DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

LIED-FOEM LIED OHNE WOETE 727
modulation, the predominance of one main idea
is unbroken.
Professor Marx has called attention to the
fact tliat this form is sometimes amplified by
repetition ; tliat is to say, when the return to
the original key has been made to follow the
contrasting section or Trio, a fresh departure is
made, and another contrasting yection or Trio is
given, after which follows the final return to
the original key and idea. Examples of this
occur in the Symphonies of Beethoven and
Schumann, as well as in less important works ;
and it is well to take note of the fact that in
this case the form under consideration shows its
close relationship to the Rondo form ; for that
form in the hands of early instrumental com-
posers such as Ramean and Couperin was little
else than the frequent repetition of a main idea
in a principal key, interspersed with contrasting
episodes,
the Trios.
which in the present case answer to
The occurrence of codas with this form is very
common, but for the discussion of that point
reference must be made to the article under that
head and to the article Form.
Finally, it will be well to return shortly to
the consideration of the distinctive name of
which has been given to this form. In
' ' Lied
the choice of it, its author was probably guided
by a well-grounded opinion of the superior
antiquity of song to other kinds of music, wdiich
led him to infer that the instrumental forms
wdiich he pirt under the same category were
imitated from the ' Lieder. ' But this is not by
any means inevitable. It will have been seen
from the above discussion that in this form the
simplest means of arriving at artistic balance
and proptortion are made use of ; and these
would have been chosen by the instinct of the
earliest composers of instrumental music without
-any necessary knowdedge that vocal music was
cast in the same mould. And there is more
than this. In songs and other vocal music the
hearer is so far guided by the sense of the words
that a total impression of completeness may be
obtained even with very vague structure in the
music ; whereas in instrumental music, unless
the form is clear and appreciably defined, it is
impossible for the most intelligent hearer to
realise the work as a whole. So that, in point
of fact, vocal music can rlo without a great deal
of that which is vital to instrumental music ;
and therefore the Lied is just the member of
the group wdiich it is least satisfactory to take
as the type : but as this form has been classified
under that head, it has been necessary so to
review it fully, in order that a just estimation
may be formed of its nature, and the reason for
taking exception to the title. The form itself
is a very important one, but inasnmch as it
admits of great latitude in treatment, it appears
that the only satisfactory means of classifying
it, or making it explicable, is by putting it on
as broad a basis as possible, and giving it a
distinctive title which siiall have reference to its
intrinsic constitution, and not to one of the
many kinds of music which may, but need not
necessarily, come within its scope. 0. H. H. P.
LIED OHNE WORTE, i.e. Song without
words (Fr. Romance sans paroles), Mendelssohn's
title for the pianoforte pieces wdiicli are more
closely associated with his name than any other
of his compositions. The title exactly describes
them. They are just songs. They have no
words, but the meaning is none the less definite
— ' I wish I were with you, ' says he to his sister
Fanny in sending her from JMnnieh ' the earliest
of these compositions which we possess— ' but
as that is imjiossible, I have written a song for
youexpressiveof my wishes and thoughts '
. . .
and then follows a little piece of sixteen bars
long, which is as true a Lied ohne Worte as any
in the whole collection. We know from a letter
of later date ^ than the above that he thought
music much more definite than words, and there
is no reason to doubt that these ' Lieder,' as he
himself constantly calls them, have as exact
and special an intention as those wdiich were
composed to poetry, and that it is almost impossible
to draw a line between the two.^ He had
two kinds of songs, one with words, the other
without. The pieces are not Nocturnes, or
Transcripts, or Etudes. They contain no
liravura ; everything is subordinated to the
'
' wish or the ' wdiich thought '
filled the heart
of the composer at the moment.
The title first appears in a letter of Fanny
Mendelssohn's, Dec. 8, 1828, which implies that
Felix had but recently begun to write such
pieces. But the English equivalent was not
settled without difficulty. The day after his
arrival in London, on April 24, 1832, he played
the first six to Moscheles, and they are then
spoken of as ' Instrumental Lieder fiir Clavier.' *
On the autograph of the first book, in Mr. Felix
Moscheles' possession, they are named ' Six
songs for the Pianoforte alone,' and this again
was afterwards changed to ' Original Melodies
for the Pianoforte,' under which title the first
book w^as published (for the author) by Alfred
Novello (then in Frith Street), on August 20,
1832, and registered at Stationers' Hall. No
opus -number is given on the English copy,
though there can be no doubt that Mendelssohn
arranged it himself in every particular. The
book appeared concurrently in Berlin, at
Simroclc's, as ' Sechs Lieder ohne Worte, etc.
op. 19.'^ The German name afterwards became
current in England, and was added to the
English title-jiage (see below).
"The last of the six songs contained in the
' Letters from Italy and Switzerland, June 14 3830
2 Tn Souobay, Oct. 15, l&ll.
3 The Herbatlied (op. 63) was originally a Lied ohne Worte (MS
Cat. No- 2041.
4 See the Translation o( the Life of MoscfteUs, 1. 267, for this and
the following fact.
5 There are two opus 19, a set of six songs with words, and a set of
six without theui-