159 Mendelssohn seems to have been the first to call a piano piece a “Song Without Words” indicating both this music’s small scale and its essential lyricism. He began to use this term in around 1828 and composed forty-eight beautiful songs (without words) in eight volumes each consisting of six songs, throughout the 1830s and into the early 1840s. Six sets were published during his lifetime, two posthumously. The “Songs Without Words” were among the most widely known of Mendelssohn’s works during the 19th century, at the time that the piano became popular in Europe, and a standard item in many middle-class households. Mendelssohn’s main intention was to compose miniature solo piano pieces that express their own musical meaning without verbal connotation. They are both emotional and sentimental; and in most cases they are not virtuoso works as those created by Liszt and the like. However, despite their clarity of melodic line and simplicity of harmony, there are many technical challenges in these pieces. Many of them require swift finger-work and the ability to play lightly and delicately through demanding passages. Mendelssohn formally objected to adding texts and titles to most of these pieces but could not prevent people adding titles or nicknames to them as time progressed. He named only 5 of them and evocative designations were given to 4 other pieces by his circle of friends. While the “Songs Without Words” were extremely popular in almost every household with a piano in the 19th century, they were rarely played in the concert halls of the 20th. Spinnerlied, Op.67, No.4 in C Major was written in the spring of 1845 and it is one of the few “Songs Without Words” that was given a specific title (‘Spinning Song’) by the composer himself. It is one of Mendelssohn’s unmatched finger-twirling scherzos with a dashing melody played staccato above swaying sixteenth notes in a rondo-like structure. Frédéric Chopin (1810 -1849) Étude Op. 25, No.5 in E Minor Étude Op. 10, No.4 in C-sharp Minor Before Chopin, études (studies) were used to describe music pieces of technical difficulty, sometimes virtuosic, focused on training and refining a specific challenge of a performer’s technique. These pieces were primarily didactic and served the technique rather than the music. Chopin composed two sets of twelve piano studies - Op. 10 (published in 1833, dedicated to Franz Liszt) and Op. 25 (in 1837). These études stand as the foundation of modern piano technique. Chopin composed his études to be played as concert pieces. Each étude is a miniature masterpiece, carefully crafted to address specific technical challenges while also encapsulating a distinct emotional world. Chopin’s ability to create such poetry in music despite such a controlled and limited means of expression is a testament to his creative genius. Étude Op. 25, No.5 in E Minor is a study full of dissonances that are repeated and used throughout the piece, sounding like deliberate mistakes. The middle section, however, is lyrical, warm, and full of emotion. Étude Op. 10, No. 4 in C-sharp Minor is a toccata-like étude that requires strong and independent fingers playing rapid passages that alternate between the hands, creating a whirlwind effect. Opening Event
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