SKU: A0.549893

Score: 12 pages, piano part: 6 pages, baritone sax part: 4 pages. duration: ca. 5'.

Mendelssohn: Wedding March

Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is so popular that it’s difficult to imagine a wedding without it. It seems like it’s been around for eternity. In any case, it was only 150 years or so ago that the Wedding March came about. It was performed in Potsdam for the first time in 1842, as a piece of Mendelssohn’s music for the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was first used for a wedding in 1858

Mendelssohn Background

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847) was, by all means, a German mastermind composer, musician and orchestra conductor of the Romantic period. Consequently, Mendelssohn composed in the usual forms of the time - symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music, and chamber music. To summarize, his most famous works include his music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, The Hebrides Overture, his later Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, and his Octet for Strings. His most well-known piano pieces, by and large, are the Songs Without Words. 

Artistic Standing

 Musical tastes change from time to time. Moreover, just such a change occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This plus rampant antisemitism brought a corresponding amount of undue criticism. Fortunately, however, his artistic inventiveness has indeed been critically re-evaluated. As a result, Mendelssohn is once again among the most prevalent composers of the Romantic era.

Early Family Life

Mendelssohn was, in fact, born into a prominent Jewish family. His grandfather was, notably, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Felix was, in fact, raised without religion. At the age of seven, he was all of a sudden baptized as a Reformed Christian. He was, moreover, a child musical prodigy. Nevertheless, his parents did not attempt to exploit his talent.

Early Adulthood

Mendelssohn was, in general, successful in Germany. He conducted, in particular, a revival of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, specifically with his presentation of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. Felix was truly in demand throughout Europe as a composer, conductor, and soloist. For example, he visited Britain ten times. There, he premiered, namely, many of his major works. His taste in music was. To be sure, inventive and well-crafted yet markedly conservative. This conservatism separated him by all means from more audacious musical colleagues like Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz. Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatoire which, to clarify, became a defender of this conservative viewpoint.

Mature Adulthood

Schumann notably wrote that Mendelssohn was the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them. This observation points to a couple of features in particular that illustrate Mendelssohn's works and his artistic procedure.

Musical Features

In the first place, his musical style was fixed in his methodical mastery of the style of preceding masters. This being said, he certainly recognized and even developed early romanticism from the music of Beethoven and Weber. Secondly, it indicates that Mendelssohn sought to strengthen his inherited musical legacy rather than to exchange it with new forms and styles or replace it with exotic orchestration. Consequently, he diverged his contemporaries in the romantic period, such as Wagner, Berlioz, and Liszt. Mendelssohn revered Liszt's virtuosity at the keyboard but found his music rather insubstantial.

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SKU: A0.533554

I. (Flowing)
II. (Fast, nimble)
III. (Funereal) (in memoriam Donald Martino)
IV. (Dancing)
V. (Distant, echoing) (for Richard and Dee Wilson)
VI. (Moderate, singing, with humor) (for Michael Finnissy)
VII. (Slow, very lyrical)
VIII. (March)
IX. (Envoi: Very slow, from afar)
Nine Preludes (2007) for piano was written for and is dedicated to pianist Marilyn Nonken; it was commissioned by
Richard Mason.
Although the work is composed as a set of discrete movements, the preludes are very much interconnected, as motivic
and developmental ideas run throughout the entire set. The basic musical material (founded upon collections of minor
and major thirds) is shared among all nine movements. An elegiac quality runs throughout the work.
The first prelude (Flowing) is inspired by the piano music of Johannes Brahms, whose contributions to the instrument’s
literature have been a significant and ongoing influence on my work.
The second prelude is fast and bright. Consistent staccato textures are maintained as the two hands intertwine.
The third prelude (Funereal) is dedicated to the memory of American composer Donald Martino (1931–2005). The music
refers very obliquely to Martino’s setting of Robert Herrick’s poems of death and eternity in The White Island (1985).
The fourth prelude (Dancing) is light and buoyant. After a melodic middle section, the opening music reverses itself to the
end.
The fifth prelude (Distant, echoing) is dedicated to Richard and Dee Wilson. Through large blocks of sustained sound (both
quiet and loud), the movement explores certain harmonic colors of the piano.
The sixth prelude (Moderate, singing, with humor) is dedicated to English composer Michael Finnissy. The opening is
marked “like an ‘off-kilter’ folk song,� and this original melody is subjected to a variety of transformations and textures.
The rhythmic patterns are constantly in flux.
The seventh prelude (Slow, very lyrical) is melodic and passionate, with a nocturnal character. The middle builds to an
intense climax before dying away.
The eighth prelude (March) is spiky and crisp. In the trio, the march theme is turned first into a tonal ballad before
gradually transforming back into the language of the march. A faster reprise of the opening music follows.
The ninth prelude (Envoi: Very slow, from afar) is an elegaic “farewell.� Romantic gestures and harmonies try to assert
themselves before the music dies away.

Performance Note: Although it is preferred that the entire set of nine preludes be played in concert, individual preludes (or smaller
assembled groupings) may be performed when necessary for programming needs. If the entire set is played, however, the order of the
preludes should not be changed. The movements should be listed in the program in the format shown at the top of this page.

Recorded by Donna Amato on Carson Cooman: Piano works  ALTARUS AIR-CD-9015