines in the first and second violins supported by pizzicato arpeggiated triads in the viola and cello. The fourth segment (m. 66), marked molto più lento, consists of a theme that is so static that it seems almost the opposite of a melody. It is also the shortest of the five segments (twelve measures instead of sixteen). The non-melodic nature of the material might contribute to its need for brevity. The fifth segment (mm. 78-89), marked Un poco più vivace, is faster and the most melodic, with a short-breathed, dance-like rhythm. This section is also somewhat shorter than the previous ones.

DIAGRAM 4.6: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Andante, a “Theme” quasi Vari- 12/8 “Theme” A 1-16 azione

1 17

2 33

3 49

molto più 66 lento 4

un poco più 4/4 78 vivace 5

a tempo 12/8 “Theme” 90

poco più Coda 107-12 lento

164 An a tempo marks the return of the theme, at the beginning at m. 90. The reappearance of the opening material is a close repetition of the initial statement (mm. 1-16). A coda follows immediately, marked poco più lento, at m. 107. The coda is reminiscent of material found in the third segment. The movement comes to a quiet close at m. 112. Scherzo: Presto The third movement, a scherzo and trio, is in C minor (see Diagram 4.7). The spritely theme begins immediately in the first violin in the tonic (m. 1). This dance-like theme has a predominately homorhythmic accompaniment in the three lower instruments.

DIAGRAM 4.7: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Scherzo Presto 6/8 c 1

L’istesso mm. 89-105 Trio 2/4 a C 89 tempo repeat

b 107

mm. 107- a C 114 122 repeat

Scherzo 6/8 c 123 da capo

Integrates elements of Coda 2/4 a C/c 170 both Scherzo and Trio

The trio portion of this movement is reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s elfin-scherzo style. Marked L’istesso tempo, it begins at m. 89 in C major, with the theme heard in the cello at m. 90. The accompaniment in the three upper instruments includes eighth notes punctuated with eighth rests, alternating with scalar passages. The scherzo then returns, da capo, at m. 123. The coda

165 (m. 170) integrates elements of both scherzo and trio, similar in this way to the third movement of Mendelssohn’s string quartet op. 13 (see Example 4.5). Elements from the trio, specifically the theme in the cello, appear at m. 171, while the scherzo theme is found at m. 177. The scherzo theme moves to the second violin at m. 185. The accompaniment throughout has aspects from both the scherzo and trio, its parts shifting from instrument to instrument very rapidly.

166 EXAMPLE 4.5a: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 3, mm. 170-94.

167 EXAMPLE 4.5b: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 13, mvt. 3, mm. 138-63.

168 Allegro molto vivace The final movement of this quartet is marked Allegro molto vivace and is a sonata form in F major (see Diagram 4.8). The movement opens with a two-measure introduction that consists of rapid sixteenth notes in the first violin supported by the three lower voices. The lively P theme begins in m. 3 as a continuation of the introductory material. At m. 11 the P material repeats, leading to a half cadence at m. 18. The transition begins in m. 18 with a sweeping ascending sixteenth-note line beginning in the cello and moving up through each instrument to the first violin, reaching a2 and descending again to c1 (m. 23). This is then repeated as a sequence in mm. 23-28. At m. 28 there is a new rhythmic pattern that consists of syncopated eighth notes. Until now there has been a rapidly moving part throughout the movement; however, the material in m. 28 has the effect of slowing the pace of the movement. The rhythmic pattern appears in the first violin in C major, is repeated in each instrument descending to the cello (m. 31), and leads to the secondary area, in C major, at m. 36. The S material, marked dolce, appears in the first violin and is repeated in the viola one measure later. The secondary key area occupies just five measures, so that the finale’s form resembles that of the first movement. The closing material begins at m. 42, with K material that bears a vague similarity to the K material found in the first movement. Both themes involve octave leaps and have a similar rhythmic pattern.

DIAGRAM 4.8: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Allegro molto Introduction 2/4 O F 1 vivace

Section 1 (expo, part P 3 1)

T 18

syncopated V/C 28 rhythm

169 DIAGRAM 4.8: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Section 2 (expo, part S C 36 2) st leading to 1 K 42 ending or on to section 3 Section 3 a S A 48 (develop)

a S D 56

animato N N/F 123

N 134

Section 4 a tempo P F 150 (recap)

T 166

S V 179

repeated K 186 from m. 48

Coda più mosso N 192

After a repetition of the first part of the movement part 2 begins at m. 48 with the S material in A-flat major leading to D-flat major. Reappearances of the S material are interspersed with an ascending line that begins in the cello and is passed through all the instruments sequentially to the first violin. This continues to m. 123 where new material (N)

170 appears in the cello starting on the Neapolitan of F major. Compared to the first part of the movement the texture of the second part is far more static. With the appearance of the N material, however, that changes. This theme, marked animato, consists of running sixteenth notes, with a homorhythmic accompaniment in the three upper instruments. At m. 134 the N material is picked up by the other instruments, leading to the recapitulation at m. 150 with the P material in the tonic key. The recapitulation follows the events of the exposition. After a repetition of part 2 there is a coda, marked Più mosso. The coda is based on the N material, which is heard in the cello, just as originally presented. Paired voices, with the N material accompanied by eighth notes, occurs throughout the coda. Contradictions in the World of the Work One contradiction in the world of this work is the appearance of first species counterpoint in the first movement. Just as in op. 41 no. 1 the inclusion of an “ancient” vocal style in a nineteenth-century string quartet brings an older genre into a newer one and creates a contradiction. Another contradiction is the marking “quasi Variazione” found at the beginning of the second movement. A movement based on variations is not unusual in string quartets from this time, but the structural concept designated “quasi Variazione” here is sui generis. Besides merely being unusual, this movement begins as a theme with variations and then becomes something else entirely, a through-composed form. Paradoxes Specific to the Work A paradox in the first movement is the brevity of S material in a sonata form. The secondary theme and entire dominant key area in the first movement of this string quartet are barely established before the closing material appears. This occurs again in the final movement, where the secondary key area is all of five measures long. The short shrift given to the secondary key area in both instances is quite unusual. This emphasis, combined with the opening of the movement as a theme and variations which then becomes through composed, indicates a paradox concerning the formal structure of the movement.

171 String Quartet in A Major, op. 41 no. 3

The Work Andante expressivo The first movement is in sonata form (see Diagram 4.9) and begins with a languorous seven-measure opening section marked Andante expressivo. The harmony is not clearly defined but might be seen as a prolongation of the subdominate in A major. The principal motivic gesture (Pa), a two-note figure in a falling fifth, appears in m. 1 and again in the final measure of the section (m. 7). The main body of the movement begins in m. 8, marked Allegro molto moderato. Pb, incorporated into the theme with Pa at m.11, is a two-measure segment of ascending and then descending eighth notes. The sedate P theme, now with both a and b sections, appears in A major, cadencing clearly in m. 15. The transition (mm. 16-44) through imitation of new triadic material (T), arrives at the secondary key area in m. 45. The song-like S melody is in the cello, doubled by the first violin, in E major. At this point the cello is the highest voice in the texture. S is then repeated four times in a parallel period (mm. 46-54) answered in mm. 54 -62, and in mm. 62-70, again answered (mm. 70-78). At m. 90 the opening material reappears again (in A major), continuing to the repetition sign. The development starts by exactly repeating the beginning of the exposition, leading the listener to think it is a third repetition of the exposition. Only the first five measures of the development, however, remain the same as the exposition. The 52-measure development section continues to m. 154, where S is recapitulated in A. There is no recapitulation of Pa or Pb. The recapitulation follows the events of the exposition from S, with O (m. 196). Pb does not appear again after m. 148 (in the development section). Pa has only a few appearances after m. 145, and those are in the final measures of the movement, where the first violin has the falling-fifth figure (mm. 208-14) followed by the cello in the last measure of the movement.

172 DIAGRAM 4.9: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material unclear – Andante Prolon- Introduction 4/4 O 1-7 espressivo gation of IV/A Section 1 Allegro (expo, part molto 3/4 Pa A 8 1) moderato

Pa + Pb A 11

T 16-44

Section 2 (expo, part S E 45 2)

S 46-54

S 54-62

S 62-70

S 70-78

4/4 87-89

3/4 O A 90

st 100 1 ending

exact Section 3 Pa + Pb A 101 repetition of (develop) exposition

più Adagio Pb V/A 149

173 DIAGRAM 4.9: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 1.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 4 a Tempo S A 154 (recap)

4/4 194-96

3/4 O 196

Pa 208-14

Assai agitato The second movement, marked Assai agitato, is a scherzo in style but a theme and variations in form (see Diagram 4.10). The theme and each of the four variations is a closed rounded binary form consisting of a first part of sixteen measures, which are repeated and followed by a second part of thirty-two measures, also repeated. The movement begins in F- sharp minor, but the second part of each statement starts in D and the whole ends on F-sharp major. A playful theme begins immediately in m. 1 in the first violin over a homorhythmic accompaniment in the three other instruments. Variation 1 (mm. 49-95) has an agitated character, emphasized by the accents on repeated notes and the running eighth notes in the viola and cello. While the first and second violins also have eighth notes, they are punctuated by one- and-a-half-measure rests interspersed throughout the section. The rapid change in forces adds to the agitated character. The second variation (mm. 97-144) consists of imitation based on a rising fifth, heard first in the cello. Each instrument enters sequentially in two-measure units moving from lowest to highest voice. At m. 134 part 1 returns in the first violin. The constant motion found in the movement to this point is brought into sharp relief by a fermata over a half-measure of rest in the second ending (m. 144).

174 DIAGRAM 4.10: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Assai rounded Theme 3/8 a f# 1-16 agitato binary

b D 17

to 1st ending a F# 34 (m. 48) to 1st ending Variation 1 aV1 f# 49 (m.64)

1 bV D 65

to 1st ending aV1 F# 73 (m. 96) L’istesso Variation 2 2/4 aV2 f# 97 tempo

2 bV D 113

to 1st ending aV2 F# 134 (m. 144) un poco Variation 3 3/8 aV3 f# 145 Adagio

3 bV D 161

3 aV F#

Tempo to 1st ending Variation 4 3/4 aV4 f# 194 risoluto (m. 202)

4 bV D 202

4 aV F# 209

175 DIAGRAM 4.10: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 2.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

Coda F# 225

a E 233

F# 237

a E 241

F# 245

F# 255

The third variation (mm. 145-88) is marked Un poco Adagio and contains the first cantabile style heard in the movement. The melody, presented in the first violin, is reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s string quartet op. 44 no. 1, third movement (see Examples 4.6a and 4.6b). The melody is heard in canon in the viola, which enters two measures later (m. 147), while the second violin and cello provide a sustained accompaniment. Part 2 (m. 161) begins with the second half of the theme, this time, as in its first appearance, heard first in the viola but now imitated two measures later in the first violin (m. 163). This variation also ends with a half measure of rest. In effect the third variation is framed by silence. The fourth variation (mm. 194- 224) is labeled Tempo risoluto. This variation contrasts sharply with the preceding section in two specific ways: first, with a return to the shorter, choppier thematic units heard earlier; and second, through the intensity expressed by dense scoring, disjunct lines, and accented notes. The final variation is followed by a coda (mm. 224-55), which begins in F-sharp major with sustained notes in the first violin and cello, while the inner instruments have continuous eighth notes in a chromatic line (see Example 4.7). At m. 229 the key slips away to E-flat major. There is no

176 change of texture. F-sharp major returns at m. 237, followed by a further shift to E-flat major at m. 241. F-sharp major returns at m. 241, and the movement remains in that key to the end. The move between the two keys is accomplished through a linear shift in the inner voices. F-sharp moves to G, A natural becomes B-flat, and C-sharp steps to E-flat, creating a seamless shift from one harmony to the other. The overall effect is reminiscent of pre-tonal music.

EXAMPLE 4.6a: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 2, mm. 145-60.

177 EXAMPLE 4.6b: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, String Quartet op. 44 no. 1, mvt. 3, mm. 1-12.

178 EXAMPLE 4.7: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 4, mm. 224-55.

179

180 Adagio molto The third movement, Adagio molto, is in the key of D major (see Diagram 4.11). The P material of this compact sonata form begins immediately with a cantabile theme in the first violin (m. 1). A homophonic texture predominates, with accompaniment in the three lower voices. Transition through sequence begins at m. 9 with a chromatic theme heard in the first and second violins. The S material (m. 20), which appears in the first violin, is choppy and disjunct. It is imitated in the viola (m. 20) and cello (m. 23), while the second violin maintains a pulsating rhythmic ostinato. The key at m. 20 is B-flat major ( VI of D). The appearance of an A-flat in the first violin at m. 20, however, has the effect of immediately destabilizing the harmony. This section is barely established harmonically and is very brief. The development section begins seven measures later.

DIAGRAM 4.11: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Section 1 Adagio (expo, part 4/4 P D 1 molto 1)

T 9

Section 2 m. 19 Rit. a (expo, part S B 20 followed by 2) a tempo Section 3 1-measure P A 27 (deveop) interjection

S1 E 29

1-measure P B 31 interjection

S1 F# 32

P G 45-58

181 DIAGRAM 4.11: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 3.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

a S E 59

1-measure P F 66 interjection 1-measure P A 70 interjection Section 4 P D 78 (recap)

S1 94

The development section begins at m. 27 with the return of the P material as a one- measure interjection in the key of A minor. S1 material is heard in the first violin in E major at m. 29. At m. 29 the P material returns, again as a one-measure interjection, this time a step higher. Once again the interjection is immediately followed by a resumption of the S1 material, this time in F-sharp major at m. 32. The P material makes another, longer appearance at mm. 45- 58, in G major. At m. 59 the S material returns in E-flat major (the Neapolitan of D), followed by another series of one-measure interjections of the P material. The first of these takes place at m. 66 in G minor, followed by another at m. 70 in A minor. Just as happened earlier, the P material at m. 70 is a step higher than found at m. 66. The recapitulation occurs at m. 78, with a return of the P material in D major. At m. 94 the S1 material is heard once again, with the insistent rhythmic ostinato in the viola and imitation in the other three instruments. The movement ends quietly at m.105. Finale: Allegro molto vivace The final movement of this work is in ritornello form (see Diagram 4.12). In a typical ritornello form the theme, which always returns in the tonic, alternates with sections that contrast both melodically and harmonically. In this ritornello form, however, it is the contrasting sections

182 that have the greatest stability. The initial statement of the R section (mm. 1-14) begins in A major on a ii6, just as the P material does in the first movement. The theme moves to F-sharp minor before concluding in D major. This refrain comprises seven two-measure segments. The first contrasting section, X (mm. 15-34), is a rounded binary unit that begins in D major and ends with a perfect authentic cadence in the key of E major. The second occurrence of the refrain (mm. 35-48) is not in the tonic. Just as in its previous appearance, however, it moves through two keys (E major and A major) before the second contrasting section, Y (mm. 49-64) begins in F-sharp minor. This is the first section to begin and end in the same key. The following R section (mm. 65-72) moves via F-sharp minor to A major. The third contrasting section, Z (mm.73-114) is marked “Quasi trio” and is twice as long as any of the preceding sections; it is the most stable part of this movement so far. This section has the character of a dance, possibly a gavotte. It is a closed rounded binary unit in F major and is followed by the refrain (mm. 115- 28), also in F major. The fourth contrasting section, a repetition of X (mm. 124-47), begins in C major but cadences in G major. The fifth appearance of the refrain (mm. 149-66) moves through G major to C minor and is followed by a restatement of section Y (mm. 167-77), this time in A minor. Then section R returns (mm. 179-87), leading from A minor to E major. Section Z (mm. 188-227), the “Quasi trio” passage, returns in E major, and again it is longer than other sections; in this repetition the harmony moves back to A major (m. 220). It is followed by an R section (m. 228-238) and coda (m. 239-95) that remain in A major to the end of the movement.

DIAGRAM 4.12: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material Ritnorello 2/2 R A, f#,D 1-14 theme

X D, E 15-34 rounded binary

R E, A 35-48

Y f# 49-64

183 DIAGRAM 4.12: Robert Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 3, mvt. 4.

Time Thematic Division Tempo Harmony mm. Comments Signature material

R f#, A 65-72

closed rounded Z F 73-114 binary, marked “Quasi trio”

R F 115-128

X C, G 129-147

R G, c 149-166

Y a 167-177

R a, E 179-187

Z E, A 188-227

R A 228-238

Coda A 239-295

Contradictions in the World of the Work In two instances other genres are brought into the world of this string quartet, creating a contradiction. In the coda of the second movement there are several measures that shift between F-sharp major and E-flat minor, creating a non-functional harmonic effect. This creates a contradiction by bringing a distant and old-fashioned style into the world of the string quartet. The other instance occurs in the final movement, which is a scherzo in style but a theme and variations in form. A section marked Quasi trio is designed to sound as if it were taken out of a

184 dance movement (i.e., a minuet and trio or a scherzo and trio). This dance-like section would not normally be expected in a finale, or in a rondo form. Paradoxes Specific to the Work One paradox that can be found in three of the four movements of this quartet is the deliberate obfuscation of the formal structure. The first movement opens with a ii6 chord. This opening, rather than one emphasizing the tonic or dominant, creates immediate confusion concerning the key, because that harmony serves to obscure, rather than clarify, the key. The obfuscation occurs again with the opening of the final movement, in which the same chord is used. Another example that highlights the ambiguity of the formal structure can be found in the first movement, where the material labeled O appears not only in the introduction, but also as a sort of articulation point at the ends of sections. O is heard at the very end of the exposition (mm. 87 or 89-100) and again at the end of the recapitulation (mm. 194 or 196-207). The development section (m. 101) of this movement also begins in an ambiguous fashion. It opens with the P theme at the same pitch level found at the beginning of the movement, thus initially sounding like a third statement of the exposition rather than an entirely new section. The final example of formal ambiguity in the first movement involves the recapitulation, which uses S material (m. 153) bypassing the more usual P theme. A similar paradox in the third movement can be found in the exposition, where the secondary key area is just 10 measures long. The brevity of this material again emphasizes the ambiguous nature of the formal structure. Both convention and initial beginning lead the listener to identify the finale as a rondo. The paradox is, as Anthony Newcomb has explained, that the traditional role of the refrain has been turned around; in this movement the refrains “are not the center and locus of stability. They are instead the intermediaries, the transitions between the episodes, which reveal themselves increasingly clearly as the islands of stability between the recurrences of a forward-pushing, unstable, transitional refrain.”194 The paradox in this movement is that it strips bare the “conventions of the rondo scheme in order to turn them upside down.”195

194 Anthony Newcomb, “Schumann and Late 18th-Century Narrative Strategies,” 19th-Century Music 11/2 (Fall 1987), 173.

195 Ibid., 174.

185 Persona: op. 41 During the early decades of the nineteenth century the idea of a Viennese Classic tradition (consisting primarily of the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven) was promoted in response to a “nostalgia for a past, even if that past were nothing but an imagined construction, in relation to which the early Romantic present might be situated.”196 This imagined past was “part of a broader project to invent a ‘Viennese Classical style,’ in order to validate the notion of an early Romantic school whose modernist aesthetic was to be seen in opposition to a perceived classical stability, but which was nevertheless grounded in the concept of a continuing tradition.”197 The persona of all three string quartets of op. 41 can most helpfully be identified as a music critic operating within the framework of this imagined past and perception of the present (and anticipated future). The persona not only has a strong interest in music history but is also concerned with the future of music. These two interests are reflected in the op. 41 quartets. The persona’s knowledge of the history of music is apparent in the many styles and types of music demonstrated. A historical perspective is also evident in the several instances of “archaic” musical references found in op. 41. Examples of this are the passages of first-species counterpoint found at the end of the first movements of op. 41 nos. 1 and 2. Species counterpoint, a pedagogical classification that can be traced to 1533, was most familiar from a particularly well-known source: J. J. Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum of 1725.198 Another example of an “archaic” musical idea is heard in the second movement of op. 41 no. 3; in this instance a constant shift between the keys of F-sharp major and E-flat major produces a non-functional harmonic effect reminiscent of early music. These references to earlier styles of music demonstrate the persona’s sense of music history. This interest in musical styles serves to identify a persona who uses historical knowledge to reinterpret tradition creatively. This can be seen in the decision often to ignore conventions associated with the string quartet, specifically those concerning form. Each of the movements

196 John Irving, “The Invention of Tradition,” in The Cambridge Guide to Nineteenth-Century Music, edited by Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 178.

197 Ibid., 181.

198 Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1944), 804.

186 that comprise the quartets of op. 41 contains ambiguous formal elements. The first movement of op. 41 no. 1, for example, begins after O with a tonally closed P theme indicative of a rondo rather than a sonata form. This ambiguity initially leads the listener to expect a rondo form, but in fact the actual form turns out to be a sonata. A further ambiguity here is the introduction, which leads to the body of the movement, in the “wrong” key of F major. Another example can be found in the second movement of op. 41 no. 1, a seven-part rondo with a middle episode so apparently independent that it seems to turn the movement into a ternary form. Even movements clearly in a particular form include elements that lead to confusion, such as op. 41 no. 2 movement 2, labeled “quasi Variazione,” which is, however, not actually a theme and variations, but rather a series of figurational patterns not based on a single theme. The persona’s concern with the future of music may be expressed through the exploration of register and timbre in the quartets of op. 41. Irving writes, “Elements such as texture and register, formerly peripheral to musical discourse, become centered in the works of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann.”199 And according to Krummacher, The interrelationships among the parts are no longer obbligato-like in character; rather, they seem to present timbral regions that may be described either as sections of conventional working-out or as episodic enclaves. In this sense, Schumann’s quartets offer new procedures in timbral disposition that would become historically decisive for the genre after Grieg and Smetana.200

An example of Schumann’s experimentation with register and texture occurs in op. 41 no. 1, in the fourth movement at mm. 139-50, where there is an abrupt switch from a conversational texture to one of homorhythm. A mere change of texture is not so unusual; this change, however, is aimed toward a sonorous effect that is not simply about melody and harmony but directs attention to the texture itself. At mm. 233-40 there is more homorhythm, and again at mm. 263-84. Yet another example involving texture takes place in the first movement of op. 41 no. 2, mm. 172-76, which again is homorhythmic. These instances will be discussed further in the Transcendence section.

199 Irving, 189.

200 Friedhelm Krummacher, “Epigones of an Epigone? Concerning Mendelssohn’s String Quartets – and the Consequences,” in The Mendelssohns: Their Music in History, edited by John Michael Cooper and Julie D. Prandi (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 311.

187 The opening theme of the second movement, mm. 1-16, relies primarily on rhythm and dynamics for motion, rather than on melody, with a particularly static texture. And in the same movement, mm. 65-76, the drone-like melody is almost anti-melodic. The drone-like part remains predominantly in the cello, while the upper three instruments are mostly homorhythmic. The consistent emphasis on homorhythm in a string quartet is in itself unusual. One basic assumption about string quartets composed during this time (mentioned in Chapter 3) is that the texture is predominantly conversational, that is, that motivic material is taken up by each instrument in such a way that no one instrument would be more important than another. While homorhythm itself does not automatically produce a texture with unequal voices, its insistence on lock-step uniform motion does not allow for the interplay of voices crucial to the contemporary expectations of quartet texture. Although homorhythm does not preclude a polyphonic texture, it does make conversational style impossible. The emphasis on homorhythm in a genre in which conversational texture is normative brings textural issues to the forefront, especially the play of harmonic color without melody. Transcendence: op. 41 In the previous discussions of transcendence in this study care has been taken to treat the composer and the music’s persona as separate entities. In this instance, however, it is best to acknowledge the obvious connection between the two. Robert Schumann himself was both a composer and critic, and he was quite self-conscious about his dual roles. There is of course a parallel between Schumann as composer and music critic and the composer and music critic persona of op. 41. In this unusual circumstance conflating the composer and persona offers intriguing possibilities. Schumann wrote, in his editorial for the 2 January 1835 issue of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, In the short period of our activity, we have acquired a good deal of experience. Our fundamental attitude was established at the outset. It is simple, and runs as follows: to acknowledge the past and its creations, and to draw attention to the fact that new artistic beauties can only be strengthened by such a pure source; next, to oppose the recent past as an inartistic period, which has only a notable increase in mechanical dexterity to show for itself; and finally, to prepare for and facilitate the advent of a fresh, poetic future.201

201 Daverio, 119.

188 Two aspects of the composer’s (and persona’s) viewpoint here are particularly important. The first is the recognition of the “past and its creations,” and the second is “to prepare for and facilitate the advent of a fresh, poetic future.” The music critic persona of the op. 41 quartets reflects both of these statements through, in the first instance, knowledge of historical styles, and in the second, use of register and texture to explore possibilities for the future of music. The music critic persona’s concern with both the past and the future is reflected in the consistent use of homorhythm throughout the quartets of op. 41. Homorhythm serves a dual purpose by recalling the past through species counterpoint, while at the same time directing the listener’s attention to texture and timbre of the work, giving these new emphasis in the genre. There are instances where Schumann’s experimentation with timbre and register provide an opportunity for the same material to function in two different ways. The examples of first- species counterpoint found in the fourth movement of op. 41 no. 1 (mm. 234-40 and 263-84) and in the first movement of op. 41 no. 2 (mm. 172-76) are particularly striking because they both recall the past through the use of an “ancient” style, while at the same time focusing attention on the texture and timbre. Both the composer and persona have an interest in establishing a firm place in the historical tradition, while at the same time pulling away from some of the conventions central to that tradition. Self-consciousness is thus inherent in the persona’s placement in music history and in the continuing tradition of composers. That self-consciousness is intensified by Schumann’s role as both composer and music critic. The self-consciousness arising from this dichotomy manifests Romantic irony.

189 CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

This dissertation has sought to demonstrate how the concept of Romantic irony may be applied as a critical approach to the instrumental music of the nineteenth century, specifically to the string quartets of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Romantic irony, a concept identified by Schlegel, was particularly influential on both authors and composers. Romantic irony is relatively easier to identify in literary works and in texted or program music, however; absolute music has no extramusical associations that can help to make Romantic irony evident. The identification of Romantic irony in string quartets, the epitome of absolute music, would indicate the concept must have been very powerful indeed. A comparison of these nine quartets based on some of the observations discussed in the preceding chapters will be instructive. Although all these quartets came from a temporally and geographically similar world, the perceivable world of the work is different for each quartet or group of quartets studied, so our first comparison will focus on the social and cultural elements that differ from quartet to quartet. A second comparison involves issues specific to Mendelssohn and Schumann; for example, each composer had a different way of approaching formal structure, and to highlight these we will draw on the analysis of each of these works and paradoxes specific to the work for each quartet. The different approaches to persona will also be examined. The final part of this chapter will explore Mendelssohn’s and Schumann’s conceptions of persona and Romantic irony through a comparison of their approaches to transcendence. Contradictions in the world of the work will not be included in this discussion. They are quite specific to each quartet and no useful information would be gleaned from a large-scale comparison. The following comparisons will first focus on Mendelssohn’s opp. 13 and 12, then Mendelssohn’s op. 44 and Schumann’s op. 41, and finally on Mendelssohn’s op. 80. This not only follows the chronology of the quartets, but allows a closer look at the relationship between Mendelssohn’s op. 44 and Schumann’s op. 41. These quartets were composed within five years of each other, both were published in sets of three, and Schumann dedicated op. 41 to Mendelssohn. Looking at them in this grouping brings interesting insights to light.

190 The Perceivable World of the Work Mendelssohn’s opp. 13 and 12 share many elements of their respective perceivable worlds. At the time Mendelssohn’s early quartets were composed (1827 and 1829 respectively), string quartets were commonly intended for performance at social occasions, such as convivial entertainment in the home. Both of Mendelssohn’s early quartets were most likely intended for performance at such an occasion. Op. 13 was probably first performed at one of the private musical salons held in the Mendelssohn home on Sunday afternoons. The audience would have been a convivial one, composed of family, friends, and visiting musicians. While op. 12 was probably intended for a similar audience, the original performers were most likely professional musicians. In both instances the performance venue was a home, with a small, invited audience. The Mendelssohn mansion was, of course, a rather unusual sort of domestic setting, but descriptions indicate that even more modest musical homes could emulate it. By the time Mendelssohn’s three quartets op. 44 and Schumann’s three quartets op. 41 were composed (between 1838 and 1842), however, there had been a change in the nature of performance opportunities for the string quartet. These six quartets were all conceived of as works to be performed by professional musicians in a concert hall for a public audience. Mendelssohn’s op. 44 was performed in the Gewandhaus, and Schumann’s op. 41 was also performed by professional musicians. The perceivable world of Mendelssohn’s op. 80, composed in 1847, is different from that of any of the previous quartets mentioned. This quartet was written as a response to his sister’s death. Mendelssohn strongly believed that work in the face of overwhelming grief was a moral imperative, and this quartet was part of his response. Although Mendelssohn intended op. 80 for publication, the intensity of the emotions expressed makes this quartet appear to be a more personal statement. The historical/biographical context supports this, and so did its reception history. The Work Mendelssohn and Schumann both strictly adhered to the external conventions of the formal structure of the string quartet. All nine of the quartets employ the external conventions of the nineteenth-century string quartet, including scoring, normative forms, and characteristic textures. Each of these nine quartets consists of four movements, beginning and often ending with a fast-paced sonata form or a ritornello form. The inner movements usually include a slow

191 movement and a faster, dance-derived movement. Each quartet, in addition, incorporates the conversational texture characteristic of the genre. Within these confines, however, both composers addressed the issue of formal structure creatively. Mendelssohn’s early quartets, opp. 13 and 12, adhere very closely to the traditional conventions of the string quartet. Both quartets open with slow introductions followed by faster sonata-form movements. The inner movements also conform to traditional expectations. The second movement of op. 13 is a fugue with the tempo marking Adagio non lento, and that of op. 12 is a Canzonetta in composite ternary form, marked Allegretto. The third movement of op. 13 is a moderately fast Intermezzo in composite ternary form with an unusual juxtaposition in the final section consisting of material from the second section. The third movement of op. 12 is a simple two-part form with a slow tempo. Both quartets conclude with fast-paced sonata-form movement. The three quartets of Mendelssohn’s op. 44, composed between eight and nine years after op. 12, also adhere to the conventions of the genre. All three quartets of op. 44 begin with fast- paced movements in sonata form and conclude with lively sonata or sonata-rondo movements. All three of the second movements of op. 44 have moderate to fast tempo markings. The second movement of op. 44 no. 2 is a sonata rondo in the manner of a scherzo, that of no. 3 is a scherzo in composite ternary form, while that of no. 1 is a menuetto, also in composite ternary form. The third movements all have slower tempo indications. Op. 44 no. 2 has an aria-like Andante in a variant of sonata form, no. 3 has a sonata form and is marked Adagio non troppo, and no. 1 movement 3 has a five-part rondo with the marking Andante expressivo. Op. 44 no. 2 is the most formally unusual, in that all four movements employ either sonata form or a variant of sonata form. Schumann’s op. 41, while following conventional formal structures, took the most liberty with the forms of the individual movements. Each quartet of op. 41 begins with a fast sonata or modified sonata-form movement and ends with a sonata form (nos. 1 and 2) or rondo or ritornello (no. 3) movement. It is in the inner movements that Schumann departs from convention. The second movement of op. 41 no.1 is in the style of a Mendelssohnian scherzo with a tempo marking of Presto. It is, however, a seven-part rondo rather than a traditional ternary form comprised of scherzo, trio, and scherzo. The third movement is also a seven-part rondo, this time an Adagio in the style of an arioso. The inner movements of op. 41 no. 2 are

192 more traditional. The second movement, labeled Andante, quasi Variazione, consists of a sixteen-measure theme followed by five sections featuring different figurational patterns. The third movement is a sprightly scherzo and trio with a coda that integrates the two themes in a manner reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s op. 13. The second movement of op. 41 no. 3 is an actual theme and variations rather than a “quasi Variazione.” It is in the style of a scherzo and has the appropriate tempo marking of Assai agitato. This movement is followed by one in sonata form, an unusual choice, but one that Mendelssohn also used in op. 44 no. 2. Interestingly, both Mendelssohn and Schumann chose as the final movement of their respective sets of quartets (opp. 44 and 41) a ritornello form. With the String Quartet op. 80 Mendelssohn again very strictly followed the formal structural conventions of the genre, which as we have seen, suggests classicist objectivity rather than Romantic depth of feeling. The first movement is a fast-paced sonata form, the second is a Scherzo in composite ternary form, the third is a slow rondo, and the quartet concludes with a sonata form marked Allegro molto. Given the emotional and expressive content of this string quartet and the work’s relation to the composer’s explicit artistic intention, however, Mendelssohn’s strict adherence to convention may be considered perfectly understandable. Paradoxes Specific to the Work Within the conventions of the string quartet paradoxes specific to each work allow Mendelssohn and Schumann room for explorations of irony. The primary paradox in Mendelssohn’s op. 13 is the allusion to vocality found in the textual and citational inclusions within a work in this most instrumental of genres. Other paradoxes are the inclusion of an Intermezzo as an inner movement, as opposed to a danced-based form, the juxtaposition of themes in a developmental style in the third movement, and the “wrong” key introduction in the final movement. The main paradox of op. 12 is the complete absence of harmonic development anywhere in the work, but especially in the first and last sonata-form movements. In each case new, lyrical material is introduced where developmental treatment would normally be expected. An additional paradox is the opening of the first movement in A-flat major, proceeding to G minor before arriving at the tonic, E-flat major. Another important paradox here is the appearance of cyclical recurrences of op. 12, which is the only one of Mendelssohn’s quartets that exhibits that trait. Cyclicity is certainly unusual in a quartet, since as a genre it is more likely to maintain its integrity than other genres such as that of a song or symphony.

193 The main paradox in all three of Mendelssohn’s quartets op. 44 is the harmonic misdirection that occurs in each of the quartets. The first example can be found in the third movement of op. 44 no. 1. From mm. 82 to 89 there is transitional-sounding material that does not actually lead to a new key. The use of this material leads the listener to expect harmonic movement, but that expectation is confounded when the key remains in the original B minor. Other instances of harmonic misdirection occur in the first, third, and fourth movements of op. 44 no. 2. In the first movement the transition from P to S begins in the tonic (E minor) and moves to B minor, thus setting up the dominant as the contrast key. But this is another example of harmonic misdirection, as the contrast key is actually the relative major, G. The third movement contains a destabilizing harmonic surprise, when, after P, S is about to be recapitulated in the tonic. In this instance no modulation is necessary. Between mm. 53 and 56, however, several unstable chords give the impression, but not the substance, of a modulation. In the final movement passages of articulation in the formal structure act to misdirect the listener. At the close of section 2 the movement proceeds as if leading to a repeat of section 1 or the beginning of section 3. Section 2 never does come to a close, and section 3 begins before the listener is aware of the end of section 2. The final quartet of op. 44 also contains misdirection, specifically in the second movement. In this instance the misdirection concerns the large-scale structure. This movement is titled Scherzo, leading to an expectation of ternary form. The movement begins with a rounded binary form, supporting this expectation. The movement continues, however, with a fugato, followed by a fugue, confounding the expectations of a conventional scherzo and trio. The paradox that all three of Schumann’s quartets op. 41 share is ambiguity concerning formal structure. Op. 41 no. 1 illustrates this immediately, with an introduction in A minor, which soon leads to the “wrong” key of F major for the body of the movement. The ambiguity continues with the introduction of a tonally closed P theme, more usual for a song form, binary dance form, or even a rondo form, than the P theme of a sonata form. Right at the outset of the opus, therefore, the questions about the formal structure are raised. The third movement contains a similar paradox. Although it is in rondo form, the sections are not tonally closed, causing the movement to sound as if it were based on continuing thematic material rather than a tonally articulated structure. (The second movement of this quartet demonstrates ambiguity on a larger scale; it at first appears to be ternary, although it is actually in rondo form).

194 The second quartet of op. 41 contains a paradox concerning formal structure in the first movement, demonstrated in the brevity of the S material in the sonata form. The secondary theme and dominant key are barely established before the closing material appears. The same happens in the final movement, where the secondary key area is just five measures long. The lack of emphasis on these sections, quite important in conventional sonata form, serves to obscure the formal structure. Op. 41 no. 3 also incorporates ambiguous formal elements. The openings of the first and final movements are heard on harmonies that do not clarify the key but rather obscure it. The development section of the first movement begins with the P theme at the same pitch level found earlier in the movement, indicating a third repetition of the exposition rather than the beginning of a new section. Both Mendelssohn’s and Schumann’s quartet oeuvres include movements in ternary form that feature a juxtaposition of the themes in the coda. Both also include the unusual use of an Intermezzo: Mendelssohn in op. 13 used this style for its third movement instead of a dance- based one, and Schumann in op. 41 no.1 introduced an Intermezzo into the middle of the second movement, a scherzo. Both Mendelssohn and Schumann included movements that are in the style of a scherzo but do not employ the expected scherzo-and-trio form: Mendelssohn used a sonata-rondo in the second movement of op. 44 no. 2, and in Schumann’s op. 41 no. 1 the second movement is a seven-part rondo. One paradox shared by all the string quartets mentioned so far is the occurrence of harmonic disruptions, either in the large-scale formal structure or in smaller, specific instances. Mendelssohn’s op. 80 is, however, once again sui generis in its constraint. All four movements follow the formal and harmonic conventions of the genre. The main paradox here is the juxtaposition of passion and strictness, which is demonstrated in the music itself, through the four musical passages examined in Chapter 3. Persona Mendelssohn and Schumann approach the idea of persona very differently. In Mendelssohn’s op. 13 the persona is a lover alone, drawn from the composer’s song Frage. The persona here focuses attention on the main contradiction, which is the allusion to a vocal work in an instrumental one. In Mendelssohn’s op. 12 the persona is a musician who has absorbed

195 diverse experiences. The quartet is addressed to “B.P.” as a fellow musician to whom vocal style appeals rather than intensive instrumental work. Mendelssohn’s op. 44 is slightly different. Here, the persona is a perverse guide who uses calculated misdirection within the formal structure to mislead the listener. This harmonic misdirection consists of the delay of the arrival of the expected key, moving to a key that turns out to be the “wrong” one, or wandering through a series of chromatic chords before returning to the same key. In these quartets both the activity and the voice of the persona are evident, the voice through allusions to vocal style, and the activity through harmonic misdirection. The persona in these quartets draws attention to itself rather than to other paradoxes. The music critic persona in Schumann’s quartets op. 41 shows a strong interest in music history and a concern with the future of music. The persona’s knowledge of music history is apparent in the many styles and types of music demonstrated in the quartets. A historical perspective can also be seen in the several instances of “archaic” musical references found in the form of species counterpoint. The persona, therefore, has a solid basis of historical knowledge from which to reinterpret tradition. This is done through the decision to ignore conventions of the genre, most notably those concerning the formal structure. Each movement contains ambiguous formal elements. The persona’s concern with the future of music is expressed through the exploration of timbre and register. The extensive and consistent use of homorhythm directs attention to the texture itself rather than to the harmony and melody. In Mendelssohn’s op. 80 the persona is identified not only through the music but also through comments made by the composer’s contemporaries. There is an assumption that the persona is a mourner, specifically a grief-stricken Mendelssohn mourning the loss of his sister. Mendelssohn’s fictionalized persona is the “voice” of the quartet. Additionally, op. 80 can be heard as a lament for Mendelssohn himself by later listeners. This is an instance of the persona being identified from a fictionalized autobiography rather than from the composer’s actual biography. Transcendence In Mendelssohn’s early quartets the transcendence involves the issue of meaning in music. In op. 13 it is demonstrated that feeling and meaning reside in the music itself, and that words are a response to the musically expressed meaning. By employing fragments of the song at the beginning and bringing it back at the end, the string quartet here expresses the emotional

196 and musical experience that culminates in the song Frage. The issue of meaning in music is approached from another perspective in op. 12. In this quartet lyrical, vocal style controls the thematic content and form one of the most inherently instrumental of all genres, a string quartet. In each of these quartets Mendelssohn underscores his aesthetic principle that music is precise in its meanings, and that words properly relate to music as responses to those musically expressed meanings. Mendelssohn’s op. 44 is concerned predominantly with the element of buffoonery that exists in Romantic irony. An essential element of Romantic irony, transcendental buffoonery directs attention to the simultaneous creation and undermining of the work. The creation of the work must be established as a believable entity and than exposed as artifice. The quartets of op. 44 particularly serve to reinforce this idea. The misguiding guidance of the persona prolongs the uncertainty of the expected events in the quartets. The presence of the persona is pushed to the forefront of the listening experience, emphasizing the need to be alert to deception even from a persona, and therefore directing attention to the creation and destruction of the work. The transcendent element in Schumann’s op. 41 concerns the music critic persona’s preoccupation with both the past and the future of music. This concern can be seen in the consistent use of homorhythm throughout the quartets. Homorhythm recalls the past through species counterpoint and at the same time directs the listener’s attention to the texture and timbre of the work, providing a new emphasis for the genre. In op. 41 both the composer and persona have an interest in establishing a place in the historical tradition, while at the same time moving away from some of the conventions central to that tradition. The self-consciousness intensified by Schumann’s role as both composer and music critic manifests Romantic irony. The transcendent aspect of op. 80 demonstrates Mendelssohn’s reaction to grief. The expression of intense emotion within a genre that depends most heavily on conventions is a moral decision; it prevents sinking into an abyss of despair, which Mendelssohn would have viewed as a moral failing. Rather than sinking into despair at the death of his sister, Mendelssohn choose to create a “sharp and close and strict” piece. The response is not to deny the feeling, but to create something that expresses itself in a rigorously restrained manner. The four musical examples cited earlier and the genre, with its conventions, allowed him to create a work that expresses itself intensely, but in a restrained manner.

197 It is interesting to compare Mendelssohn’s op. 80 with his set of three quartets op. 44 in their approach to transcendence. In both instances one aspect of the transcendental buffoonery that is important to Romantic irony becomes so attenuated that it almost seems to disappear. In the three quartets of op. 44 the buffoonery leads to the realization that the persona is not so easily identifiable and may not be entirely reliable, which thus provides a transcendental experience. The transcendental buffoonery in Mendelssohn’s op. 80 is less clear. Indulging in the sensual pleasure of music might seem inappropriate as a response to the most wrenching kind of human grief, and the very frivolousness inherent in the idea might represent a distant reflection of the buffoonish. This, however, would be true at a conceptual level not experienced in the listening but only in philosophical reflection. Although music is a sensual pleasure, this particular piece sublimates the pleasure aspect of music to the rigor of thought, so that what seems to be a general principle of the inappropriateness of pleasure as a response to grief simply does not apply to this kind of music, where constructedness is pushed to the forefront of the hearer’s experience. In this case the meaning of the term “buffoonery” becomes so attentuated that it loses all its implications. What seems to be silly behavior turns out not to be so after all. Mendelssohn and Schumann express some similar themes in the transcendent elements of their respective quartets. Mendelssohn’s earlier quartets and Schumann’s quartets, by raising issues of musical meaning, compel a look at the broader scope of music and meaning. The two composers express their concern with musical meaning in very different manners however. Schumann’s focus is on the larger picture that includes the history of music, while Mendelssohn emphasizes his own intriguing aesthetic position regarding meaning in music, specifically the relationship between words and music, one that might seem counterintuitive, but which the music itself demonstrates as effectively as philosophical argument can do. The relationship between Romantic irony and the string quartets of Mendelssohn and Schumann has been explored here, even if not by any means exhausted, and perhaps the way has been opened for further explorations of Romantic irony in other works of absolute music. Certainly more wide-ranging examinations of Romantic irony in music would be interesting and fruitful.

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204 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Robin Wildstein Garvin

EDUCATION:

2008 Ph.D. Candidate in Historical Musicology, Florida State University 1994 M.M. in Musicology, University of Maryland, College Park Thesis title: Alexander Agricola and the Transmission of Music during the Renaissance 1988 B.A. (Departmental honors) in Anthropology, The American University, Washington, D.C.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

2001-02 Graduate Assistant, Florida State University Taught Music History I and II 2001 Summer Band Camp, Florida State University Taught Music Theory 1994-96 Graduate Assistant, Florida State University Taught Survey of Music Literature 1992-93 Substitute harp teacher, D.C. Youth Orchestra, Washington, D.C.

PUBLICATIONS:

2004 “Self-Identification in the Romantic Tradition: Ernst von Dohnányi’s Winterreigen: 10 Bagatelles, op. 13,” Perspectives on Ernst von Dohnányi, edited by James A. Grymes (New York: Scarecrow, 2004), 113-123. 2002 Review of Peter Mercer-Taylor’s The Life of Mendelssohn, Journal of Musicological Research 21 (July-September 2002): 271-274.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:

2005 “Shaken as he is to the heart’s core”: The Death of Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s String Quartet op. 80 International Fanny Hensel Conference, Tallahassee, Florida 2002 Crossing Genre Boundaries: Instrumental Music and Song in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s String Quartet, op. 13 International Conference on Romanticism, Tallahassee, Florida

205 Self-Identification in the Romantic Tradition: Ernst von Dohnányi’s Winterreigen: 10 Bagatelles, op. 13 International Ernst von Dohnányi Festival, Tallahassee, Florida 2001 Musical Meaning in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s String Quartet op. 13 AMS Regional Meeting, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1997 Neoplatonic Thought in the Carmina Burana AMS Regional Meeting, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 1996 Cultural Context and Musical Meaning in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Etude in F major, op. 104B/no.2 AMS Regional Meeting, Tampa, Florida

SERVICE:

2001-03 Student Representative to the AMS Committee on Career-Related Issues 2002 Co-chaired the AMS Committee on Career-Related Issues Student Session: “Getting Your Foot in the Door: Internships and Other Opportunities in the Field of Musicology,” national AMS meeting in Columbus, Ohio, November, 2002 2001 Co-chaired a panel at the national AMS meeting in Atlanta on opportunities for internships 2001 Program notes for the Tallahassee Community Chorus 1998-99 Program notes for the Bel Canto Chorus, St. Louis, Missouri 1999 Program notes for Washington University Faculty Chamber Recital, St. Louis, Missouri 1998 Program notes for Florida State University’s University Symphony Orchestra, Tallahassee, Florida

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