University of Cincinnati

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:______

I, ______, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in:

It is entitled:

This work and its defense approved by:

Chair: ______

Echoes of Venice The Origins of the Barcarolle for Solo Piano

DMA Document

submitted to the

University of Cincinnati

College–Conservatory of Music

and to the

Office of Graduate Studies

in candidacy for the degree of

Doctor of Musical Arts in

Piano Performance

James Anor Margetts

910 Morehead Street

Chadron, Nebraska 69337-2548

B.M., Brigham Young University

M.M., University of Cincinnati

August 15, 2008

Committee Chair: Dr. Robert Zierolf

ABSTRACT

This document traces the development of the solo keyboard barcarolle from its origins in late seventeenth-century opera through its establishment as a popular vehicle for wordless musical expression at the dawn of the Romantic era. Opera composers that were initially inspired by romantic notions of Venice and its surrounding waterways eventually widened the dramatic scope of the barcarolle by adapting the form to a variety of other situations and locales. Felix

Mendelssohn drew upon both the vocal origins and the Venetian roots of the genre in crafting his four textless “Gondellieder” for solo piano. At approximately the same time, Frederic Chopin issued a more extended and complex Barcarolle, still regarded as the highest standard in

barcarolle composition. The models provided by these two masters ultimately inspired the creation of well over four hundred additional works, many of which are listed in the concluding chapter and appendix.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my wonderful wife, Colleen, whose patience and understanding have miraculously never reached exhaustion despite the many sacrifices and long absences required to complete this document. I love you more than I can ever express! I still pinch myself when I think that you picked me.

To our four children, Spencer, Claire, Jameson, and Wesley, who were each born subsequent to the beginning of my doctoral studies, and who continue to immeasurably enrich my life. I have never once regretted the order of events that brought you into my world prior to the completion of this long project.

To my parents, Wayne and Liz, who kept believing in me when it would have been much easier to quit, and whose incredible commitment to my musical education has continued right up to the end of this document—an amazing thirty-five years! I am so proud to be your son, and thankful beyond words for the blessing of your continued guidance, friendship, and example.

To Paul Pollei, who inspired me to love piano literature and continually piqued my curiosity by teaching obscure works to his students in his remarkable studio over twenty-five years. I wish I had taken better notes during all of our lessons so that I could begin to be half the teacher that you are. I will be forever in your debt.

To Frank Weinstock, who more than once agreed to take on a less-than-perfect situation to help a rapidly aging, overcommitted doctoral piano student. Your grace, professionalism, and humanity are perhaps even superior to your supreme musical talents. I am truly grateful.

To Warren George, who elicited a promise as we worked together over several summers in the CCM College Office that I would not become one of the “dead files” that we discarded after years of inactivity. I have never forgotten.

To my valued colleagues at Chadron State College, for your generous and constant support in completing the requirements of my degree. It is an honor to work alongside you.

To Adam Lambert, who “raised the bar” once again by completing his doctoral requirements first. Thanks for always making me feel wiser, better, and more capable than I am. Although I’ll never be as young or as fast (among other things), I hope you’ll still slow down occasionally to allow me to see what I should be trying to do next. I couldn’t ask for a better friend.

And to a loving and merciful Heavenly Father, to whom I owe everything, who has granted and preserved my life, for the great and unspeakable gift of music, and for the opportunity to develop and share it. I am continually humbled by the trust He places in me, and grateful for the gifts of daily renewal and second chances.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...... 1

Chapter 1: The Barcarolle for Solo Piano: Origins of a Genre...... 3

Chapter 2: Mendelssohn’s Prototype: The Character Barcarolle ...... 14

Chapter 3: Frederic Chopin and the Concert Barcarolle...... 35

Chapter 4: The Barcarolle after Chopin: A Selected Listing...... 48

Appendix: Barcarolles for Solo Keyboard...... 60

Bibliography ...... 75

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1–1: David Brentel (ca. 1556–1615), Der Venediger Lust Bracht und Heiligkeit...... 4

Figure 1–2: Jost Amman (1539–1591), Gondola mit Sförmigen Steven und Rundspanten ...... 4

Table 1–1: Locales of Selected Operas Containing Barcarolles Composed between 1740-1890...6

Figure 2–1: Das Basler Familienkonzert (1849) by Sebastian Gutzwiller...... 15

Figure 2–2: Left-hand accompaniment patterns in Felix Mendelssohn’s “Gondellieder” ...... 32

Figure 3–1: Similar Motivic Motion in Barcarolles by Mendelssohn and Chopin...... 41

Figure 3–2: Different Metric Groupings of Left-hand Accompaniment in Chopin’s Barcarolle .42

Figure 3–3: Thematic Similarities within Chopin’s Barcarolle ...... 43

Figure 3–4: Use of Melodic Thirds by Mendelssohn and Chopin...... 44

vii

INTRODUCTION

If a pianist today were asked to state the word that first comes to mind upon hearing the term “barcarolle,” the immediate response would most likely be “Chopin.” Frederic Chopin’s

Barcarolle, Op. 60, in F-sharp major, is regarded as a masterpiece of Romantic piano music by both historians and performers. Musicologist Maurice Hinson unapologetically labels Chopin’s

Barcarolle “the greatest barcarolle ever written.”1

While Hinson, author of the mammoth compendium Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire,

possesses the scholarly background and experience to make such an assertion, most pianists

would be powerless to challenge his claim. In fact, a modern pianist might legitimately wonder whether Chopin’s Barcarolle was, to paraphrase Hinson, the only barcarolle ever written. Aside from Chopin’s famous opus, barcarolles are seldom performed by today’s professional concert pianists. Yet hundreds of keyboard barcarolles were composed and performed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many by composers whose names are still familiar to contemporary audiences.

The major purposes of this study are: to investigate the origins of the keyboard barcarolle, highlighting its historical connections to vocal music and to Venice; to identify early works that provided models for subsequent barcarolle composers; to describe the climate in which barcarolle composition apparently thrived during the nineteenth century; and, finally, to create a listing, as accurately as possible, of the collective body of keyboard barcarolle literature

1 Maurice Hinson, Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, 3rd ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 203.

produced from the nineteenth century forward. Along the way, another intended outcome of this research is to single out a number of forgotten barcarolles that may be worthy of rediscovery by modern pianists. It is hoped that the resulting document will fill a void in the existing scholarship on piano literature and provide a helpful resource for pianists and teachers.

Chapter 1 The Barcarolle for Solo Piano: Origins of a Genre

The term “barcarolle” first appears in print on some late seventeenth- and early

eighteenth-century opera scores. The music to which this title is affixed accompanies dramatic

activity taking place on or near water, often while at least one individual is riding in some sort of

seafaring vessel. Its meaning is derived from the Latin “barca,” meaning “small boat or barge,”

and “ruolo,” the Italian term for “rower.” By extension, a song intoned by one of these

“barcaruolo” while in transit became known as a “barcaruola” (later “barcarola”) in Italy and a

“barquerolle” (later “barcarolle”) in France.

Enterprising librettists and composers of the late seventeenth century quickly recognized

a natural connection between the new barcarolle song type and the city of Venice. The collective

European imagination was already ripe with romantic images of life in that grand Italian republic

and its magical waterways.1 Over the course of the previous century, the act of making music

while gliding along Venetian canals had been glamorously depicted by European artists such as

David Brentel and Jost Amman (Figures 1-1 and 1-2). Likewise, the iconic figure of the

gondolier—singing helmsman of the famous Venetian gondolas—had developed a certain

mystique through contemporary literature. Operatic productions based upon Venetian themes

had been performed at Venice during Carnival season since the late 1630s,2 and these shows—

filled with references to well-known Venetian landmarks such as the Grand Canal and the Piazza

1 Rebecca Harris-Warrick, “Staging Venice,” Cambridge Opera Journal 15 (November 2003): 298. 2 Ellen Rosand, “Commentary: 17th-century Venetian Opera as Fondamente nuove,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 36 (Winter 2006): 413.

Figure 1-1: David Brentel (ca. 1556–1615), Der Venediger Lust Bracht und Heiligkeit (1585)

San Marco, stereotypical Venetian characters like courtesans and gondoliers, and plots revolving around unique Venetian institutions or traditions such as the legendary Carnival itself—became

extremely popular with audiences

throughout Europe during the late

seventeenth century.

Among the first foreigners to

exploit this growing infatuation with all

things Venetian was André Campra

(1660-1744), a French composer-

Figure 1-2: Jost Amman (1539–1591), Gondola mit entrepreneur and likely creator of the Sförmigen Steven und Rundspanten (1590) hybrid entertainment known as opera-ballet. One of Campra’s first compositions to achieve a measure of prominence was a three-act comédie lyrique titled Le carnaval de Venise (1699, libretto by Jean-François Regnard). Subsequently, in collaboration with librettist Antoine

Danchet, Campra composed and produced a wildly successful compilation of one-act musical

comedies (entrées) titled Les Fêtes vénitiennes [Venetian Festivals] in 1710, which included a

“March of the Gondoliers” in its first entrée, the subtitle of which was “La feste des

barquerolles.”3

Alongside Campra’s two successes, Herbert Schneider cites Michel de la Barre’s La

Vénitiennes (1705) and Reinhard Keiser’s Der Carneval von Venedig (1707) as additional

examples of this new European opera trend, and identifies as early barcarolles a select aria within

each, the text of which refers to water travel. De la Barre’s opera includes an aria titled “Air des

Barcarolles,” the first recorded use of the term “barcarolle” within a title. Among the features shared by these chosen arias, most important to musicologist Schneider is their common use of triple meter; even Campra’s oddly titled “march” is cast in 3/4. In the course of his research,

Schneider also discovered an early example of the use of compound meter, foreshadowing later practice, in a da capo aria titled “Sopra il mare d’amor voga, voga mio cor” from a Venetian- themed intermezzo composed by Jean-Claude Gillier for a production of Dancourt’s Amants magnifiques in 1703.4

Modern dictionaries now define the barcarolle solely in relation to Venice and its romantic gondoliers, but barcarolles also began to be incorporated into non-Venetian works when the opera-going public’s intense fascination with Venice faded. In fact, a survey of almost thirty operatic barcarolles composed over the next 150 years reveals that only about forty percent

3 Jean-Claude Brenac. “Les Fêtes vénitiennes,” Magazine de l’opéra baroque [journal on-line]; available from http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jean-claude.brenac/CAMPRA_FETES.htm; Internet; accessed 6 August 2008. 4 Herbert Schneider, “Barkarole,” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, rev. 2nd ed., Sachteil, Vol. 1, ed. Ludwig Finscher (Stuttgart: Bärenreiter, 1994), 1230.

of them are set in Venice (see Table 1-1). Because of its association with water, the barcarolle could be utilized within operas with plots that revolved not only around gondoliers, but also around fishermen, sailors, and pirates, or with locales near any ocean, lake, or stream—not just the famous Venetian canals or the nearby Adriatic.

Table 1-1—Locales of Selected Operas Containing Barcarolles Composed between 1740-1890

Title Date Composer Action Based In La Rosiere de Salency 1773 Grétry France Il re Teodoro in Venezia 1784 Paisiello Venice List und Liebe 1785 Haydn Genoa Otello 1816 Rossini Venice La donna del lago 1819 Rossini Scotland Oberon 1826 Weber Fairyland, etc. La muette de Portici 1828 Auber Naples Guillaume Tell 1829 Rossini Switzerland Fra diavolo 1830 Auber Naples Zampa 1831 Hérold Sicily La sonnambula 1831 Bellini Switzerland L’elisir d’amore 1832 Donizetti Italian village Marino Faliero 1835 Donizetti Venice La reine de Chypre 1841 Halévy Venice Casanova 1841 Lortzing Venice Maria, regina d’Inghilterra 1843 Pacini England Dom Sebastien 1843 Donizetti Portugal Allessandro Stradella 1844 Flotow Venice I due Foscari 1844 Verdi Venice Haydée 1847 Auber Venice Les vêpres siciliennes 1855 Verdi Sicily Simon Boccanegra 1857 Verdi Genoa Un ballo in maschera 1859 Verdi USA or Sweden L’Africaine 1865 Meyerbeer Portugal, etc. La gioconda 1876 Ponchielli Venice Les contes d’Hoffmann 1881 Offenbach Venice (partially) Eine Nacht in Venedig 1883 J. Strauss Venice

Lacking any requisite Venetian subtext, opera composers were able to broaden the dramatic range of the barcarolle by using the genre when exploring themes related to the unpredictable nature of marine life. Herbert Schneider elucidates some of these new topic areas: the sea as living space full of dangers for sailors and fishermen (i.e., storms, piracy, shipwrecks,

etc.); the political and social problems of sailors and fishermen; and other challenges associated

with navigation.5 Some composers also experimented with shifts of meter and tempo in an

attempt to depict the often-volatile nature of water travel, altering the customary triple meter of

the earliest models to duple, compound, and sometimes even mixed meter. The New Harvard

Dictionary of Music’s modern definition of a barcarolle as having “a rhythmically repetitive

accompaniment, usually in moderate 6/8 or 12/8 meter, [that] evokes the motion of a boat in the

waves,”6 fails to account for the early metric diversity of these eighteenth-century works.

The resultant variety within the barcarolle oeuvre has prompted British scholar Rodney

Stenning Edgecombe to proclaim the early barcarolle “an extraordinarily versatile genre . . . even

more versatile than the waltz (which has a similar range from its courtly avatar, the minuet, and

its peasant roots in the Ländler).”7 However, the same versatility praised by Edgecombe created

some confusion among early music theorists. In one case, Gustav Schilling’s music dictionary

identified barcarolles as being “all of very joyful character,”8 while a contemporary volume

described the barcarolle as portraying a “sentimental, even melancholy atmosphere.”9 Whether

the barcarolle genre was ever considered as flexible and chameleon-like by opera enthusiasts, as

Edgecombe believes, remains unclear. His hyperbolic statement, for example, that composers

5 Ibid., 1232. 6 The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, 1986 ed., s.v. “barcarole.” 7 Rodney Stenning Edgecombe, “On the Limits of Genre: Some Nineteenth-Century Barcaroles,” 19th- Century Music 24 (Spring 2001): 267. 8 Walter Salmen, “Die Barkarole vor Chopin: Herkunft und Semantik eines musikalischen Genres,” in Festschrift Hubert Unverricht zum 65. Geburtstag, Eichstätter Abhandlungen zur Musikwissenschaft, ed. Karlheinz Schlager, Band 9 (Tutzing, Germany: Hans Schneider, 1992), 237. 9 Maurice J. E. Brown and Kenneth L. Hamilton, “Barcarolle,” in Grove Music Online, available from http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com; Internet; accessed 9 August 2008.

eventually viewed the barcarolle as “a Rorschach blot of thematic possibilities” that “became all

things to all people,”10 is colorful, but seems quite exaggerated.

There is also uncertainty surrounding another celebrated aspect of the barcarolle: its

kinship with historic gondolier song. While modern sources such as the American Heritage

Dictionary of the English Language state matter-of-factly that a barcarolle is either “a Venetian

gondolier’s song with a rhythm suggestive of rowing” or “a composition imitating a Venetian

gondolier’s song,”11 German scholar Walter Salmen has expressed skepticism regarding the

amount of genuine “Venetianness” contained therein.12 In fact, Salmen states unequivocally that

while the “new barcarolle was at some time still associated with the music of Venice [it] was not

. . . a genuine Venetian song type anymore.”13 His scholarly position is supported by a number of contemporary accounts from well-known Venetian visitors such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Rousseau, a frequent traveler to Venice, famously likened the gondolieri to the French

troubadours of an earlier era.14 He implied a strong distinction between their traditional

barcarolles, which he compared to the epic poems of Homer in both style and scope, and the

trendy barcarolles of contemporary Italian theater when he observed that the latter “run contrary

10 Edgecombe, 267. 11 American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2007 ed., s.v. “barcarole.” 12 Salmen, “Die Barkarole vor Chopin,” 233. 13 Ibid., 235. 14 Ibid., 234.

to the simple and natural” style of the former.15 Goethe provided additional details regarding

some of the characteristics observed by Rousseau while describing his own encounter with

gondolier singing in Italian Journey (1786–88):

I took my seat in a gondola and the two singers, one in the prow, and the other in the stern, began chanting verse after verse in turns. The melody . . . is something between chorale and recitative. It always moves at the same tempo without any definite beat. The modulation is of the same character; the singers change pitch according to the content of the verse in a kind of declamation.16

These contemporary accounts strongly imply that the barcarolles composed for the operatic stage during the eighteenth century were very different in character from those of historic Venice.

Goethe’s description in particular hints at a musical practice that is improvisatory or formulaic; unfortunately, there are no extant notated examples that resemble Goethe’s description.

Edgecombe speculates that the original barcarolle may have been “emptied of its original

stylistic content and reconstituted to suit urban composers’ sense of the picturesque [in order to]

facilitate [its] assimilation to art music.”17

It was not until the final decades of the eighteenth century that a standard set of genre-

defining markers began to appear regularly among operatic barcarolles. Based neither upon the

earlier barcarolles, which, as noted by Herbert Schneider, “lack, as a rule, the hallmarks that

came to define [the genre],”18 nor upon the historic gondolier melodies, these new barcarolles,

15 Jean Jacques Rousseau, Dictionnaire de Musique (Paris: Chez la veuve Duchesne, 1768), 39; quoted in Herbert Schneider, “Barkarole,” In Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, 2nd ed., Sachteil, Vol. 1, ed. Ludwig Finscher, 1230–35 (Stuttgart: Bärenreiter, 1994), 1231. 16 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey, 1786–1788, trans. W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer (New York: Pantheon Books, 1962), 77; quoted in Rodney Stenning Edgecombe, “On the Limits of Genre: Some Nineteenth-Century Barcaroles,” 19th-Century Music 24 (Spring 2001): 253. 17 Edgecombe, 253. 18 Schneider, “Barkarole,” 1230.

such as “Ma barque légère” from Grétry’s La rosiere de Salency (1773) and “Chi brama viver

lieto” from Paisiello’s Il re Teodoro in Venezia (1784), employ many of the characteristics that

have come to identify the barcarolle genre. Chief among these is the fundamental presence of

compound meter, usually either 6/8 or 12/8. With a few notable exceptions (the relatively early

2/4 barcarolles “Nessun maggior dolore” from Rossini’s Otello and “Io son ricco, e tu sei bella”

from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’Amour are cited most frequently) those composed from this point

forward employ compound meter exclusively.

There are a number of possible explanations for this collective metric shift from 3/4 to

6/8 or 12/8. Several scholars suggest that the use of compound meter held particular topical

implications for eighteenth-century audiences—associations that could certainly assist a

composer in establishing a Venetian atmosphere or invoking the gondolier image. Rebecca

Harris-Warrick states that 12/8 meter “automatically signaled an Italian style” to an eighteenth-

century French audience,19 and John Platoff observes that it was a typical convention of that era

for composers to use 6/8 meter to express the simplicity of peasant life, recalling the pastoral. He

remarks “that everyone understood how groups of peasants or simple townspeople ‘should’

sound and presented them in stereotypical fashion without a great deal of thought.”20 Platoff also

notes that other formal aspects of the barcarolle, such as the use of pedal point within the

accompaniment, have associations with traditionally rustic dances like the musette.

In fact, three different Baroque dance forms may be viewed as potential ancestors of the

“new” barcarolle: the forlana, siciliana, and giga. These native Italian dances were well known to

19 Harris-Warrick, 307. 20 John Platoff, “How Original Was Mozart? Evidence from ‘Opera buffa,’” Early Music 20 (February 1992): 109.

contemporary audiences and composers alike,21 and, like the barcarolle of the nineteenth century, employ the same familiar dotted rhythms and gentle sway of compound meter, albeit at different

tempi. As noted by Hellmuth Christian Wolff, dance forms frequently provided the formal

framework for opera arias throughout the seventeenth century,22 and it would have only been

natural for composers to adopt the metric foundation of one of these Italian dances as the basis of an operatic barcarolle.

Edgecombe discusses two distinct ways of musically rendering a journey by water:

The first is to accentuate the smoothness and leisureliness of the motion . . . and the second to focus on the energy of the rower, together with the alternating rhythm of [the] oars, a pattern encapsulated—contingently, perhaps, but conveniently—in the alla zoppa rhythm of the gigue and the analogous sway of the siciliano. Two different kinds of barcarole [sic] will derive from these opposing emphases. In the first, one would tend to find ripply, arpeggiated ostinati, and in the second the cheerful throb of a triple meter divided into unequal members (swing/drag; swing/drag).”23

While he correctly asserts, “Not that folk antecedents have to be invoked: these resources—

languorous, aquatic arpeggios, rocking siciliani, lolloping gigues—were already available as

resources of the art music heritage, ripe for adaptation,”24 there are other reasons to consider

these dance forms as likely progenitors of the modern boat song.

21 Salmen, “Die Barkarole vor Chopin,” 233. 22 Hellmuth Christian Wolff, Die Venezianische Oper in der zweiten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters im Zeitalter des Barock, Bibliotheca musica Bononiensis, Sezione III, no. 48 (Berlin: Otto Elsner, 1937; reprint, Bologna: Forni, 1975), 142 (page citations are to the reprint edition). 23 Edgecombe, 254. 24 Ibid., 255.

The forlana shares close ties to Venice, being indigenous to the Friuli region that borders

the city.25 According to Harris-Warrick, it served, from the time of André Campra’s earliest

Venetian-themed opera-ballets, “as a marker of Venetian-ness—a purveyor of local color” that

“conjured up an exotic and exciting world.”26 Campra utilized the forlana in both Les Fêtes vénitiennes and its predecessor Le carnaval de Venise, and is credited with popularizing the

Italian dance among the French courtesans. Concerning the forlana, dance theorist Carlo Blasis remarked in 1828 that it was “popular with gondoliers and ‘street people.’”27

Alessandro Scarlatti used the 12/8 siciliana extensively in his operatic works. In one, La

caduta de’ Decemviri (1697), thirteen of the arias are written in this meter. Baroque music

theorist Johann Mattheson connected the siciliano directly to the barcarolle as early as 1713 in

his Der Neu-eröffnete Orchestre, and Edgecombe writes that there are “few (if any)

morphological distinctions between the siciliano and many nineteenth-century barcarolles, apart

from an explicit association with water or with travel.”28 One additional feature of the siciliano

that may lend weight to the likelihood of its influence on the barcarolle is its emphasis on

portraying a melancholy theme, a characteristic of the modern barcarolle that does not seem to have an antecedent from any other source. While it may merely be coincidental, it is nonetheless also worth noting that the title “siciliana” essentially vanished from contemporary publications as the nineteenth-century barcarolle became prominent.

25 Wolff, 142. 26 Harris-Warrick, 313. 27 Carlo Blasis, The Code of Terpsichore: A Practical and Historical Treatise, on the Ballet, Dancing, and Pantomime: With a Complete Theory of the Art of Dancing: Intended as Well for the Instruction of Amateurs as the use of Professional Persons, 2nd ed. translated by. R. Barton (London: Edward Bull, 1831, reprint, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Dance Horizons, 1976), 44 (page citations are to the reprint edition).

Music and dance scholar Wye Allanbrook comments that “the gigue in 6/4 (later 6/8),

although a court dance, had strong rustic connotations, and habitually appeared in operas as the meter of peasant choruses.”29 She also identifies the potential interrelation of the gigue and other

compound-meter dances: “The gigue had two sisters, slower versions of 6/8: the so-called

pastorale, moderate-tempoed and legato, and the siciliano, slower than the pastorale, and

typically in dotted rhythms; both had strong Arcadian associations.”30 The possibility that the

tempo of a barcarolle could vary, although most composers eventually settled in on a moderate

choice, may have appealed to the composer eager to provide flexibility for the singer.

Whatever the reason, the barcarolle took on the characteristics described above at the end

of the eighteenth century, setting the stage for its future just in time for its crossover into other

artistic realms. The resulting form bore little resemblance to its early manifestations and can

claim little connection to authentic Venetian folk music.

28 Edgecombe, 257. 29 Wye Allanbrook and Wendy Hilton, “Dance Rhythms in Mozart’s Arias,” Early Music 20 (February 1992): 143–144. 30 Ibid.

Chapter 2 Mendelssohn’s Prototype: The Character Barcarolle

At the same time the barcarolle was developing a standard formal structure within the operatic realm, parallel forces were at work that would likewise influence the development of the solo piano barcarolle. Sociopolitical transformations happening alongside the equally dramatic changes of the Industrial Revolution served to create a climate in which there was an increased appetite for keyboard music of all types.

In the aftermath of political revolutions throughout Europe, the number of middle-class citizens began to increase substantially. These individuals—newly vested with rights about which they could only have dreamed generations earlier, and with the spending power to shape the economic futures of entire nations—were eager to emulate some of the facets of the aristocratic lifestyles they had observed. What had once been a symbol of privilege, available only to a select few—the opportunity to hear and to help to create great music—was now within reach, and many were eager to stake their claim to this heritage.

Of various approaches utilized in this pursuit, the one most relevant to the present study centers upon domestic music making. In some countries this notion of communal music making extended all the way to society’s most basic unit, the family. Hausmusik, as it was called in

Germany, became a vital part of all social gatherings with family members and invited guests taking part (see Figure 2-1), and was a celebrated element of middle-class life. In England the ability to sing and play the piano was a mark of superior upbringing and became symbolic of a complete education, especially for young women. Demand for private music instruction in these regions increased dramatically, along with a corresponding rise in calls for compositions suitable for amateur performance.

Many of these freshly

minted bourgeoisie, eager to

carve out a reputation within

the new society, hosted lavish

musical gatherings in a parlor

or drawing room, during which

any amateur performers among

the invited could display their

musical abilities either as

soloists or in ensemble. Figure 2-1: Das Basler Familienkonzert (1849) by Sebastian Historian Carl Dahlhaus writes Gutzwiller (Kunstmuseum, Basel)

that the resulting social network, known as the Biedermeier in Germany, “was characterized by

an intermingling of convivial culture, educational function, and bourgeois self-display.”1 The

French salon tradition, while seemingly equivalent to that of the Biedermeier, maintained an important distinction: while amateur musicians made up a significant portion of the audience at such gatherings and provided frequent patronage, performances were generally given only by trained professional musicians—young composers and performers eager to try out a series of new works or to improvise on the latest fashionable melodies of the day.

At the center of these musical gatherings was the pianoforte. Thomas Christensen observes that the “upright pianoforte was of course one of the emblematic furnishings of the

1 Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music, translated by J. Bradford Robinson, California Studies in 19th- century Music Series, ed. Joseph Kerman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 174.

bourgeois parlor.”2 Important manufacturing improvements during the Industrial Revolution had

placed the cost of a piano within reach of most upper- and middle-class households, and the

number of piano manufacturers increased dramatically due to this unprecedented demand. As the

piano ascended to its eventual status as preferred instrument of the nineteenth-century household, a corresponding explosion of new piano-related repertoire soon followed.

Christensen also notes that the pianoforte is “associated with the most intimate musical genres (the lyrical piano piece [and] the Lied)”3 that were developed during the entire Romantic

era. The Lied, or art song, is not directly related to the present study, but a brief discussion of its relationship to the development of barcarolle literature for solo keyboard will prove valuable.

The German Lied was ideally suited to the Biedermeier parlor environment, with its combination

of high-level poetry and subtle musical sophistry. Franz Schubert, who elevated the art form to

its lofty perch among Romantic genres, regularly performed dozens of his lieder and other works at Biedermeier-style gatherings known fondly as “Schubertiads” that were staged by his closest

friends. The subsequent publication of Schubert’s Lieder popularized the art form throughout

Europe and led to a heightened interest in the composition of art songs among young German

musicians associated with the Biedermeier movement—Carl Loewe, Carl Zelter, and others—

and composers of many other nations, who began to compose art songs prolifically for

performance in domestic settings.

2 Thomas Christensen, “Four-Hand Piano Transcription and Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Musical Reception,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 52 (Summer 1999): 285. 3 Ibid.

Among Schubert’s more than 600 extant Lieder, it is perhaps not surprising to discover

several barcarolle-like works; a barcarolle for solo voice and piano seems a natural extension of

the popular operatic barcarolle from the stage into the Biedermeier drawing room. Herbert

Schneider cites several examples from among Schubert’s songs that might on some level be

considered barcarolles because of their association with water, though not expressly labeled as such: “Auf dem Wasser zu Singen,” D. 774; “Der Schiffer,” D. 536; “Gondelfahrer,” D. 808,

“Des Fischers Liebesglück,” D. 933; and “Das Fischermädchen,” D. 957/10.4 Rossini also composed several Venetian-themed art songs that have the character of the operatic barcarolle with which he was obviously very familiar: “La Gita in gondola,” “La Passegiata,” and “La

Regatta veneziana.”

Not all Lieder composers focused strictly upon original songs. As national identity became more important, many musicians turned to creating artistic settings of well-known folk melodies from throughout the world. Several Venetian-themed works are included in such collections. The melodies upon which the majority of these are based come from an interesting collection of songs called canzoni da battello, or “boating songs,” published in several volumes by John Walsh during the 1740s. Modern commentator Michael Talbot, speaking of these canzoni, emphatically states, “In no sense are we dealing with genuinely ethnomusicological material.”5 Nonetheless, at the time of their publication they were represented as authentic folk

melodies, and as such, found their way into a number of later compositions. Beethoven, for

4 Herbert Schneider, “Barkarole,” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, 2nd ed., Sachteil, Vol. 1, ed. Ludwig Finscher (Stuttgart: Bärenreiter, 1994), 1234. 5 Michael Talbot, “Reviewed Works: Canzoni da battello (1740–1750) by Sergio Barcellona; Galliano Titton,” Music & Letters 73 (May 1992): 334.

example, arranged the most famous of these songs, “La Biondina in Gondoletta,” for solo voice and piano, and placed it into one of his published sets of international folk songs.6

It was not long before many of the virtuoso pianists of the day began to combine the

vocal melody and piano accompaniment of some of the most popular lieder into versions for solo

piano. Others composed free fantasias upon popular melodies from art song, opera, and concert

music. This trend, too, included barcarolle melodies. As the piano became more prominent as a

solo instrument during the nineteenth century, so did the number of transcriptions of famous melodies from across the musical spectrum—the concert hall, the operatic stage, and the salon.

No less a pianist than Franz Liszt transcribed Schubert’s “Auf dem Wasser zu Singen” and two of Rossini’s Venetian songs, “La gita in gondola” and “La Regatta veneziana,” for piano solo, using his own inimitable style. He also created elaborate solo fantasias based upon two popular barcarolle melodies of the era: Gondoliera, on the same melody [“La Biondina in

Gondoletta”] that Beethoven borrowed from the canzoni di battello collection, and Canzone, derived from the gondolier’s song “Nessun maggior dolore” from Rossini’s Otello. Both were

later published within the Venezia e Napoli supplement to his Années de Pelerinage: Italie.

Additional examples include Chopin’s Souvenir de Paganini (1829), a solo keyboard fantasia

based upon the popular song “Le Carnaval de Venise,” and Henri Herz’ virtuoso transformation

of the barcarolle theme from Auber’s grand opera La Muette de Portici into a piano piece titled

Rondo-capriccio.

6 Walter Salmen, “Die Barkarole vor Chopin: Herkunft und Semantik eines musikalischen Genres,” in Festschrift Hubert Unverricht zum 65. Geburtstag, Eichstätter Abhandlungen zur Musikwissenschaft, Band 9, ed. Karlheinz Schlager (Tutzing, Germany: Hans Schneider, 1992), 238.

It was a series of textless solo keyboard compositions based upon the form of the German

Lied, however, that provided the model for most of the keyboard barcarolles included in the

present examination. The Lieder ohne Worte (“song without words”), as they became known,

belong to a much larger body of works known collectively by several generic titles: miniature,

lyric piece, and character piece. These labels all refer to “a small composition, usually in a

simple form (the ternary scheme, A–B–A, [being] the most common) . . . [to which] composers

often gave descriptive, expressive, or programmatic titles that indicate what they are intended to

express or what the proper associations are.”7 These character pieces comprise a significant portion of the Romantic piano repertoire. Undoubtedly, the idea of composing and performing character pieces, the melodies of which imitated those sung by the Venetian gondolieri, replete with implicit allusions to music and love, was attractive to those eager to establish themselves among the fashionable parlors and salons of the nineteenth-century upper crust.

The term Lied ohne Worte was coined by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn during their childhood. Mendelssohn scholar R. Larry Todd remarks that the “new piano genre touched on a fundamental problem that confronted nineteenth-century aestheticians of music: in Friedhelm

Krummacher’s formulation, how to make instrumental music, now enjoying more and more autonomy from vocal music, comprehensible to the public.”8 Todd further notes that, although

“attempts have been made to trace the origins of the Songs without Words to various character

pieces of Schubert, Dussek, Tomasek, and [Felix] Mendelssohn’s teacher Ludwig Berger—

7 F. E. Kirby, Music for Piano: A Short History (Portland, Ore.: Amadeus Press, 1995; corr. reprint, Portland, Ore.: Amadeus Press, 1997), 138 (page citations are to the reprint edition). 8 R. Larry Todd, “Piano Music Reformed: The Case of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy,” in The Mendelssohn Companion, ed. Douglass Seaton (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001), 594.

thereby diminishing the scope of [the Mendelssohns’] contribution,”9 the original idea for the

Lieder ohne Worte came, according to a letter written by Fanny in 1838, from a game played by the two siblings as children in which they “devised verses to fit to instrumental pieces,”10—a diversion that eventually became a treasured means of communication between the pair.

Felix Mendelssohn composed his first group of six Lieder ohne Worte for solo piano over a period of several years during which he was traveling extensively throughout Europe.

Interestingly, he was at the same time crafting a set of six texted Lieder, and both collections contain examples of the solo song, duet, and part song. Only one of the Lieder ohne Worte from this first set (published as opus 19b) bears a descriptive title: the composition created while

Mendelssohn was visiting Venice on October 16, 1830 that he labeled “Venetianisches

Gondellied.” Inspired by his Italian surroundings, he remarked in correspondence with his family, “Italy at last! And what I have all my life considered as the greatest possible felicity is now begun, and I am basking in it.”11

As one of the few Romantic-era barcarolle composers who actually visited Venice,

Mendelssohn took great care in patterning “Venetianisches Gondellied” after the manner of

popular Italian song, with melodic thirds and sixths in duet over an undulating harmonic

accompaniment in 6/8 meter. Selecting G minor as the key for this composition allowed

Mendelssohn to place the “vocal” lines in appropriate registers, and also followed established

convention in conveying the expected melancholy mood.

9 Ibid., 593. 10 R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 191. 11 Philip Radcliffe, Mendelssohn, rev. ed., The Master Musicians Series, ed. Sir Jack Westrup (London: Dent and Sons, 1967), 22.

Felix Mendelssohn is often criticized by modern scholars who complain of a lack of

originality in his Lieder ohne Worte. Todd summarizes these complaints by stating,

“Mendelssohn was a musician whose delicate ‘parlor-room’ Lieder ohne Worte betrayed a

proclivity toward the saccharine . . . [and] revealed a sentimental, effeminate nature. He . . .

relied excessively on rhythmically predictable melodies with square-cut, symmetrical phrases.

His treatment of harmony and tonality offered few innovations.”12 However, in this first

“Venetianisches Gondellied” there is some evidence to suggest that, whatever his shortcomings,

Mendelssohn was not merely an ordinary composer of mundane keyboard music. For example,

he consistently varied phrase lengths throughout the composition. While the majority of the phrases, four of the seven, are of the traditional four-bar variety, Mendelssohn incorporated two

five-bar phrases and one six-bar phrase to counteract any tendency toward predictability.

Furthermore, he defied the usual symmetry of standard ternary form by following an 18-bar A

section with a 9-bar B section, followed again by a 5-bar return to A.

An interesting feature of the Lied ohne Worte is its prelude and postlude, mirroring the

form of the vocal Lied. Here again, Mendelssohn employed asymmetrical phrase lengths of

seven bars in both the prelude and postlude of this G-minor “Venetianisches Gondellied,” and

added further variety by unexpectedly beginning the postlude with the third bar of the prelude.

The prelude also features some of the most interesting harmonic writing of the piece. After

repeatedly establishing the tonality of G minor with successive root-position triads, the music

moves unexpectedly down to F major, emphasizing the surprise with a sforzando, to imply that the G minor was actually the submediant of the subsequent B-flat major triad. To subtly wink at

12 Todd, Mendelssohn, xx.

his own joke, the composer marked the identical passage pianissimo when it recurs in the

postlude.

Mendelssohn also made an interesting textural choice within the B section of this

composition. Rather than continuing the steady rowing pattern of the A section that is typical of

so many barcarolle accompaniments, he substituted an “oom-pah-pah” motive more reminiscent

of the waltz. The lighter tone created as a result of this subtle shift provides a welcome, if brief,

respite from the prevailing melancholy of the remainder of the work.

The melodic contour of the G-minor “Venetianisches Gondellied” is rather traditional

and unremarkable, although Mendelssohn went to great lengths to emphasize the trademark

augmented second within the harmonic minor scale after having earlier created the illusion of

natural minor by emphasizing F natural in the prelude. Traditionally, the augmented second was

avoided in writing for the voice because of its awkwardness in singing. However, over an eight-

bar span between measures 14 and 21, Mendelssohn’s melody traverses the lowered-sixth and raised-seventh scale degrees four times, each time in ascent. He even placed accents over the final two instances, which occur in successive measures for added emphasis. Immediately following that passage Mendelssohn introduced repeated melodic tritones, also a difficult interval to sing. Thus, while this piano solo was envisioned as an imitation of a vocal Lied, it certainly appears that its melody was not crafted for actual vocalization.

This observation calls into question the belief held by some Mendelssohn observers that he had composed his Lieder ohne Worte to actual lyrics, which he subsequently removed prior to publishing the works for piano solo. According to Mendelssohn biographer Todd, “Whether

Felix had in mind specific texts for individual Lieder is unclear; Robert Schumann later imagined

that the Lieder ohne Worte originated as songs, the texts of which were then suppressed.”13 Over the years, many others have attempted to similarly ascribe texts to the Lieder ohne Worte. John

Michael Cooper comments that “so intriguing was the simultaneous suggestion and denial of extramusical content presented by these works’ generic designation that nineteenth-century musicians frequently contrived texts . . . which purported to reveal the poetic ideas underlying the music.”14 Nonetheless, it is Todd’s belief that Mendelssohn “intended the pieces as

abstractions of the art song, though he left tantalizing clues to encourage listeners to make the

leap between the autonomous domain of piano music and German lyrical poetry,”15 a belief supported by the curious melodic structure of the G-minor “Venetianisches Gondellied.”

Admittedly, there are aspects of the work that are less successful. Mendelssohn displayed a tendency to overuse the diminished-seventh chord as a means of providing dashes of harmonic coloration rather than the more adventurous augmented sixth or augmented triad, although there is one German-sixth chord employed near a cadence at measure 24. Likewise, there is little harmonic excitement generated by the temporary establishment of D minor as tonic at measure

17, as this is merely the minor dominant of the original tonic and the harmony quickly returns to

G minor within eight bars, never to stray again.

13 Ibid., 414. 14 John Michael Cooper, “Words Without Songs? Of Texts, Titles, and Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte,” in Music als Text: Bericht über den Internationalen Kongress der Gesellschaft für Musikforschuing Freiburg im Breisgau 1993, Vol. 2, ed. Hermann Danuser and Tobias Plebuch (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1998), 341. 15 Todd, Mendelssohn, 414.

Nevertheless, there is enough inventiveness throughout this short work to place it well

above the efforts of most of Mendelssohn’s contemporaries, perhaps even alongside the best of

those works designed primarily for amateur performance such as Robert Schumann’s Album für die Jugend. Its effectiveness stems from the composer’s ability to capture the Italianate essence within the vocal line without straying too far from the popular operatic roots of the barcarolle, with its lilting rhythms and harmonic predictability. In the right performer’s hands, it is a shining snapshot of Romantic imagination.

The initial success of Mendelssohn’s first group of Lieder ohne Worte, opus 19b, was modest, at least when measured by the sales records of his domestic and international publishers.16 Nevertheless, Felix continued to cultivate the new musical form, and within a year

had produced a second set of six Lieder ohne Worte, a set that once again concludes with a work

titled “Venetianisches Gondellied.” This second Venetian boat song is significantly longer than

its predecessor, and aside from the characteristic 6/8 meter and minor key (this time, F-sharp

minor), it shares little else in common with the first. Its formal structure is more symmetrical: the

fourteen-bar length of the B section is nearly equal to that of the sixteen-bar A section. In the

second boat song Mendelssohn actually created a structure that bears closer resemblance to a

rondo than to traditional A-B-A form by repeating the B and half of the A section prior to the

postlude, which functions more like an extended coda in its continued exploration of melodic

elements. The prelude and postlude/coda of the newer work thus differ in content and length,

unlike the mirror-like nature of those in the first boat song. Mendelssohn used the postlude/coda

16 Glenn Stanley, “The Music for Keyboard,” in The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn, ed. Peter Mercer-Taylor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 152.

in the second “Venetianisches Gondellied” to recall the startling, high melodic trill found at the

conclusion of the work’s B section; however, he separated these outbursts with brief

“accompanimental” interludes that quickly rebuild the dramatic tension so that the trill can

repeatedly unwind it. Ultimately, this unusual postlude/coda concludes with a pair of two-note

figures, one ascending and one descending, that halt the forward motion with abrupt finality.

The tighter melodic structure of the second work is based entirely upon the interval of a third. From the opening cry of a plaintive E-sharp ascending to G-sharp, this motive and its inversion provide the foundation for all subsequent melodic motion. These initial two pitches reappear at important junctures throughout the work, usually the beginning of new themes or the conclusion of phrases. The tension caused by their relentless presence, juxtaposed on either side of the F-sharp tonic, is never fully dissipated until the final measures of the coda, and even when it subsides Mendelssohn refused to resolve the E-sharp leading tone directly to F-sharp, preferring instead to prolong the suspense by having the melody travel first to the second and

fifth scale degrees.

Another melodic difference in the second work is treatment of the vocal line. Rather than

utilizing the duet model exclusively, Mendelssohn began the F-sharp minor boat song with a solo

melody that occupies the entire A section. Only in the contrasting B section does a second vocal

part appear, a distinct textural change that generates additional momentum. The solo line

resumes after only ten measures with a stunning pianissimo trill on a high C-sharp and continues

on its solitary journey throughout the remainder of the piece.

There are nevertheless a few noteworthy similarities between the two barcarolles. Like

the G-minor work, the prelude to Mendelssohn’s second “Venetianisches Gondellied” is

interrupted by a sudden, emphatic intonation of the seventh scale degree in the soprano voice. In

the latter work the composer further heightened this effect by maintaining the tonic F-sharp pedal

tone, creating a dramatic and rather unexpected major-seventh dissonance that remains

unresolved for four measures until the A section begins. The harmonic palette utilized within both works remains largely within the diatonic structure of their respective minor scales, relying primarily upon tonic, subdominant, and dominant triads with only an occasional secondary or secondary- dominant chord to vary some of the progressions. In both cases, the first excursion outside the primary-triad domain is to the relative major, a very conventional sequence within a

work based in a minor key.

In some respects the second “Venetianisches Gondellied” is more conservative than its

G-minor counterpart. Harmonically, Mendelssohn employed only the tonic (F-sharp minor) or

dominant (C-sharp major) key areas in nearly eighty percent of the work. To wit, thirty-six of the

work’s seventy-seven measures—nearly half—are harmonized with an F-sharp minor triad, and

of the twenty-six measures in the dominant, five feature F-sharp pedal points. To occasionally

venture away from these two key areas, Mendelssohn used secondary-function chords to tonicize

temporary stopping points and modulated via third relations. Another conservative aspect not found within the earlier barcarolle is the continual use of the same accompanimental pattern from

beginning to end.

Ultimately, Mendelssohn succeeded in creating a composition that demonstrates greater

emotional substance than its predecessor. The second “Venetianisches Gondellied,” although

conservative in some respects, is a more mature work, less derivative of Italian popular song. In

it the composer explored a broad range of expression through extreme dynamic contrast and by

exploiting an expanded “vocal” range, especially in its upper register. Consequently, this work

established Mendelssohn at the forefront of barcarolle composers for solo piano.

Not until he had published two more volumes of Lieder ohne Worte, opp. 38 and 53, did

Mendelssohn revisit the concept of the Venetian boat song. The third “Venetianisches

Gondellied” appeared in 1844 as the fifth of six pieces contained within opus 62. Also in 6/8 meter, this new composition in the key of A minor adheres in many respects to precedents established by its older siblings. For instance, the prelude once again contains a two-note motive that emerges suddenly from the texture through the use of extreme dynamic contrast. Like

Mendelssohn’s second boat song, the original motive recurs between different sections and themes throughout the third one. Harmonically, the new piece resembles the first

“Venetianisches Gondellied” in its reliance upon the diminished-seventh chord, both in frequency and manner of application. Also like the first, the melodic voices form a duet at the third and sixth from beginning to end.

Mendelssohn’s third barcarolle also contains a number of original features. Formally, it begins with a shorter prelude, just four bars all in the tonic, before introducing the first melodic gesture. At the conclusion of section A, the entire first theme immediately repeats an octave higher rather than launching directly into the B section as in the earlier examples. Section B ultimately arrives in the traditional dominant key, but it features a relatively bold harmonic sequence that includes a borrowed chord and a Neapolitan sixth before concluding with a truncated version of A that facilitates a return to the tonic. In the restatement of the B section, instead of octave displacement utilized earlier, a repeated note, throbbing on each offbeat, is added to vary the texture and energize the forward motion.

As a final surprise Mendelssohn reprised the B section once more, but in the tonic key— requiring a change of mode to A major—as a sort of coda, and concluded with an extended postlude that features a filigree of sixteenth notes over the incessant accompanimental pattern

and the final statements of the original two-note motive. This, of course, is the only time within any of the “Venetianisches Gondellieder” that the music spends more than a brief moment in the major mode, lending a sense of optimism to this third boat song that recalls its roots in the Italian dance.

That Mendelssohn had a special affinity toward the Venetian boat song is evident in several of his personal decisions related to the genre. Todd notes that, “as the Lieder ohne Worte grew in popularity, Felix seems to have stiffened his resolve not to allow poetic ideas to influence unduly the appreciation of the music.”17 Of the forty-eight works that were eventually published as Lieder ohne Worte, only two others were given titles by the composer aside from the “Venetianisches Gondellieder” under discussion here: “Duetto,” op. 38 no. 6, and “Volks-

Lied,” op. 53 no. 5. John Michael Cooper believes that Mendelssohn generally refused to

“impose a verbal formulation of his own upon that of the listener, which would be sufficiently clear if—and only if—the music was successful.”18

Mendelssohn clearly took great care before affixing a descriptive title to any of the Lieder ohne Worte. He was certainly not averse to removing one. An illustration may be found in the case of Lied ohne Worte, op. 53 no. 3, the autograph of which bears the title Gondellied—a title that was “evidently suppressed by Mendelssohn” 19 prior to its publication, as it does not appear in print. In spite of the fact that following Felix’s death in 1847 most of the other Lieder ohne

Worte gradually “acquired from their publishers in the second half of the nineteenth century all manner of insipid titles—‘Consolation,’ ‘May Breezes,’ and the like—titles that Mendelssohn

17 Ibid., 414. 18 Cooper, 341–42.

never would have authorized”—in an attempt to boost lagging sales,20 it remains significant that

the composer himself chose to title his three Venetian boat songs.

Likewise, the dedications that Mendelssohn inscribed upon the autograph copies of

several of his barcarolles indicate that they also held special personal meaning for the composer.

The first was dedicated to Delphine von Schauroth, a young Bavarian pianist with whom

Mendelssohn had become romantically infatuated while on his way to Italy during the summer of

1830. According to Todd, “Memories of Delphine distracted Felix, and on October 16 he also

composed two Lieder about their relationship . . . the second [being] a Lied ohne Worte for piano

solo, [his] first Venetian ‘Gondellied.’”21 The second and third are also dedicated to young female pianists whom Mendelssohn held in high regard, Henriette Voigt and Clara Schumann, although presumably without romantic attachment.

Along these same lines, a fourth “Gondellied,” now thought to have been composed by

Mendelssohn for his young bride Cecile in 1837, appeared in a supplement to Robert

Schumann’s Neue Zeitscrift für Musik in 1841, but remained relatively unknown until after

Mendelssohn’s death. Although not included within the eight volumes of Lieder ohne Worte, it nonetheless displays the same characteristic features as the others contained therein, and thus is often included in modern publications as an appendage to the same. Unlike the previous examples, all of which were rooted primarily in minor keys, Mendelssohn began and ended this work in the key of A major. Additionally, the work journeys to a foreign key area (C major) for the first and only time within any of these boat songs, and Mendelssohn reharmonized several

19 Todd, “Piano,” 595. 20 Todd, Mendelssohn, xxvii.

short passages when they recur after their initial statement. While not everything is harmonically

fresh, Mendelssohn utilized a number of unexpected modulatory techniques that offer a few

surprises along the way.

He also varied several formal aspects of the A-major “Gondellied” in ways different from

those he employed in any of the preceding works. The most successful is incorporation of both a

coda and postlude at the barcarolle’s conclusion. The coda serves a dual purpose: to dissipate the

tension of its opening diminished-seventh chord and to introduce the inversion of a short motive

from the bass line of the prelude into the vocal line prior to its appearance again in the bass line

of the postlude. Other new features are less convincing, such as the monothematic nature of the

B section. In addition, the melody contains a rather extraordinary number of octave leaps that

interrupt the linear continuity and call into question its “singability.”

Considering Mendelssohn’s particular fondness for the barcarolle genre, there is a temptation to speculate upon why Mendelssohn withheld this work from publication. Possible reasons could include its personal connection to his wife Cecile, its prior appearance in

Schumann’s periodical, or simply the composer’s own dissatisfaction with one or more of its elements. Concerning the Lieder ohne Worte, musicologist Glenn Stanley observes that

Mendelssohn “took them seriously indeed, making numerous revisions to individual songs and their arrangement into volumes—they were not lightly tossed off.”22 While Mendelssohn indeed

made a conscious decision to exclude his fourth “Gondellied” from the first six volumes of

21 Ibid., 234. 22 Stanley, 151–52.

Lieder ohne Worte (the final two sets having been published posthumously) it cannot be assumed

with certainty that personal displeasure alone kept him from releasing it to a wider audience.

Although it falls outside the parameters of this study, it should be noted that Mendelssohn

also composed a texted “Venetianisches Gondellied” among his many works for solo voice. For

his text Mendelssohn selected a poem titled “When through the Piazetta” by Sir Thomas Moore, translated into German by Ferdinand Freiligrath. (Robert Schumann also chose this text for his

“Venetianische Lied II” from Myrthen.) Interestingly, although Moore’s poem is strophic,

Mendelssohn set it using the same ternary or rounded binary structure of his solo piano

“Gondellieder.” The phrase lengths of the song are generally more traditional than those of the piano pieces, although Mendelssohn extended several through the employment of devices such as a deceptive cadence and direct motivic repetition. Harmonically, the song most closely resembles the later A-minor Lied ohne Worte with its extended journey to the relative major throughout the B section. Regarding the piano accompaniment, Douglass Seaton comments that while “the piano has an important role to play in several [of Mendelssohn’s] songs that refer to boats, the gondola song Op. 57 no. 5 comes to mind immediately, with its . . . gently rocking compound-rhythm figuration, which makes for a seductively relaxing or even hypnotic effect.”23

Mendelssohn shifted the bass rhythm to great effect in the coda, placing the emphasis on the

second beat of each measure as he quoted again from the opening melody and extended the

drama with a fermata to close the work.

23 Douglass Seaton, “With Words: Mendelssohn’s Vocal Songs,” in The Mendelssohn Companion, ed. Douglass Seaton (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001), 684.

A final example of Mendelssohn’s subtle creativity in the genre may be observed by

considering all of the various “Gondellieder” alongside one another. A persistent ostinato-like

pattern that runs almost unnoticed in imitation of rowing beneath the melody is a vital aspect of

any barcarolle, one that could easily become formulaic. Yet a comparison of the left-hand

accompanimental patterns in each of Mendelssohn’s boat songs yields evidence of the

composer’s genius. While every one of the figures is made up only of triad tones and must

conform to the traditional 6/8 meter, Mendelssohn never reused the same motive within his four

barcarolles. Moreover, he subtly modified the character of each pattern by shifting the metric placement of the lowest bass tone within the triplet grouping or by reversing direction (see

Figure 2-2). For example, a comparison of the patterns used to accompany the G-minor and A-

minor barcarolles illustrates how even a simple directional change can substantially alter the

Figure 2–2: Left-hand accompaniment patterns in Felix Mendelssohn’s “Gondellieder”

effect of a recurring motive, without taking into account other interpretive factors such as pedaling and use of rubato. Although they line up identically within the beat, the ascending

motion of the A-minor figure deemphasizes the traditionally strong bass tone and draws attention instead to its upper chord tones. In contrast, while the descending motion of the G-minor figure allows the customary stress to be placed upon its lowest pitch, that same motion also lends weight to the upper chord tones that immediately follow, adding a sense of urgency to the pattern and highlighting the iambic possibilities available within compound meter.

Mendelssohn’s “Gondellieder” were not the first solo keyboard compositions that attempted to channel the spirit of Venice. Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Venitienne” (1706, from his first published book of harpsichord pieces), Francois Couperin’s “Les gondoles de Délos” (1730, from his Ordre 23), and Georg Joseph Vogler’s “Barcarolle de Venisse” (1806, from his collection titled Polymelos) are isolated examples of earlier works found within the traditional keyboard suite. Had they proven influential, they might be considered archetypes of the modern barcarolle, though like the early operatic models, these too lack many of the features now considered essential to the genre.

Although the Lieder ohne Worte, by their association with the primarily feminine world of amateur domestic music-making, would later unfairly tarnish his reputation as a great composer, in conducting what Glenn Stanley terms “the successful experiment of transferring vocal idioms to the keyboard,”24Felix Mendelssohn effectively “blurred the lines between the

song and character piece.”25 In the words of Friedhelm Krummacher, they “formed a Romantic prototype, defined by the continuity of the cantabile melodic style combined with the regularity

24 Stanley, 152. 25 Todd, Mendelssohn, 261–62.

of the accompaniment, and thereby the aesthetic ideal of poetic unity was fulfilled.”26 Of the

Lieder ohne Worte, scholar Charles Rosen writes, “If we could be satisfied today with a simple beauty that raises no questions and does not attempt to puzzle us, the short pieces would resume their old place in the concert repertoire.”27

26 Friedhelm Krummacher, “Art—History—Religion: On Mendelssohn’s Oratorios St. Paul and Elijah,” in The Mendelssohn Companion, ed. Douglass Seaton (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004), 305. 27 Charles Rosen, The Romantic Generation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), 589.

Chapter 3 Frederic Chopin and the Concert Barcarolle

It was not long before other composers, among them Louis Spohr, Henry Litolff, and

Stephen Heller, began to publish works in the style of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte. In

rather short order, dozens of such works, many absent of artistic integrity, had reached an eager

public. Musicologist Jim Samson describes them collectively as “Biedermeier art, prone to easy

sentiment, ephemeral charm and homely cliché.”1 The emergence of these inferior compositions,

bearing the same title as Felix’s and thus implying, by association, a link with the Mendelssohn

name, “annoyed the family, and also provoked some critical commentary in musical journals.”2

Historian Glenn Stanley further relates that while “Schumann and other critics admired

Mendelssohn’s pieces and some found them to be an important artistic innovation . . . negative views toward the idea of the genre (not the music itself) . . . began to emerge in the 1840s.”3

There is no documentary evidence to indicate whether Chopin had heard or studied any of Mendelssohn’s “Venetianisches Gondellieder” prior to composing his Barcarolle, although he was likely aware of the existence of the Lieder ohne Worte. The two composers had become acquainted in 1831 through mutual friend Ferdinand Hiller,4 and continued a warm friendship

over their remaining years. Chopin is known to have utilized some of Mendelssohn’s

1 Jim Samson, The Music of Chopin (London: Routledge Press, 1985, reprint, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 122 (page citations to reprint edition). 2 Glenn Stanley, “The Music for Keyboard,” in The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn, ed. Peter Mercer-Taylor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 152. 3 Ibid. 4 Samson, 219.

compositions in his private piano teaching.5 Nevertheless, whether Chopin might have actually

used any of the Mendelssohn Lieder ohne Worte as models for his Barcarolle is merely a matter

of speculation.

The composers’ backgrounds are similar with respect to domestic music-making. Like

Mendelssohn, Chopin had been exposed to this lifestyle from birth, and as a result “moved easily

in this society.”6 The young Chopin appeared frequently as a performer in the Polish salons,

modeled upon those of the French. His earliest compositions are based upon the popular social

dances of Polish tradition, such as the polonaise, mazurka, and waltz. Many of the works of his

teenage years bear the marks of salon influence with their emphasis upon technical display and grandiose gesture. At the same time, Chopin, according to Jim Samson, was seemingly “aware of

the limitations of the salon, recognizing only too clearly that much of its music was modish and

trivial . . . yet he never rejected the salon and he was in due course to invest its music with new

dimensions of quality and beauty.”7 Samson also comments upon the unusual craftsmanship of

Chopin’s efforts in this arena, noting that, unlike many composers of salon music, “Chopin

agonized almost as much over the waltzes as over the ballades.”8

When Chopin arrived in Paris as a young man of twenty-one, he found a flourishing

salon culture not unlike that of his native land, only much more extensive. As Samson wrote,

“The salon was an institution in Paris.”9 He describes something of a social hierarchy in which

5 Ibid., 60. 6 Ibid., 14. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid., 122. 9 Ibid., 121.

“there were of course salons and [then] salons, from the dazzling gatherings at the Rothschilds,

where the most famous artists of the day would assemble and where there would be a high

degree of musical expertise among the guests, to the soirées of well-to-do-citizens eager to ape

their social betters and be seen to lend their support to the arts.”10 It was the former type to which

Chopin was habitually drawn, and he composed many of his masterpieces for its audience of

musical connoisseurs.

While performing in the Parisian salons Chopin continued to develop and refine one of

the most celebrated aspects of his piano music, the cantabile melodic style modeled upon Italian bel canto. Among his many works, the nocturnes for solo keyboard best exemplify this quality.

Interestingly, when identifying prominent historic characteristics of the barcarolle, Herbert

Schneider remarked that “since in approximately a quarter of the repertoire the travel by boat or gondola takes place at night, there is a connection with the nocturne.”11 Chopin exploited these

connections in composing Barcarolle, op. 60, which eminent British musicologist Arthur Hedley

once knowingly called “the finest of the nocturnes.”12 One of Chopin’s final compositions,

Samson describes the Barcarolle as “a monument to melody and ornamentation . . . [that was]

among the last glorious flowerings of Chopin’s lyricism.”13

In terms of formal architecture, Chopin’s Barcarolle is on a much larger scale than either

his own nocturnes or Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte. Considering its 12/8 meter against the

6/8 of Mendelssohn’s boat songs, the 111 measures of Chopin’s composition effectively become

10 Ibid. 11 Herbert Schneider, “Barkarole,” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, 2nd ed., Sachteil, Vol. 1, ed. Ludwig Finscher (Stuttgart: Bärenreiter, 1994), 1232. 12 Samson, 96.

more than 220—three times the length of Mendelssohn’s most extended “Venetianisches

Gondellied.” Chopin’s metric choice also lends breadth to the phrase structure and creates a

sense of expansiveness that permeates the entire piece.

Right away, the work breaks from Mendelssohn’s formal model with a bold introduction announced by an accented C-sharp bass octave followed immediately by a forte G-sharp minor chord in the treble. British composer Lennox Berkeley says of this decision, “Feeling, no doubt, that to start straight into the accompanying figure would be insufficiently arresting, [Chopin] writes a brief introduction, already taut and intense in harmony”14—an opening that he calls

“striking and typical of Chopin’s innate sense of what is effective in performance.”15 The tension

unwinds over two subsequent bars of gradually decreasing intensity, as the C-sharp pedal

remains beneath to bring the rapidly fluctuating harmonies into context. Suddenly, Chopin’s

artistic sensibilities once again reveal themselves in an equally dramatic pause.

Once the work settles into its traditional accompanimental prelude, it conforms more closely to the ternary structure typical of the character barcarolle, albeit on a larger scale.

Nonetheless, Chopin injected originality into the form through the addition of episodic passages between each of the major sections. Peter Gould ardently states that “the importance of the episode in Chopin’s music is often [overlooked]. . . . It is in these structural devices, these

13 Ibid. 14 Lennox Berkeley, “Nocturnes, Berceuse, Barcarolle,” in Chopin: Profiles of the Man and the Musician, ed. Alan Walker (London: Barrie & Rockliff, 1966), 185. 15 Ibid.

parentheses, that a significant outpouring of his imagination is to be found. Without them, his

music would be unrecognizable.”16

The first of these episodes appears in measure 35, at the conclusion of the A section.

Chopin’s clever decision to alter the fifth consecutive reiteration of the tonic F-sharp major triad

to F-sharp minor sets the stage perfectly for the austere, meandering single-line passage that

eventually lands unexpectedly in A major, launching the B section. This episode, like most found

within Chopin’s works, features completely new material, although in this instance it slightly

resembles the character of the opening introduction. Chopin later wove the new episodic material

into the underlying texture before allowing it to disappear completely, never to surface again.

One of the most magical utterances in all of Chopin’s works occurs within another

episode between the B section and the return to A. Marked dolce sfogato, this indescribably

beautiful passage is noteworthy for its utter lack of forward motion as the melodic line timelessly

improvises over the stillness of a single arpeggio. Appropriately, the Italian term sfogato implies

“a state of ecstasy or enchantment—a holding of breath.”17 Again, however, Chopin ultimately

utilized the episodic material to suit the purposes of the form by transforming the free melismatic

material of the vocal line into an energetic pattern of rising and falling minor seconds that builds

momentum quickly, leading directly into the reprise.

Although it is possible to label Chopin’s Barcarolle in a very broad sense using ternary form, there are also interesting formal aspects to consider within each of its larger sections. For

16 Peter Gould, “Sonatas and Concertos,” in Chopin: Profiles of the Man and the Musician, ed. Alan Walker (London: Barrie & Rockliff, 1966), 162–63. 17 Carol Montparker, “Chopin’s Barcarolle, Part I,” Clavier 22 (April 1983): 22.

instance, the first A section can itself be analyzed as a “mini-ternary” structure, a sort of microcosm of the entire work. Within the first theme the music modulates from the tonic to the dominant over eleven bars, from measure 6 to measure 16, and the closing theme is extended, modulating further to the distant key area of A-sharp major/minor, by introducing a new motive that is unrelated to any earlier material. Thus, it may be termed a different section, although its length, significantly less than that of the first theme, may indicate that it might better be labeled an episode. Nonetheless, upon its conclusion, the first theme clearly returns in the tonic key, as though it has indeed been “away.”

While the microstructure of the large B section is aab rather than aba, that “small b”—the melody of which, as commented upon by Samson, Berkeley, and others, mimics the style of a popular Italian folk song—invokes the same ternary principle. Its first four measures twice state the principal theme in the A-major tonic, whereupon the piece embarks upon a three-bar excursion into C-sharp minor that utilizes different melodic material. Just as quickly, the original

“folk song theme” returns, albeit in slightly abbreviated form, again in A major. When the same theme appears in the coda, it is similarly “ternary.”

Not everything about the form complies with the ternary model in its strictest sense. Like several of Mendelssohn’s “Gondellieder,” Chopin’s Barcarolle also features an extended coda infused with themes from sections A and B. Chopin chose to employ the themes in reverse order, beginning with the final “folk song theme” from the B section, followed by the falling dotted- triplet motive heard earlier in B, and finally the concluding motive from A. The final four measures conclude with a feathery leggiero improvisation over the basic harmonic motion of the opening passages. The fact that the entire coda of the Barcarolle is rooted in the F-sharp major

tonic has not gone unnoticed; Samson even identifies “the tonal synthesis of [the two themes from the B section]”—heard earlier in A major—as “an element of sonata dialectic.”18

Thematically, Chopin’s Barcarolle resembles the longest of Mendelssohn’s boat songs, op. 30 no. 6, with the same F-sharp tonic, in its compact treatment of melodic material. In that earlier work Mendelssohn used the interval of a third to define motivic boundaries, and Chopin likewise based much of the melodic movement in his Barcarolle on the same intervallic structure. For example, both composers’ primary themes utilize the same basic motive, a rising third created from two consecutive steps (see Figure 3-1).

Figure 3–1: Similar Motivic Motion in Barcarolles by Mendelssohn and Chopin

18 Samson, 96.

Chopin’s also features the same ascending third motive as a sixteenth-note figure within the accompanimental pattern that begins the A section. Pianist Claude Frank observes that if the entire accompaniment pattern is played as six groupings of two eighth notes rather than the traditional four groupings of three, the emphasis placed upon the first, third, and fifth “eighth beats” creates the identical rising pattern on a broader level (see Figure 3-2). Frank believes that this interpretation lends to the Barcarolle “a certain ambiguity that makes it full of unlimited possibilities,”19 although the legitimacy of his argument is weakened when considered against the long-standing traditional triplet division and subdivision of 12/8, the meter that Chopin consciously chose instead of 3/4. Intriguingly, Chopin also appears to have drawn upon this

Figure 3–2: Different Metric Groupings of Left-hand Accompaniment in Chopin’s Barcarolle

19 Montparker, “Part I,” 17–19.

motive to link the thematic material of section A to that of section B. Each of these themes

begins with a sustained pitch followed by a filled-in ascending third, and the resemblance is

emphasized by identical rhythmic placement (see Figure 3–3).

Figure 3-3: Thematic Similarities within Chopin’s Barcarolle

Chopin was considerably more creative than Mendelssohn in his treatment of the melodic third motive. Where Mendelssohn tended to move directly to the third or to fill in the space diatonically, Chopin often approached the third from above in appoggiatura-like fashion (see

Figure 3–4a and 3–4b). Additionally, Chopin featured chromaticism much more prominently to fill in outlined thirds. For instance, in measure 101 the melodic figure passes through each half- step from C-sharp down to A-sharp, first traveling “too far” by a half step before turning back to its ultimate goal (see Figure 3–4c). Of course, Chopin also employed chromaticism to embellish melodic thirds in the form of grace notes, trills, and appoggiaturas, much in the same way that an opera singer of the day would embellish the repetition of a vocal melody.

Overall, Chopin also varied the return of thematic material more frequently than did

Mendelssohn and employed a greater number of techniques in so doing. When the first theme of

Figure 3-4: Use of Melodic Thirds by Mendelssohn and Chopin

section A recurs in measure 24, its rhythmic intensity is increased by incorporation of sixteenth

notes into the melody. Mendelssohn used a similar tactic in “Venetianisches Gondellied” in A

minor, op. 62 no. 5, the best example of thematic variation among his boat songs. However,

where Mendelssohn simply inserted single repeated Es on the sixteenth offbeats to accelerate the

activity, Chopin completely reworked the melodic line using passing and neighbor tones, and

used pitch repetition to create ambiguous agogic accents as the line descends. He also knew

when to stop after two brief statements; in Mendelssohn’s case, the device somewhat wears out

its proverbial welcome over the course of the next thirteen measures.

A similar comparison can be made by observing both composers’ use of octave

displacement to vary thematic passages within the same works. In the A-minor “Venetianisches

Gondellied,” Mendelssohn restated his first theme directly following its initial appearance. By placing it in a higher octave and doubling the melodic line, he effectively reiterated its personality while slightly exaggerating certain of its mysterious qualities. In contrast, Chopin

used octave displacement to completely transform the character of his original theme into what

Samson calls an “epic statement”20 when it surfaces again in the reprise. Chopin chose to double

at the octave not only the melody but also the accompaniment, resulting in a bold, majestic

fortissimo declaration that continues to build momentum into the triumphal coda.

One area in which Chopin’s Barcarolle departs radically from Mendelssohn’s

“Venetianisches Gondellieder” is in its harmonic language. Whereas Mendelssohn was inclined

to cling to the conservative harmonies of late Classicism and early Romanticism, Chopin’s music

frequently journeys to remote key areas, especially in his later works. While the harmonies of the

Barcarolle, perhaps by the nature of its relationship to popular song and to the world of the

salon, tend to remain principally among the realm of the primary triads, Chopin used the coda, a

section that Lennox Berkeley called “particularly . . . rich and original in harmony,”21 to incorporate unrelated chords such as E minor and C major into the overall texture over the cover of an F-sharp tonic pedal. The Barcarolle also features several comfortable excursions to the G- major Neapolitan and exploits the ambiguity of German and French augmented-sixth chords.

Chopin was one of the first composers to add thirds above conventional chord structures, and their presence within his works would influence later Romantics such as Scriabin and

Rachmaninoff. In an interview with Carol Montparker, pianist James Tocco notes the presence of a dominant thirteenth chord in Chopin’s Barcarolle, at the end of measure three.22 While it is

true that many of these chords can also be analyzed traditionally using non-harmonic tones to

explain the presence of the “added” notes, it cannot be overstated that this harmonic language

20 Samson, 96. 21 Berkeley, 185–86.

was ahead of its time when compared to the compositions of Chopin’s contemporaries. Once in a

while, Chopin used a chord in the Barcarolle that defies traditional analysis. For example, in

measures 48–49, and again in measures 59–60, Chopin added C-sharp and G-sharp to a German

augmented-sixth chord (D–F-sharp–A–B-sharp), creating a structure bristling with dissonance

that foreshadows the works of Maurice Ravel. 23

Another major difference between Mendelssohn’s Venetian boat songs and Chopin’s

Barcarolle is their dynamic scope. Indeed, the fact that it begins and ends with forte dynamic

markings sets Chopin’s work apart from any other composed before or since. Additionally,

passages marked forte or fortissimo are frequent and occasionally extended over more than ten

bars. By contrast, not once did Mendelssohn prolong the forte dynamic for more than two bars in

any of his boat songs. The increased intensity of the dynamics stems from part of Chopin’s idea

of unfolding the form, a “process . . . of rapid and accelerating intensification in the later stages,

so that ‘popular’ materials become agents of apotheosis.”24

With his Barcarolle, op. 60, Chopin created a work that in its overall length, scope, and

sophistication expanded greatly upon its Biedermeier models. As Samson eloquently states,

Chopin worked “within the stylistic framework of public virtuosity and salon music . . . [and managed] to transform both worlds utterly, to elevate them to a plane where they need yield

22 Carol Montparker, “Chopin’s Barcarolle, Part II,” Clavier 22 (June 1983): 20. 23 Paul Badura-Skoda, “Chopin’s Influence,” in Chopin: Profiles of the Man and the Musician, ed. Alan Walker (London: Barrie & Rockliff, 1966), 267. 24 Samson, 96.

nothing in stature and importance to the more prestigious worlds of the symphony and the opera- house.”25 The result was a composition whose greatness remains unsurpassed to this day.

25 Ibid., 16.

Chapter 4 The Barcarolle after Chopin: A Selected Overview

During the decades that followed the publication of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte

and Chopin’s opus 60, more than two hundred additional barcarolles were penned by composers

eager to craft similar Venetian landscapes. Most followed the Mendelssohnian model, creating

what might well be labeled “character barcarolles,” piano miniatures lasting somewhere between

three and five minutes that recall established Venetian topics. Only a very few individuals

attempted to tread in Chopin’s rather large footsteps by composing more extended concert-style

works.

The number of keyboard barcarolles fashioned from the melodies of art song, popular

song, and opera during the nineteenth century alone is also significant. However, I have chosen

to omit compositions of this type from the present study and focus upon barcarolles that were

originally conceived for piano solo, without seeking to discount the influence that song

transcriptions and arrangements may have had upon the creation of their solo keyboard cousins.

Thus, the scope of this study includes only compositions originally written for piano solo. Any such composition labeled “barcarolle” by its composer, either in its title or subtitle, will automatically receive consideration. Additionally, works whose title refers to Venice or to a gondola (or gondolier) will be investigated. However, compositions featuring certain characteristics of the barcarolle (i.e., compound meter, melodic thirds and sixths) or whose titles imply association with water or with marine life will not be considered unless they also reference

Venice or boating. Works such as Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse and Ravel’s Jeux d’eau are therefore not included.

Of the composers who wrote character barcarolles for solo keyboard, a great many opted

to place them, as did Mendelssohn, within larger groups of character pieces. It is thus common to find barcarolles nestled among the other short compositions, such as romances, waltzes, and tarantellas that were typically included in such collections, especially during the nineteenth century. While a few composers also issued entire sets made up exclusively of short barcarolles, most others elected to publish them as single entities. A relatively small number of Venetian boat songs can also be found within keyboard suites specifically devoted to the topic of travel, including several that are themed exclusively around travel to Venice.

In the present survey, the first group of composers to receive consideration will be those who authored multiple barcarolles for solo keyboard. The number is relatively small: of the more than two hundred individuals to compose at least one piano barcarolle during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fewer than two dozen—only about ten percent—returned to the form again, and just a handful of these crafted a quantity great enough to be deemed a significant portion of their overall creative output.

No musician published more barcarolles than the Frenchman Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924).

His thirteen barcarolles for solo piano, composed between 1881 and 1921, comprise about ten percent of his total oeuvre. In seeking to explain Fauré’s fascination with the form, historians point to several influences, although none looms larger than the legacy left by Frederic Chopin.

Early on, Fauré, according to scholar Robert Orledge, “adopted from Chopin the impersonal but

‘romantic’ formats of the Nocturne, Impromptu and Barcarolle which were to dominate his career.”1 That Chopin’s keyboard music resonated with the young Fauré is certain; a lifelong

1 Robert Orledge, Gabriel Faure (London: Eulenberg Books, 1979), 55.

desire to pay homage to the Polish master ultimately led Fauré to create the two monumental

keyboard collections, the aforementioned thirteen barcarolles and an equal number of nocturnes,

that ultimately established his reputation as a composer of first-rate keyboard music.

Certainly there were also other factors behind Fauré’s decision to compose a large

number of barcarolles. Orledge wrote, “Whether it was a motive or not in Fauré’s choice of the

title, the Barcarolle had become increasingly popular during the [late nineteenth century], as in

Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, first produced in the year Fauré composed his First Barcarolle

(1881).”2 Fauré was apparently attracted by nature to several characteristic elements related to

barcarolle composition. Author Wesley True remarks upon a fascination with the parallels

between music and water, a fascination that Fauré shared with a number of his French

contemporaries.3 Additionally, Orledge observes a predilection for compound rhythms and finds

that there is “something naïve and childlike about Fauré’s love of rocking movements and

accompaniments,” adding a belief that “most of the Barcarolles are really Berceuses.”4

It is unclear whether Fauré intended any particular affinity with Venice in his barcarolles;

Orledge notes that Fauré did not visit Venice until after he had completed his first four,5 so their creation certainly was not motivated by having seen the city. Fauré’s son Philippe once famously remarked that his father would “far rather have given his nocturnes, impromptus, and even his

2 Ibid., 59. 3 Wesley True, “Early Twentieth-Century Music: A Linguistic Dilemma,” Journal of the American Liszt Society 19 (June 1986): 47. 4 Orledge, 103. 5 Ibid., 59–60.

barcarolles the simple title ‘Piano Piece No. So-and-So,’ following the example of Schumann,”6

implying that the music itself contains little or nothing characteristic of the genre and its

Venetian associations. A brief survey of Fauré’s piano compositions reveals, however, that those

given the title “barcarolle” consistently include expected generic features, while those given

other titles, even the closely related nocturnes, incorporate these features only rarely.

Although Fauré published each of his thirteen barcarolles as single works, they were often composed in close succession. Interestingly, in spirit his first four boat songs more closely resemble Mendelssohn’s salon-influenced works. Prior to writing the first barcarolle in 1881,

Fauré had, in fact, composed three Romances sans paroles (the French equivalent to the Lieder ohne Worte) for solo piano, in which he shows an adept understanding of the Biedermeier tradition. Orledge comments that the virtuosity of Fauré’s early barcarolles “reflects the influence of the fashionable soirees in which [his] career developed.”7 There is consensus among

scholars that each of these first four barcarolles contains compositional flaws. Whether the

perceived imperfections relate to harmony (fourth), rhythm (second), style (third), or formal

structure (first and second), each suffers to some extent from a rather formulaic treatment of its

material. Nonetheless, there is much beautiful music contained within these works. Orledge

labels Fauré’s first period “largely one of sensual and sonorous seduction.”8

Fauré issued a very different sort of work in 1894, eight years following the publication

of his fourth barcarolle. Musicologist Carlo Caballero observes that the “harmonic and

6Jean-Michel Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life, trans. Roger Nichols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 48. 7 Orledge, 55. 8 Ibid.

contrapuntal audacities of the fifth barcarolle . . . [suddenly] put [Fauré] at the forefront of

French modernity.”9 Unlike the early boat songs, the fifth barcarolle is, in the words of Orledge,

“powerful, agitated and virile. . . . [It] is a key work in Fauré’s development as a composer.”10 Of all the barcarolles, the fifth is most frequently hailed as a masterpiece of the genre by modern critics and scholars. Pianist Jeffrey Chappell simply calls it “remarkable.”11 It is also the only one of Fauré’s thirteen that would be considered a concert barcarolle rather than a character barcarolle in scope.

Beginning in 1905 with the seventh barcarolle, Fauré adopted a leaner, neoclassic approach to composition that reflects similar practices among his contemporaries. In general, the late works, like those of Liszt, tend toward simplicity and introspection. The Swiss pianist Alfred

Cortot described this change in Fauré’s style by saying that the composer’s ideas “detach themselves little by little from a musical substance too reliant on exterior grace notes for the emotion it wishes to communicate.”12 The later barcarolles are largely successful experiments

into which Fauré incorporated more adventuresome harmonic language through the use of whole-tone and modal scales. Orledge notes that most of Fauré’s late pieces “are heavily accented and are prone to dramatic outbursts and intense climaxes rather than sustained lyricism.”13

9 Carlo Caballero, Fauré and French Musical Aestehtics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 66. 10 Orledge, 92–93. 11 Jeffrey Chappell, “Civilized Passion: The Piano Music of Gabriel Fauré,” Piano & Keyboard 174 (May/June 1995): 39. 12 Alfred Cortot, “La musique de piano,” La revue musicale 4 (October 1922): 99. 13 Orledge, 145.

The relative absence of Fauré’s piano music from the concert stage may stem from a

number of factors unrelated to the quality of the music. Noted Fauré biographer Jean-Michel

Nectoux cites the composer’s tendency to contrapuntally “complicate his scores, to add extra

parts, to fill in the gaps,” as one potential reason for their widespread neglect, noting that

“virtuosi nearly always prefer playing Chopin or Liszt . . . because their music ‘lies under the

fingers better.’”14 Nectoux also observes that some of Fauré’s early works “appear at times very

dated, and they have been in no small measure responsible for his reputation as an elegant

composer rather than a profound one.”15 Furthermore, he writes of Fauré’s late works: “Foreign

pianists . . . simply did not know of the music, partly because it was so inefficiently promoted by

[the French publisher] Hamelle.”16

Of the other composers to write large numbers of barcarolles, it is noteworthy that the

majority of them were based in France. Benjamin Godard (1849–1895), one of the many French salon composers, wrote four barcarolles, two of which (nos. 2 and 4) have maintained a small measure of popularity and are thus still available in print. Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873–1954), one of Fauré’s most devoted pupils, also authored three barcarolles in the early twentieth century.

Another composer to include in this group is Hungarian-born pianist Stephen Heller (1813–

1888), who, like Chopin, spent his entire adult life in Paris. Heller penned a total of seven barcarolles, four of which were issued under a single cover as Vier Barcarollen, op. 141. These

works by Heller, while always gratifying under the hands, rarely surprise or delight. Charming as

14 Nectoux, 46–47. 15 Ibid., 53. 16 Ibid., 379.

they are, many are actually rather unrepresentative of the genre and seem to be barcarolles in

name only.

The first native Frenchman to author multiple barcarolles for keyboard was Valentin

Alkan (1813–1888). Alkan appears to have been inspired by the Lieder ohne Worte of

Mendelssohn more than by Chopin’s lone Venetian essay. This reclusive pianist-composer,

whose myriad keyboard works were praised by contemporaries Chopin and Liszt, published

thirty songs without words in five volumes between 1857 and 1873. Like Mendelssohn, Alkan

arranged his character pieces into groups of six and closely followed the model of the first two

volumes of Lieder ohne Worte in making a barcarolle the concluding work within each set.

Alkan’s music, while never receiving the level of public recognition achieved by his more famous countrymen and colleagues, is intriguing for its harmonic and formal originality.

The Barcarolle from his third Recueil de chants, for example, contains unexpected sonorities at nearly every turn: the first two phrases “cadence” on the subdominant seventh and subtonic, respectively. None of the five barcarolles (or the amusingly titled “Barcarollette” from Alkan’s first book of forty-eight Esquisses) feature the characteristic technical brilliance associated with much of the composer’s output. While British scholar Hugh McDonald accurately remarks that

Alkan’s works have received little attention in the modern era, it remains to be seen whether his prediction that Alkan “should eventually take his due place among the most important figures of his time”17 will come to fruition. Nonetheless, the composer has had at least one champion in

17 Hugh Macdonald, “Valentin Alkan,” in Grove Music Online, available from http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com; Internet; accessed 9 August 2008.

every generation: among great pianists to program his works frequently are Anton Rubinstein,

Ferrucio Busoni, Egon Petri, Claudio Arrau, and currently, Marc-André Hamelin.

The legendary Rubinstein (1829-1894) was himself the author of six barcarolles for solo

piano. This great Russian virtuoso, whose prodigious debut performance in Paris was attended

by both Chopin and Liszt, is another who likely viewed himself as a logical heir to Chopin’s

pianistic heritage. His repertoire was reputedly enormous and included nearly everything that

Chopin wrote. Like Fauré, Rubinstein too was apparently naturally fascinated with water. Pianist

Sigismund Stojowski observes that Rubinstein’s first published composition “bears the title

Undine, [and] his greatest symphony [is titled] The Ocean.”18 Biographer Larry Sitsky adds that

there was “something about the lilt and form of the Barcarolle which produced Rubinstein’s finest lyric efforts at the keyboard. . . . The Barcarolles are among his most successful and memorable pieces.”19

Of Rubinstein’s six barcarolles, only one (the fourth) does not employ the minor mode.

Each displays the characteristic meter and textures of the genre, and, according to Sitsky, is also

“tinged with that peculiarly Russian melancholy.”20 Several of Rubinstein’s barcarolles remained

unpublished at the time of the composer’s death and thus were not assigned an opus number. The

chief criticisms of Rubinstein’s compositions include their inconsistency and lack of careful

craftsmanship. Edward Garden remarks that Rubinstein “was able, and willing, to dash off for

18 Jeffrey Johnson, Piano Lessons from Masters of the Grand Style: From the Golden Age of Etude Magazine (1913–1940) (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2003), 94. 19 Larry Sitsky, Anton Rubinstein: An Annotated Catalog of His Piano Works and Biography (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998), 37. 20 Ibid.

publication half a dozen songs or an album of piano pieces with all too fluent ease in the

knowledge that his reputation would ensure a gratifying financial reward for the effort

involved.”21 The tragedy behind this observation lies in the evidence of occasional brilliance that exists among Rubinstein’s collected works, suggesting that with time or inclination, he possessed the compositional talent to have created a truly remarkable body of work.

Three other barcarolle composers from countries outside France also deserve special

mention. First among these is Spaniard Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909), the author of hundreds of

piano miniatures. Included within that number are four barcarolles, each of high quality. Two of these were published alone, Barcarolle catalene, op. 23, and Mallorca: Barcarola, op. 202. The other two were issued as part of larger collections (Recuerdos de viaje, op. 71, and 12 piezas caracteristicas, op. 92). The continuing popularity of Mallorca is attested to by its frequent appearance, like much of Albéniz’ keyboard music, in transcription for guitar and other instruments. The five barcarolles of Italy’s Giuseppe Martucci (1856–1909) fare poorly by comparison; their craftsmanship is notable, but much of the harmonic and melodic material is clichéd and predictable. Only the fifth, from op. 64, manages to rise above its average material to become a reasonably taut and compelling work. By contrast, the four barcarolles crafted by

Finnish composer Erkki Melartin (1875–1937) are atmospheric gems richly colored with

Scandinavian harmonies.

Examination of the remaining barcarolles may be profitably done in national schools. By far the greatest number of consistently appealing barcarolles not previously discussed belong to a

21 Edward Garden, “Anton Rubinstein,” in Grove Music Online, available from http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com; Internet; accessed 9 August 2008.

rather large Russian contingent represented by Anton Arensky, Mili Balakirev, Alexander

Glazunov, Mikhail Glinka, Anatol Lyadov, Sergei Lyapunoff, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Peter

Tchaikovsky. All are fine works; several display unusual features such as 2/4 meter

(Tchaikovsky’s June: Barcarolle from The Seasons, op. 38b) or the exclusive use of exotic scales (Glazunov’s Barcarolle on the Black Keys). However, Balakirev’s Gondellied in A minor,

Lyadov’s Barcarolle in F-sharp major, op. 44, and Lyapunov’s Barcarolle in G-sharp minor, op.

46, are the best of the lot, each worthy of revival; Lyadov’s work in particular owes a great deal

to Chopin’s op. 60, including its key signature, yet manages to remain independent enough to

stand on its own merit.

The countries of eastern Europe were also home to several important barcarolle composers. Some of the most interesting boat songs to originate from this region are attributable to Hungarian-born Franz Liszt. Liszt’s only two original works in this genre—not including the early transcriptions and arrangements discussed earlier—were actually created in Venice in

response to an eerie premonition of the death of his son-in-law, Richard Wagner. The music of

La lugubre gondola I and La lugubre gondola II is spare and lean, stripped of all of the virtuosity traditionally associated with Liszt’s keyboard output, as it depicts Liszt’s visions of Wagner’s casket floating down the Venetian Grand Canal on a gondola. Later, another native Hungarian,

Bela Bartok, wrote an even more unconventional boat song. Bartok’s Szabadan (Out of Doors) includes a barcarolle that features “no fewer than seventy-nine metric changes,”22 a rather radical

departure from the standard practice of employing the customary unwavering 6/8 or 12/8.

22 David Yeomans, Bartok for Piano (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 106.

From Chopin’s homeland of Poland come a number of boat songs, including examples by

Xaver Scharwenka (1850–1924) and Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925). The former’s Barcarolle

in E minor, op. 14, is an ambitious work modeled after the concert-style barcarolle developed by

his more famous countryman. Unfortunately, it lacks both the melodic inventiveness and harmonic freshness of Chopin’s op. 60 and suffers from too much literal repetition.

Moszkowski’s several barcarolles, on the other hand, are too ornately decorated and, like much

salon music, could benefit from fewer flourishes and superficial gestures. The piano writing is

extremely idiomatic and demands technical expertise of the highest order, but the end product

lacks much substance.

There are but few standout barcarolles from the remaining European countries. Of the

French, Francis Poulenc’s Barcarolle (from his Napoli suite) and Maurice Ravel’s Une barque

sur l’océan (from Miroirs) are each uniquely masterful representations of boat travel. Spain’s

Enrique Granados composed a hauntingly beautiful barcarolle, published as his opus 45, and

Italy’s Alfredo Casella penned a charming barcarolle in 1910. Conspicuous by their absence are

two prominent contemporaries of Mendelssohn and Chopin, each of whom wrote a large number

of character pieces for piano, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Schumann’s absence is

especially interesting is in light of the fact that he composed a vocal barcarolle for his song cycle

Myrthen, op. 25; however, neither musician used the title for a keyboard work.

Consideration of barcarolles produced by American composers highlights the rich

diversity of the genre. Of the character type, charming examples include Amy Beach’s

Romantic-style Barcarolle from Trois morceaux characteristique, op. 28, and Ned Rorem’s neo-

Romantic Three Barcarolles (1949). Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884–1920) wrote an extended

essay in the concert barcarolle tradition as the first of his three Fantasy Pieces, op. 6 that nearly

succeeds; its harmonic structure, based upon the Impressionistic whole-tone scale, ultimately

becomes tired and predictable but provides many effective moments. Barcarolles penned by

Latin American composers such as Carlos Chavez, Teresa Carreño, and Alberto Williams, reveal

a similar formal dependence upon their European models, while nonetheless incorporating the

rhythmic traditions of their own cultures.

In total, more than 440 barcarolles for solo piano have appeared in print since

Mendelssohn and Chopin first developed the models that launched the genre (see Appendix). Of

these, a small number would be considered strictly didactic works, often found within collections aimed at young children, whose function was primarily utilitarian rather than artistic. The remaining barcarolles fall into two categories: serious concert works and salon compositions.

Those conceived as social entertainment make up by far the larger group. It was admittedly disappointing to discover the vast majority of such works to be trite, formulaic, and generally lacking in substance. Occasionally, however, upon sifting through dozens of salon relics, one can find a finely crafted gem, such as Beach’s Barcarolle from Trois morceaux caractéristicas.

While such a discovery is not as common as I had originally hoped, success comes often enough to suggest that there is still much high-quality music that remains unknown, awaiting only the inquiry of a pianist interested in moving beyond the standard repertoire. Chopin and

Mendelssohn would likely applaud such an effort.

Appendix: Barcarolles for Solo Keyboard

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Albeniz, Isaac 1860–1909 Spain Barcarolle catalene, Op. 23 (1884) Leyenda-barcarola, Op. 71, from Recuerdos de viaje (1886-87) Barcarola (Ciel sans nuages), Op. 92, from 12 piezas caracteristicas (1888) Mallorca, Barcarola, Op. 202 (1891) Alkan, Charles-Valentin 1813–1888 France Barcarolle, Op. 38/1, No. 6, from Trente Chants/Première Suite (1857) Barcarolle en Choeur, Op. 38/2, No. 6, from Trente Chants, Deuxieme Suite (1857) Barcarollette, Op. 63, No. 12, from Quarante-huit motifs (esquisses) (1861) Barcarolle, Op. 65, No. 6, from Trente Chants, Troisième Suite (1870) Barcarolle, Op. 67, No. 6, from Trente Chants, Quatrième Suite (1873) Barcarolle, Op. 70, No. 6, from Trente Chants, Cinquième Suite (1873) Anderson, Garland Lee 1933– USA Barcarolle for piano Arens, Ludolph 1880–1947 Germany Barcarolle Arensky, Anton 1861–1906 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 36 no. 11, from 24 Characteristic Pieces (1894) Arizti, Cecilia 1856–1930 Cuba Barcarola, Op. 6 Aspinall, James – Barcarolle, from Seven Bagatelles for Piano Astenius, Anthony (A.O.T.) 1871–1930 USA By Moonlight: Barcarolle Bachelet, Alfred 1864–1944 France Barcarolle Nocturne Bachmann, Georges 1848–1894 France Barcarolle, Op. 17 Backer Grøndahl, Agathe 1847–1907 Norway Barcarole, Op. 55, No. 10, from 12 Smaa fantasistykker (1902) Balakirev, Mili 1837–1910 Russia Gondellied (1901) Bantock, Granville 1868–1946 England Barcarolle, from Two Pianoforte Pieces Baroni-Cavalcabò, Julia 1813–1887 Austria Barcarolle, Op. 29 Bartók, Bela 1881–1945 Hungary Barcarolla, from Szabadan (Out of Doors) (1926) Bax, Arnold 1883–1953 England Barcarolle, from Cinq pieces sur le nom de Gabriel Faure Bayford, Frank 1941– England Barcarolle, Op. 76, no. 3 Beach, Amy 1867–1944 USA Barcarolle, Op. 28, No. 1, from Trois morceaux caractéristiques (1894) Behr, Franz 1837–1898 Germany Barcarolle

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Bellak, James 1814–1891 Austria Gondellied (1855) Berg, Christopher 1949– USA Nocturne IV, en forme de barcarolle, from Nocturnes and Preludes Beriot, Charles-Auguste de 1802–1870 Belgium La sortie du port: Barcarolle, Op. 30 Bersa, Blagoje 1873–1934 Croatia Venecijanska Barkarola, from Skladbe za glasovir (1921) Bertelin, Albert 1872–1951 France Barcarolle Billi, Vincenzo 1869–1938 Italy Sciogli le vele: Barcarola, Op. 310, from Eta felice Bliss, Paul 1872–1933 USA Barcarolle, from In October Blomenkamp, Thomas 1955– Germany Barkarole für Klavier (1988) Blumenfeld, Felix 1863–1931 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 38, no. 4, from Pres de l’eau Bohm, Karl 1894–1981 Austria Gondellied, Op. 358, from Kleine lyrische Suite Bonis, Mélanie 1858–1937 France Barcarolle-etude, Op. 43 Barcarolle, Op. 71 Borowski, Felix 1872–1956 USA Valse-barcarolle Boscovitz, Frederic 1836–1903 USA Gondoline Barcarolle, Op. 163 The Fairy Gondola Bossi, Marco Enrico 1861–1925 Italy Barcarola, from Kinder-Album Bouman, Carolus Leonardus 1834–1905 Netherlands Gondellied Bouman, Leon Carolus 1852–1919 Netherlands Gondellied Bovy-Lysberg, Charles 1821–1873 Switzerland Chant du nautonnier: Barcarolle, Op. 55 Bowen, York 1884–1961 England Barcarolle, from Second Suite for Pianoforte Boyle, George 1886–1948 Australia/USA La Gondola, from 3 Pièces (1911) Bradlee, Charles 1791–1861 USA Barcarolle Waltz Brainard, Harry Lewis 1874– USA Barcarolle Breteuil, François de 1892– France Barcarolle Brucken Fock, Gerard von 1859–1935 Netherlands Tempo di Barcarola molto espressivo, from 24 Praeludien Brüll, Ignaz 1846–1907 Austria Barcarolle, Op. 11, no. 3, from Vier Klavierstücke Barcarolle and Tarantella, Op. 96, no. 1, from Drei Klavierstücke Bullard, Carrie 1865– USA Barcarolle, from Little Whimsies for Little Pianists Burgmuller, Johann Friedrich 1806–1874 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 100, from 25 Progressive Studies Buscemi Montalto, – Italy Barcarola, from Primi passi Margherita

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Busoni, Ferrucio 1866–1924 Italy Alla barcarola, Op. 37, from 24 Preludi Butler, Jack – Barcarolle Cadman, Charles Wakefield 1881–1946 USA Water-lilies: Barcarolle, from A Visit to Grandma’s Capella, Umberto – Barcarola Carmichael, Mary Grant 1851–1935 England Barcarole (1883) Carreño, Teresa 1853–1917 Venezuela Barcarole: Venitia, Venetia, Op. 33 Casadesus, Robert 1899–1972 France Barcarolle, Op. 48, from Six enfantines Casella, Alfredo 1883–1947 Italy Barcarola, Op. 15 (1910) Castro Herrera, Ricardo 1864–1907 Mexico Barcarola, Op. 30, no. 2 Catalani, Alfredo 1854–1893 Italy Ricordo di Lugano: Barcarola (1880) In gondola: Barcarola-Impromptu, from Impressioni (5 of 10) (1884) Chadwick, George W. 1854–1931 USA In the Canoe: Barcarolle, from Five Pieces (1905) Chaminade, Cécile 1857–1944 France Barcarolle, Op. 7 (1880) Barcarolle, Op. 123, from Album des Enfants, Vol. 1 (1906) Chanler, Theodore 1902–1961 USA Barcarolle for piano (1931) Chaulieu, Charles 1788–1849 France Barcarolle venitienne, Op. 142, no. 1, from Souvenirs d’un voyageur Chávez, Carlos 1899–1978 Mexico Barcarola (1919) Chopin, Frédéric 1810–1849 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 60 (1846) Clarke, William Horatio 1840–1913 USA River Side: Barcarolle A Storm on the Lake: Barcarolle Clayderman, Richard 1953– France Barcarolle Coelho de Souza, Rodolfo 1952– Brazil Barcarola, from Rebus (1985) Colla, Alberto 1968– Italy Caronte (barcarola R 81), from La stanza degli specchi (2001) Conus, Serge 1902–1988 Russia Sea Song: Barcarolle, Op. 16, no. 1 Cooke, James Francis 1875–1960 USA Song of the North: Norwegian Barcarolle Coulter, George – Barcarolle, from Airs and Graces Courtaux, Amanda 1856–1941 France Barcarolle in C, from Seven Pieces for Children Barcarolle in F, from Seven Pieces for Children Craxton, Harold 1885–1971 England Barcarolle Croisez, Alexandre 1814–1886 France L’echo de la rive: Barcarolle Croisez, Alexandre 1814–1886 France Barcarolle italienne, from Deux fantiasies mignonnes

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Cruz de Castro, Carlos 1941– Spain Barcarola (1999) Dana, Arthur 1909– USA June: At the Sea-shore (Barcarolle), Op. 30, from The Seasons de Groot, Cor 1914–1993 Netherlands Barcarolle nostalgique (1983) de Hartog, Eduard 1825–1909 Netherlands Barcarolle, Op. 16 Le chant du gondolier: Barcarolle, Op. 20, no. 5, from Poesies musicales de Leone, Francesco 1887–1948 USA Twilight in Venice: Barcarolle de Villar, Rogelio 1875–1937 Spain Barcarola, from Canciones leonesas DeKoven, Reginald 1859–1920 USA Barcarolle, Op. 371, no. 3 Delafosse, Léon 1874–1951 France Barcarolle No. 1 Barcarolle No. 2 Delaseurie, Arthur – Sorrente: Barcarolle Dett, Robert Nathaniel 1882–1943 USA Barcarolle: Morning, from In the Bottoms (1913) Barcarolle of Tears, from Eight Bible Vignettes Diamond, David 1915–2005 USA Barcarolle No. 1 (1993) Barcarolle No. 2 (1993) Diemer, Louis 1843–1919 France Barcarolle, Op. 11, no. 2 Douste, Jean – La siesta: Barcarolle Duke, Vernon 1903–1969 USA Barrel-organ Barcarolle Brooklyn Barcarolle Dupont, August 1828–1890 France Barcarolle, Op. 17 Duvernoy, Jean Baptiste 1802–1880 France Barcarolle italienne, Op. 154 Eiges, Konstantin 1875–1950 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 4 Elkus, Albert 1884–1962 USA Barcarolle, Op. 1, no. 4, from 8 Klavierstucke Enesco, Georges 1881–1955 Romania Barcarole (1897) Etienne, Denis-Germain 1781–1859 France O! pescator dell’onda: A Venetian Barcarolle Evans, Laura Jean – USA Barcarolle: Oh Sarah Farjeon, Harry 1878–1948 England Valse Barcarolle, Op. 36, no. 5, from Five Pieces for the Pianoforte Fauré, Gabriel 1845–1924 France Barcarolle No. 1, Op. 26 (1880) Barcarolle No. 2, Op. 41 (1885) Barcarolle No. 3, Op. 42 (1885) Barcarolle No. 4, Op. 44 (1886)

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Barcarolle No. 5, Op. 66 (1894) Barcarolle No. 6, Op. 70 Barcarolle No. 7, Op. 90 (1905) Fauré, Gabriel 1845–1924 France Barcarolle No. 8, Op. 96 (1906) Barcarolle No. 9, Op. 101 (1909) Barcarolle No. 10, Op. 104, no. 2 (1913) Barcarolle No. 11, Op. 105 (1913) Barcarolle No. 12, Op. 106bis (1915) Barcarolle No. 13, Op. 116 (1921) Fearis, John Sylvester 1867–1932 USA Barcarolle Ferte, Armand 1881–1973 France Barcarolle, from Six petits morceaux:d’execution facile et de courte duree Filtsch, Karoly 1830–1845 Hungary Barcarolle Finke, Fidelio Friedrich 1891–1968 Germany Barkarole, 10 kleine Stücke (1927) Finney, Ross Lee 1906–1997 USA Barcarolle, from Inventions (1956) Frackenpohl, Arthur 1924– USA Gliding (Barcarolle) França, Lourdes – Brazil Barcarola No. 1 Cancao do gondoleiro: Barcarola No. 2 Franck, Richard 1858–1938 Germany Impromptu, Barcarolle, and Etude, Op. 5 Franco, Johan 1908–1988 USA Barcarolle, from Three Piano Sketches (1954) Froes, Silvio Deolindo 1864–1948 Brazil Barcarolle-Nocturne, Op. 1, from Petite Suite (1888) Frohlich, Friedrich 1803–1836 Switzerland Elegie-Barcarola, Op. 15, no. 5 Froncillo, Luigi – Italy Tramonto Sull’arno, from Passeggiate Musicali Fumagalli, Adolfo 1828–1856 Italy Sérénade barcarolle, Op. 100, from L’école moderne du pianiste (1855-56) Gabriel, Virginia 1825–1877 England La gondola (1855) Gade, Niels W 1817–1890 Denmark Barcarole, Op. 19, from Aquarellen (1850) Gardiner, Henry 1877–1950 England The Ironic Barcarolle (1922) Geibel, Adam 1855–1953 USA Floating Song (Barcarolle) (1883) Gerosa, Romeo – Italy Barcarola, from Colori e timbri: 12 composizioni liriche per Gillock, William 1917–1993 USA Barcarolle Glazunov, Alexander 1865–1936 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 22, no. 1 (1889) Barcarolle sur les touches noirs

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Gleason, Frederick 1848–1903 USA Barcarola, Op. 2 Glinka, Mikhail 1804–1857 Russia Barcarole , from Privet otchizne (Homeland Greetings) (1847) Gnesina, Elena 1874–1967 Russia Barcarolle: Etude, from Drei Klavierstucke Godard, Benjamin 1849–1895 France Barcarolle, Op. 42, no. 4, from Etudes artistiques Sur la mer: Barcarolle, Op. 44 Barcarolle, Op. 77 Barcarolle, Op. 80 Barcarolle No. 3, Op. 105 Venitienne: 4th Barcarolle, Op. 110 Sur les lagunes: Barcarolle, Op. 112 Barcarolle-napolitaine, Op. 129 Godowsky, Leopold 1870–1938 Poland/USA Barcarolle-Valse, Op. 16 no. 4 (1899) Goedicke, Alexander 1877–1957 Russia Barcarolle Golinelli, Stefano 1818–1891 Italy Barcarola, Op. 35 Gounod, Charles 1818–1893 France La veneziana; barcarolle (1874) Gradstein, Alfred 1904–1954 Poland Etude No. 11 (Barcarolle), from Hommage a Chopin: 12 Etudes for Piano Granados, Enrique 1867–1916 Spain Barcarola, Op. 45 (1912) Grant-Schaefer, George A. 1872–1939 Canada Gondoliere Venitienne: Barcarolle Griffes, Charles Tomlinson 1884–1920 USA Barcarolle, Op. 6, No. 1, from Fantasy Pieces (1912) Grovlez, Gabriel 1879–1944 France Barcarolle, from Trois pieces pour piano Guillard, Rémi 1968– France Barcarolle, Op. 2, no. 1, from 8 pièces pour piano Guion, David Wendell 1892–1981 USA Barcarolle Haberbier, Ernst 1813–1869 Russia Gondellied, Op. 53, no. 2, from Etudes-Poesies Hageman, Maurice Leonhard 1829–1906 Netherlands Barcarolle, Op. 56 Harris, Cuthbert 1870–1932 England Barcarolle Heller, Stephen 1813–1888 France Barcarolle, Op. 46, no. 25, from Etudes progressives Barcarolle, Op. 47, no. 14, from 25 études pour former au sentiment (1844) Vénitienne, Op. 52 (1844) Rêverie du gondolier, Op. 121, no. 3, from Trois morceaux (1867) Barkarole, Op. 138, no. 5, from Notenbuch für Klein und Gross

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Barkarole, Op. 141, no. 1, from Vier Barkarolen (1875) Barkarole, Op. 141, no. 2, from Vier Barkarolen (1875) Barkarole, Op. 141, no. 3, from Vier Barkarolen (1875) Heller, Stephen 1813–1888 France Barkarole, Op. 141, no. 4, from Vier Barkarolen (1875) Hemsi, Alberto 1896–1975 Italy Marinaresca, barcarolle, Op. 3 no. 1 Henninges, Reinhold 1836–1913 Germany Barcarolle Henselt, Adolf 1814–1889 Germany La gondola, Op. 13 no. 2, from Méthod des Méthodes des Pianistes (1841) Herrmann, Hugo 1896–1967 Germany Gondellied, Op. 57b, from Sieben kleine Klavierstücke Hewitt, Harry 1921– USA Barcarolles for piano, Op. 262 Hoffman, Richard 1831–1909 USA Barcarolle (1876) Gondolier’s Song: Barcarolle No. 2, Op. 104 Hofmann, Josef 1876–1957 USA Barcarolle, Op. 22, no. 1 Holliger, Heinz 1939– Switzerland Barcarola, from Partita (1999) Holmsen, Borghild 1865–1938 Norway Barcarolle and Scherzo, Op. 1 (1889) Hünten, Franz 1793–1878 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 52, no. 2, from Trois bagatelles Barcarolle de Venise Au gré des ondes: fantasie-barcarolle sur un thème français, Op. 195 Iucho, Wilhelm 1804–1880 Germany/USA Barcarolle Jachino, Carlo 1887–1971 Italy Barcarola, from 6 piccoli pezzi dodecafonici Jadassohn, Salomon 1831–1902 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 15 Jensen, Adolf 1837–1879 Germany Barkarole, Op. 33 no. 16, from 20 Lieder und Tänze (1866) Johnson, F. Arthur 1874–1971 USA Barcarolle, from 12 lyric compositions for piano Johnson, Merritt 1902–1978 USA Barcarolle, from Suite for Piano Jones, Charles 1910–1997 USA Barcarole (1974) Jongen, Joseph 1873–1953 Belgium Barcarolle, Op. 96 (8 of 10), from Dix Pieces Joseffy, Rafael 1852–1915 Hungary Barcarolle Kalachevsky, Mykhailo 1851–1910 Ukraine Barcarolle Karkoff, Ingvar 1958– Sweden Innehàll: Barcarolle, from Tre pianostycken (1989) Karkoff, Maurice 1927– Sweden Barcarolle Katwijk, Paul van 1885–1974 Netherlands Barcarolle Kern, Carl Wilhelm 1874–1945 USA The Three Wise Men of Gotham: Barcarolle, Op. 273, from Six Little Tone

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Sketches for the Piano Kinkel, Charles 1832–1872 USA Circling Waves: Barcarolle Kirchner, Theodor 1823–1903 Germany Gondellied, Op. 39, from Dorfgeschichten: 14 Klavierstücke Kjerulf, Halfdan 1815–1868 Norway Barkarole Koechlin, Charles 1867–1950 France Barcarolle monégasque, Op. 149, from Album de Lilian (1935) Korganov, Genary Osipovich 1858–1890 Russia Dans la gondole: Barcarolle, Op. 20, from Album lyrique Koundouroff, Aristotelis 1896–1969 Greece Barcarolla Kox, Hans 1930– Netherlands Barcarolle (1960) Krogmann, Carrie Williams –1943 Over the Ocean Wave: Barcarolle, Op. 9, from 10 Little Morsels of Melody Gondellied, Op. 72, from Six Tone Poems for Piano Kruger, Wilhelm 1820–1883 Germany Chanson du Gondolier: Barcarolle, Op. 40 Kuklowsky, Kir – Barcarola, Op. 39, from Album for the Young Kullak, Theodor 1818–1882 Germany Schifflein auf dem See (Barcarolle), Op. 62, from Scenes from Childhood Gondellied, Op. 113, no. 3, from Poëmes pour le piano Kullman, Alfred 1875– Barcarolle Laskovsky, Ivan 1799–1855 Russia Barcarolle Last, Joan – Barcarolle (1961) Latour, Pierre – Sailing by Moonlight: Barcarolle Le Beau, Luise Adolpha 1850–1927 Germany Barcarola, Op. 59 (1904) Leduc, Alphonse 1804–1868 France Barcarolle, Op. 195, no. 3 Barcarolle, from The Aquarium: Six Bluettes Musicales Leschetizky, Theodor 1830–1915 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 11, no. 4, from Six improvisations pour le piano Ballade venitienne: Barcarola, Op. 39, no. 1 Barcarolle napolitaine Levenson, Boris 1884–1947 O’er the Moonlit Water: Barcarolle, Op. 32, no. 1 Levy, Luiz 1861–1935 Brazil Barcarola, Op. 10 Levy, Heniot 1879–1946 Barcarolle, Op. 9, from Two Compositions for Piano Liebermann, Lowell 1961– USA Barcarolle, Op. 43, from Album for the Young (1994) Lies, Otto 1869–1955 Netherlands Andante (Alla barcarola), Op. 9, from 4 Charakterstucke Liszt, Franz 1811–1886 Hungary Lugubre Gondola I (1882) La Lugubre Gondola II (1882)

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Longo, Alessandro 1864–1945 Italy Barcarola, Op. 29, no. 6, from Piccola Suite Lovejoy, Helen – Autumn Barcarolle Löw, Josef 1834–1886 Czechoslovakia On Rocking Billows: Barcarolle Löw, Josef 1834–1886 Czechoslovakia Gondolier’s Morgenlied Ludebuehl, John Peter 1876– USA Barcarolle Luebert, Gustav 1865– USA Barcarolle, Op. 46 Lutter, Romayne Austin 1902–2007 USA Barcarolle Lyadov, Anatoly 1855–1914 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 44 (1898) Lyapunov, Sergey 1859–1924 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 46 (1911) Lysenko, Mykola 1842–1912 Ukraine Barcarolle (1874) Maas, Bram – Netherlands Gondellied, from Zwaalf schetsen MacDowell, Edward 1860–1908 USA Barcarolle, Op. 18 no. 1, from Zwei Stücke (1884) Macfarren, Sir George 1813–1887 England Barcarolle, concertina (1859) Mack, Edward 1826–1882 USA The Naiads’ Barcarolle Macura, Wladyslav 1896–1935 Poland Barcarole Madina, Francisco de 1907–1972 Spain/Argentina Barcarola, from Piezas infantiles Maffeis, Daniele 1901–1966 Italy Barcarola Mankell, Henning 1868–1930 Sweden Barcarol , Op. 60 no. 1 Mann, Frederic 1903–1987 USA Serenade du gondolier: Barcarolle Mannino, Franco 1924– Polyphonal Barcarolle Maréchal, Henri 1842–1924 France En gondole (1892) Mari, Pierrette 1929– France Barcarolle Martinu, Bohuslav 1890–1959 Czechoslovakia Barcarolle, Op. 326 (1949) Martucci, Giuseppe 1856–1909 Italy Prima barcarola, Op. 20 (1874) Seconda barcarola, Op. 30 (1876) Terza barcarola, Op. 31, no. 2 (1876) Barcarola, Op. 44, no. 4 (1879-80) Barcarola, Op. 64, no. 3 (1884) Marx, Christoffel – Netherlands Gondellied: La vénitienne, Op. 14 Mason, William 1829–1908 USA Ballade et Barcarolle, Op. 13 (1859) Massenet, Jules 1842–1912 France Barcarolle, Op. 10, no. 3, from Dix pièces de genre (1866)

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Masséus, Jan 1913–1999 Netherlands Barcarolle, from Balletto piccola Mayer, Carl 1798–1868 Germany Flowers of Youth: Barcarolle, Op. 121, no. 5 Melartin, Erkki 1875–1937 Finland Barcarolle (1895) Melartin, Erkki 1875–1937 Finland Venelaulu [Barcarole] (1898) Barcarole, Op. 59 no. 1, from Lyrik (1909) Barcarola, Op. 119d no. 5, from Nuorta elämää IV (1922) Mendelssohn, Felix 1809–1847 Germany Venetianisches Gondellied, Op. 19, No. 6, from Lieder Ohne Worte Venetianisches Gondollied, Op. 30 no. 6, from Lieder ohne Worte (1833-7) Venetianisches Gondollied, Op. 62 no. 5, from Lieder ohne Worte (1842-4) Gondellied (1837) Mengelberg, Willem 1871–1951 Barcarolle (1893) Menotti, Gian Carlo 1911–2007 USA Barcarolle, from Sebastian Méreaux, Jean-Amédée 1802–1874 France Au bord de la mer, barcarolle Merikanto, Oskar 1868–1924 Finland Gondoliera, Op. 86a, from Pianoforte Pieces (1916) Barcarolle, Op. 65 (1907) Merkel, Gustav 1827–1885 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 63 Merku, Pavle 1927– Slovenia Barcarola, from Sei pezzi per pianoforte (1978) Merz, Karl 1838–1890 Barcarolle Metallo, Gerardo – Chile Sognando l’amore barcarola per pianoforte, Op. 40 Meyer-Helmund, Erik 1861–1932 Germany Gondelfahrt Milhaud, Darius 1892–1974 France Barcarolle, Op. 128b, no. 16, from L’album de Madame Bovary (1933) Mills, Sebastian Bach 1859–1898 USA Barcarolle No. 1 Barcarolle No. 2, Op. 28 Miramontes, Arnulfo 1882–1960 Mexico Xochimilco, barcarola Mitchell, John 1946– England Barcarolle, from Lower Sixth Sketches Moe, Benna 1897–1983 Denmark Gondolier’s Serenade, Op. 11 (1927) Moolenaar, Frieso 1881–1965 Netherlands Barcarola Moolenaar, Samuel 1869–1925 Netherlands Barcarolle, Op. 9, no. 5 Moore, Mary Carr 1873–1957 USA Barcarolle, Op. 75, no. 8 Moreau, Leon 1870–1946 France Barcarolle Moszkowski, Moritz 1854–1925 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 15, no. 6, from 6 Stücke

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Barcarolle, Op. 27 no. 1 Mulder, Ernest 1898–1959 Netherlands Barcarolle, from Suite for Piano (1936) Nedbal, Oskar 1874–1930 Czechoslovakia Barcarola, Op. 8, no. 1, from 4 Pieces Nevin, Ethelbert 1862–1901 USA Barcarolle, Op. 13 no. 5, from Water Scenes (1891) Gondolieri, Op. 25 no. 2, from A Day in Venice (1898) Nicholl, Horace 1848–1922 England Quasi Barcarola and Fugue, from 12 Concert Preludes and Fugues Nicode, Jean Louis 1853–1919 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 13, no. 3 Nicolaiew, Leonide 1870– Barcarolle, Op. 7 Nielsen, Svend 1937– Iceland Barcarolle Niemann, Walter 1876–1953 Germany Sommernacht am Flusse (Barkarole), Op. 45 (1917) Nikolayev, Leonid 1878–1942 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 7 Nørgard, Per 1932– Denmark Stjerne-barcarole (1995) Norton, Frederic 1869–1946 England La Siesta, barcarolle (1925) Noskowski, Sigismund 1846–1909 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 20, no. 3, from Vogue la galére Novák, Vitezslav 1870–1949 Czechoslovakia Barcarolle, Op. 10, no. 5 (1896) Novelli, Nicola 1874–1954 Italy/USA Canzonette barcarola Oberstadt, Carolus Detmar 1871–1940 Netherlands Barcarolle, Op. 1, from Deux morceaux pour piano Oehmler, Leo 1867–1930 USA Barcarolle, Op. 7, from Six Impromptu Sketches Oesten, Theodor 1813–1870 Germany Gondellied, Op. 56 Omizzolo, Silvio 1905–1991 Italy Barcarola, from Dieci studi sul trillo Ornstein, Leo 1892– USA Barcarolle, from Two Lyric Pieces (1924) Paderewski, Ignaz Jan 1860–1941 Poland Barcarolle, from Scénes romantiques Padwa, Vladimir 1900–1981 USA Barcarolle, from Little Suite (1951) Palmgren, Selim 1878–1951 Finland Barcarolle, Op. 27, no. 6, from Maj: Sieben Klavierstucke Barcarolle, Op. 75, no. 4 Palumbo, Costantino 1843–1926 Italy Barcarola, Op. 71 (1876) Pejacevic, Dora 1885–1923 Croatia Gondellied, Op. 4 Pfeiffer, Georges 1835–1908 France Marine: Fantasie-Barcarolle, Op. 113 Philipp, Isidore 1863–1958 France Italy (Barcarola) , from Recollections Ple-Caussade, Simone 1897–1985 France Liamone: Barcarolle pour piano Poldini, Ede 1869–1957 Hungary Gondellied

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Ponce, Manuel 1882–1948 Mexico Barcarola mexicano (Xochimilco) (1915) Poot, Marcel 1901–1988 Belgium Alla marcia et barcarolle (1976) Poulenc, Francis 1899–1963 France Barcarolle, from Napoli (1925) Purvis, Richard 1913–1994 USA Barcarolle: A Study in Cross-rhythms Quilter, Roger 1877–1953 England In a Gondola, Op. 19 no. 1, from Two Impressions (1914) Quinet, Marcel 1915–1986 Belgium Barcarolle, from Badineries Rachmaninoff, Sergei 1873–1943 Russia Barcarolle, Op. 10, No. 3, from Morceaux de salon (1893-4) Raff, Joachim 1822–1882 Germany Barcarola, Op. 8, from 12 Romances Reverie-Barcarolle, Op. 93, from Dans la nacelle (1860) Barcarolle, Op. 143 (1867) Gondoliera, Op. 187 no. 1, from Erinnerung an Venedig (1873) Raitio, Vaino 1891–1945 Finland Barcarolle, from Summer Idylls Ravel, Maurice 1875–1937 France Une barque sur l’Ocean, from Miroirs Ree, Louis 1861–1939 Barcarolle, Op. 22, no. 4 Rees, Catharina 1831–1915 Netherlands Gondellied, Op. 17 Renard, Jean – France Barcarolle, from Petits fusains Rendano, Alfonso 1853–1931 Italy Barcarola Renton, Victor – Sea Dreams: Barcarolle Renzi, Armando 1915–1987 Italy Barcarola, from Cinque pezzi per pianoforte Reuchsel, Amedee 1875–1931 Barcarolle pour piano Rieti, Vittorio 1898–1994 USA Barcarola, from Suite for piano solo (1926) Rippen, Piet 1928– Netherlands Barcarolle, from Piano Panorama: Stimulating Studies for Young Pianists Rivier, Jean 1896–1987 France Le petit gondolier (1951) Roche, Maurice 1925– France Barcarolle, from Romantic Interludes Roeckel, Joseph 1838–1923 Germany Gondolina: Barcarolle Roger-Ducasse, Jean 1873–1954 France Barcarolle No. 1 (1906) Barcarolle No. 2 (1920) Barcarolle No. 3 (1921) Rorem, Ned 1923– USA Barcarolle No. 1, from Three Barcarolles (1949) Barcarolle No. 2, from Three Barcarolles (1949) Barcarolle No. 3, from Three Barcarolles (1949)

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Rosenthal, Archy 1874– England Barcarolle Rossini, Gioachino 1792–1868 Italy Barcarole, from Péchés de vieillesse, Vol. VI: Album pour les enfants dégourdis, no. 8 (1857-68) Rozkosny, Josef 1833–1913 Czechoslovakia La gondolière, Op. 10 Rubinstein, Anton 1829–1894 Russia Barcarolle No. 1, Op. 30 no. 1, from Two Pieces (1852) Barcarolle No. 2, Op. 45bis (1857) Barcarolle No. 3, Op. 50 no. 3, from Six Characteristic Pictures (1854-8) Barcarolle No. 4 (1871) Barcarolle No. 5, Op. 93, no. 4, from Miscellaneous Pieces (1872-3) Barcarolle No. 6, Op. 104 no. 4, from Six Pieces (1882-5) Ruiz Espadero, Nicolás 1832–1890 Cuba Barcarolle, Op. 18 (1850) Russell, John 1916–1990 England Barcarolle, from Our Village: A Simple Suite for Keyboard Ryterband, Roman 1914–1979 Poland Barcarolle, from Suite internationale for piano Saboia Pessoa, Antonio – Brazil Barcarola, from 12 momentos musicais para piano Sacre, Guy 1948– France Barcarola, from Suite Piccolissima-Sérénade Salomons, Marinus – Netherlands Barcarolle: De Zee Sapp, Allen 1922–1999 USA Barcarolle Satter, Gustav 1832–1879 USA Newport (Barcarolle), Op. 94, no. 2, from Fleurs americaines Sawyer, Henry – Barcarola de las hadas, from Piezas faciles en tonos mayores Schafer, Dirk 1873–1931 Netherlands Barcarolle Scharwenka, Phillipp 1847–1917 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 32, from In bunter Reihe (1879) Scharwenka, Xaver 1850–1924 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 14 Barcarolle, Op. 62, no. 4, from Album fur die Jugend Barcarolle, Op. 63, no. 2 Schelling, Felix 1858–1945 USA Barcarolle Schiffmacher, Josef 1827–1888 Germany Venise: Barcarolle, from 8 Pièces faciles pour la Jeunesse Schmitt, Florent 1870–1958 France Barcarolle, Op. 42, no. 2, from Pieces romantiques Barcarolle des sept vierges, Op. 87, no. 2, from Chaine brisee Schultze, Henri – On the Kanawha: Barcarolle Schütt, Eduard 1856–1933 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 30, no. 5, from Miniatures pour piano Schytte, Ludwig 1848–1909 Germany Moonlight Barcarolle, Op. 143, no. 4

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Scott, Cyril 1879–1970 England Barcarolle (1912) Seeling, Hans 1828–1862 Germany Barcarolle pour piano, Op. 9 Sekles, Bernhard 1872–1934 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 10, no. 4, from Skizzen: Funf fantastische Stucke Sequeira, David – Suite espanol: Barcarola Shcherbachev, Nicolai 1853– Russia Barcarolle Orientale: Chant-nocturne pour piano, Op. 35 Sibelius, Jean 1865–1957 Finland Barcarola, Op. 24, no. 10, from Ten Pieces (1903) Skempton, Howard 1947– England Una barcarola eccentrica Skinner, Oliver 1864– USA Barcarolle, from Cobwebs: Five Compositions for Piano Smalley, Roger 1943– England Barcarolle (1986) Smareglia, Antonio 1854–1929 Italy Barcarola (1884) Smith, Walter Wallace – Barcarolle Smith, Sydney 1839–1889 England Barcarolle, Op. 88 Smith, Julia 1911–1989 USA In a Swan Boat: Barcarolle Spindler, Fritz 1817–1905 Germany Barcarolle: Tonstuck for Piano Hunting Song and Gondellied, Op. 299 Stamaty, Camille 1811–1870 Italy/France Promenade on Water: Expressive Barcarolle Steinert, Alexander Lang 1900–1982 USA Barcarolle Stepán, Václav 1889–1944 Czechoslovakia Barcarolle, Op. 6, no. 3, from 9 Miniaturen fur Klavier Stevens, Bernard 1916–1983 England Barcarolle, Op. posth. Stojowski, Zygmunt 1869–1946 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 25, no. 2, from Romantische Stucke (1902) Stravinsky, Soulima 1910–1994 Russia Barcarolle, from 15 Character Pieces Strelezki, Anton 1859– England Barcarolle Sudds, William F. 1843–1920 Floating Fancies: Barcarolle Talma, Louise 1906–1996 USA Venetian Folly, overture and barcarolle (1946-7) Tansman, Alexandre 1897–1986 France Barcarolle, from Children at Play: Thirteen Easy Pieces for Piano In a Venetian Gondola, from Pour les Enfants, Set IV (1934) Tchaikovsky, Peter – Russia Juin: Barcarolle, Op. 37b, no. 6, from Les saisons (1875-6) Tcherepnin, Alexander 1899–1977 Russia Barkarole, Op. 81 no. 7, from Expressions: 10 Stücke für Klavier (1951) Thalberg, Sigismond 1812–1871 Germany Barcarolle, Op. 60 Romance et étude: Gondellied Thomson, Virgil 1896–1989 USA Barcarolle: Portrait of Georges Hugnet (1940)

COMPOSER LIFESPAN NATIONALITY TITLE AND DATE OF COMPOSITION (if known) Thouret, Nicolaus – Barcarola, Op. 7, from 6 Instructive Characteristic Pieces Toebosch, Louis 1916– Netherlands Barcarolle, Op. 137 (1987) Van de Sandt, Max 1863–1934 Netherlands Barkarole, Op. 21 Van der Glas, Jan Roelof 1879–1972 Netherlands Avond op het meer: Barcarolle Van Dijck, Madeleine 1930– Netherlands Barcarolle, from 12 Pieces pour piano (1989) Van Slyck, Nicholas 1922–1983 USA Barcarolle, from Seven Short Mysteries for Piano Verbraeken, Carl 1950– Belgium Barcarolle, Op. 10, no. 1 Vianna da Motta, Jose 1868–1948 Portugal Barcarola No. 1 Barcarola No. 2 Vieutemps, Lucien 1828–1901 Belgium Barcarole Viscarra Monje, Humberto 1898–1971 Bolivia Barcarola Volkmann, Robert 1815–1883 Germany Barcarolle No. 1 Barcarolle No. 2 Waldteufel, Emil 1837–1915 France La Barcarolle (1882) Wallace, Vincent 1812–1865 Ireland La gondola (1846) Souvenir de Naples: Barcarolle Webb, L.W. – Barcarolle Waltz Wheeler, Harry 1861–1940 USA In Southern Seas: Barcarolle Wieniawski, Józef 1837–1912 Poland Barcarolle-caprice No. 1, Op. 9 Barcarolle No. 2, Op. 29 Williams, Alberto 1862–1952 Argentina Barcarola antarctica, Op. 86, from Poema fueguino Wood, Gladys – Barcarolle, from Six little sketches in “pen and ink” Woolrich, John 1954– England Barcarolle, from Pianobook VIII (1997-99) Wurm, Mary 1860–1938 England Barcarolle, Op. 22 (1892) Yzelen, D. – Barcarolle sous-marine, Op. 19 Zarebski, Juliusz 1854–1885 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 31 (1885) Zarzycki, Aleksander 1834–1895 Poland Barcarolle, Op. 5 (1865) Barcarolle, Op. 19, no. 2 Zimmermann, Agnes 1847–1925 England Barcarolle, Op. 8

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