Mendelssohn's Pianoforte Music
Played by Gertrude Peppercorn
Prelude in B Minor
Four Songs Without Words, Nos. 22, 34, 35, 45
The Songs Without Words were originally published in London by Novello, under the title of 'Original Melodies for the Pianoforte'. It was later that the inspired label was attached to them. Mendelssohn was often asked what some of these pieces meant. He was unable or unwilling to say. 'A piece of music expresses to me,' he wrote in a letter, 'thoughts not too indefinite to be put into words, but too definite ... If you ask me what were my thoughts when composing the Songs Without Words, I say "Just the songs as they stand.'" In another, he asks the question 'Have not notes as distinct a meaning as words—perhaps even a still more distinct meaning?' As a matter of fact, he wrote them and used them as thoughts. ' I should like to be with you and see you and talk to you,' he writes to Fanny, his sister. 'As this is impossible, I have written you a song to let you know what I wish and mean.' And on another occasion, 'felt this when I received your half anxious and half cheerful letter.' With both letters were enclosed a manuscript 'Song without Words'.