references - people.fas.harvard.edu - Harvard University

The emotional dynamics of Mendelssohn’s second
and third movements, Allegro vivace, at times called
its Scherzo, and Andante, respectively, are the ones
that seem to have confounded scholars. The principal
inquiry into the origins and motivation behind the
“Reformation” Symphony remains Judith Silber’s
doctoral dissertation (Yale University, 1987). Their
missing, identifying labels, or “musical tags”, as Dr.
Silber states, 29 accounts for this state of affairs. Yet are
the “tags” entirely necessary? Purported to be Men-
29 See Silber, 163ff .
Ex. 2c: Mendelssohn: “Reformation” Symphony, fourth movement, opening
ces papers - open forum # 6, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u90QfO7VkCA&feature=related
(The Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Ton Koopman, Conductor)
delssohn’s most ambitious and serious programmatic
symphony, it is certainly one of the most ambitious
symphonies after Beethoven’s Ninth. For some, the
infusion of the latter’s invention, the Scherzo & Trio,
reaffi rm the superfi cial Beethovenian connection.
Yet, even if this movement is structurally Beethovenian,
is it Beethovenian in timbre? Beethoven’s
symphonic scherzi are scarcely singable, as evinced
by the jaunty opening theme of the corresponding
movement in his Seventh:
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