Mendelssohn - String Quartet No. 6 In F Minor

Felix Mendelssohn and his older sister Fanny were both musically gifted.  Fanny was a musical child prodigy like her brother and a composer in her own right. She wrote over 400 works but the prevailing attitude of the time towards women precluded any thought of publishing her works.  When Fanny died of complications from a stroke in May of 1847, Felix was distraught.  He not only lost a sibling that he was very close to, but a trusted critic and colleague.  He composed a string quartet in her memory and titled it Requiem For Fanny.

A long time friend of Mendelssohn said of the quartet:

It would be difficult to cite any piece of music which so completely impresses the listener with a sensation of gloomy foreboding, of anguish of mind, and of the most poetic melancholy, as does this masterly and eloquent composition.

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel

The months after Fanny's death had Mendelssohn in a mood that he called "gray upon gray."  The string quartet had a private performance in October of 1847 with Felix's teacher and friend Ignaz Moscheles present. He said of the quartet:

The impassioned character of the whole seems to me to be in keeping with his present frame of mind, shaken as he is to the heart's core by the loss of his sister. 

The composition of this string quartet was a portent of Felix's own fate. It was the last major work he was to write, as six months after his sister's death Felix died of a stroke.  The String Quartet No. 6 In F Minor Opus 80 is in 4 movements:

I. Allegro vivace assai -  The quartet begins with nervous energy and feeling of foreboding in the first theme. The second theme doesn't lessen the anxiety as much as it puts it slightly in the background. The development section expands the themes and fleshes them out with occasional counterpoint, but the drive of the movement doesn't slacken. The recapitulation of the slightly altered themes bring a sense of even more instability. A coda increases the tempo and passion and the movement ends in the minor mode.

II. Allegro assai - A scherzo that is far removed from the quicksilver ones Mendelssohn was known for. This one continues the agitation of the first movement as well as the key of F minor. The trio begins with the cello and viola with an eerie figure low in each instrument's register. The violins enter to this accompaniment and the music conjurs up visions of a spectre. The scherzo is repeated, the trio makes another abbreviated appearance and the movement ends.

III. Adagio - The only movement out of the 4 that is in a major key, this is a song without words, a love song for his departed sister. There is a short section where passion rises slightly, but the music returns back to the love song that makes its way to a peaceful ending.

IV. Finale: Allegro molto -  The turmoil of the first two movements returns in the finale. There are brief respites with short lyrical sections, but the movement is mostly in a panic throughout. Sharp accents and dissonance pepper the movement, along with disquieting sections of reduced dynamics that do nothing to quell the tension. A violin takes off in passioned flight near the end of the movement which leads to a quickening of the pace and the bitter end of the quartet.

Röntgen - Piano Quintet No. 2 In A Minor

Julius Röntgen was born into a musical family in Leipzig, Germany in 1855. His father was first violinist with the Gewendhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and his mother was a pianist. The family was well off enough to allow their children to be home schooled, with Julius being taught music by his parents and grandfather as well as piano by Carl Reineke, the director of the Gewendhaus Orchestra. Röntgen met Franz Liszt in 1870 and played for him and continued his piano studies with Franz Lachner in Munich. He became a professional pianist when he was eighteen.

Röntgen went to Amsterdam in 1877 where he not only taught but helped create classical music institutions in Amsterdam.  Along with other composers, Röntgen helped to found the Amsterdam Conservatory Of Music, as well as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and music hall. After he was refused the directorship of the Concertgebouw he focused his energies on composing chamber works, and became a well known piano accompanist.

He spent many summer vacations in Denmark and became a citizen of the country after World War One. He retired from public life and devoted himself to composition in 1924 and from that time until his death in 1932 composed over 200 works.  He was a prolific composer as he wrote over 600 works, and writing music seems to have come easily for him. As an early biographer of Röntgen noted:

In the time someone else would need to put paper and pencil ready and write down keys and key signatures he will have, in a manner of speaking, completed the exposition of a fugue.

 Röntgen has been accused of writing too much music, and no doubt the quality of his music varies from one piece to another. He is most well known for his chamber music, but wrote works in most of the traditional forms.  His works have also been accused of being conservative, as he stayed with traditional forms and music language for most of his career, although he did follow all the latest developments of his time and experimented with writing atonal music occasionally.

The Piano Quintet No. 2 was written in 1927 during his retirement. It is in 4 movements:

I. Andante - The music begins with the piano, cello and viola playing a rhythmic texture with the violins playing a duet over it. The rhythmic texture returns throughout the movement. The second subject is more lyrical. The development begins directly after the second subject and expands the first theme and accompaniment. The recapitulation is short and the movement ends quietly. This movement is the longest of the quintet, but only runs about five and a half minutes. Röntgen's writing is condensed almost to the point of being terse as all four movements are usually played in about sixteen minutes.

II. Allegro - The music shifts moods slightly in the scherzo section, while the trio utilizes fugal texture. The scherzo returns and leads to a coda that crescendos to an abrupt end.

III. Lento e mesto - A short lamentation for strings and piano accompaniment in ternary form. It ends quietly and segues without pause into the final movement.

IV. Con moto, ma non troppo allegro -  About as long as the first movement, the final movement increases the tension as the music shifts from minor to major many times.  There is a hint of some of the music that has gone before, if not in direct quotes at least in feeling, until the  rhythmic texture of the first movement appears again as a coda to the work.

Schulhoff - String Quartet No. 1

Erwin Schulhoff was a Czech composer that embraced many styles of  music in his lifetime. He was born in 1894 and as a child was encouraged by Dvořák. He began his studies at the Prague Conservatory when he was ten years old and later went on to study with Claude Debussy and Max Reger. He was a proficient pianist as well as composer.

He found inspiration in early jazz music and was part of the avant garde music scene in Europe after World War One and helped organize concerts of avant garde music. Schulhoff had this to say about revolution and music:

Absolute art is revolution, it requires additional facets for development, leads to overthrow (coups) in order to open new paths...and is the most powerful in music.... The idea of revolution in art has evolved for decades, under whatever sun the creators live, in that for them art is the commonality of man. This is particularly true in music, because this art form is the liveliest, and as a result reflects the revolution most strongly and deeply–the complete escape from imperialistic tonality and rhythm, the climb to an ecstatic change for the better.

Schulhoff was friends with the Austrian composer Alban Berg and wrote the following in a letter to him:

I am boundlessly fond of nightclub dancing, so much so that I have periods during which I spend whole nights dancing with one hostess or another...out of pure enjoyment of the rhythm and with my subconscious filled with sensual delight.... [T]hereby I acquire phenomenal inspiration for my work, as my conscious mind is incredibly earthly, even animal as it were.

Schulhoff's early compositions could be strange and quirky. For example, he wrote a Sonata For Female Voice Solo that had a soprano spend several minutes faking a notated orgasm, a piece for solo contra bassoon where the soloist is supposed to make soulful liquid bird calls. His went through stylistic changes during his career and his third major stylistic change came when he was most active as a composer,between the years 1923 and 1932. Schulhoff integrated many elements into his own style of modernist music.

His last years were dominated by the politics of social realism and Communist ideology. He was living in Czechoslovakia when the Nazis attained power in Germany and his Communist sympathies and Jewish heritage resulted in his music being banned in Germany. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia he worked as a pianist in clubs and on the radio under a false name to make a living. He applied to the Soviet Union for citizenship in 1941 and was accepted, but before he could leave he was arrested and deported to a concentration camp where he died in 1942 of tuberculosis.

His String Quartet No. 1 was composed in his third stylistic period in 1923. It is a work that lasts just a little over a quarter of an hour and reflects many of the trends of the time. It is in 4 movements:

I. Presto con fuoco -  Schulhoff celebrates his Czech heritage with a lively, almost perpetual motion folk dance. The rhythmic drive is constant and in a matter of about two minutes it ends abruptly.

II. Allegretto con moto e con malinconia grotesca - The music is as different as the title of the movement would suggest. Schulhoff utilizes pizzicato, ponticello (bowing close to the bridge which gives a glassy, ethereal quality to the tone) and sliding on the strings to add tonal color. The movement ends with pizzicato notes.

III. Allegro giocoso alla Slovacca - Another odd title, this music is also like a folk dance, but Schulhoff continues to make much of the possible sonorities of the strings as the players pluck strings with enough force to slap the fingerboard. Pizzicato is also used, as well as strumming on the strings like a guitar.

IV. Andante molto sostenuto - This may well be the biggest surprise in the work as this movement brings a different atmosphere far removed from the wit and vivacity of the first three movements. The mood is somber, the pace slow. There is a feeling of mystery and other worldliness to the music as string effects add to the eeriness of the sound.  A ticking underpins the subdued music until it evaporates.

Chopin - Sonata in G Minor For Piano And Cello

Frédéric Chopin has been called the poet of the piano, and for good reason. Chopin wrote over 200 hundred pieces in his short life with the vast majority of them being for solo piano, some of the greatest music ever written for any instrument. Early in his career he composed two piano concertos and 4 other works for piano and orchestra, a few songs for voice and piano, and a handful of chamber music pieces. But it is interesting to note that all of Chopin's collected works were either for the piano or included the piano.  Seldom has a major composer been associated almost exclusively with one instrument.

After the piano, the cello seems to have been Chopin's favorite instrument. He wrote three pieces for cello and piano, more than for any other instrument. Two of the pieces were written early in his career while the Sonata For Piano And Cello was written late in his career, and it was the last work to be published while the composer was alive.

It was written in 1845-1846, a time of personal turmoil and physical illness for Chopin. His relationship with George Sand, the French authoress, had come to an end and the tuberculosis that he had been suffering with for years was getting worse.  He struggled with the sonata and wrote to his sister:

I write a little and cross out a lot. Sometimes I am pleased with it, sometimes not. I throw it into a corner and pick it up again. 

Auguste Franchomme

Chopin wrote the sonata for his friend the cellist Auguste Franchomme and also dedicated the work to him.  The work has never been a popular one, but it does give a glimpse of where Chopin may have been headed with his music if he had lived longer.  The sonata is in 4 movements:

I. Allegro moderato -  The work begins with an introduction by the piano. After this, the cello enters with a theme that is taken from material in the introduction. Most of the material of the first movement is derived from the piano introduction. The second theme is more gentle and is not developed; when it appears again it remains the same as its first hearing. New themes are heard with each changing the character of the mood. Indeed, the ever-changing moods and complexity of the first movement has been one of the reasons the sonata is not one of Chopin's more popular works. The development section continues introducing themes and changing others. The recapitulation is much shorter as some  f the themes are not revisited, but the gentle second theme is heard once again. Chopin pushes the music to the conclusion of the movement and it ends with two terse chords.

II. Scherzo -  The scherzo is written in D minor and varies from lyrical to rapid runs and hammered chords. The trio is in D major with a long melody sung by the cello.  The scherzo is repeated and ends with a loud chord.

III. Largo -  A brief nocturne written in B-flat major. Piano and cello have a tender conversation that gently ends all too soon.

IV. Finale, Allegro -  Chopin begins the finale with a dramatic theme. The second theme is less dramatic but still carries the dotted rhythms of the  first theme. The dotted rhythms continue as Chopin changes the mood with material in the major mode. The development section has Chopin treat material contrapuntally. The tempo increases and both instruments make their way to the brilliant ending in G major.

Borodin - String Quartet No. 2 In D Major

Borodin was a higly respected chemist, physician and teacher that was also an extremely gifted composer. Borodin was the illegitimate son of a Russian noble who had the child registered as the son of one of the nobleman's serfs. The nobleman saw to it that the child had a good general education as wel las music lessons. Borodin entered the Medical-Surgical Academy and upon graduation spent a year as an army surgeon, aftedr which he studied in Europe. He went back to St. Petersburg and became a professor of chemistry at the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. Borodin was an advocate for women's rights and was instrumental in establishing medical courses for women.

The 2nd string quartet was written in 1881 and it is one of the few works that didn't take years to complete, as it was written while he was on a vacation.  He dedicated the quartet to his wife on their 25th anniversary.
The quartet was popular during his life but it reached its peak of popularity in the early 1950's when some of the themes from the quartet (along with themes from other Borodin works) were used in the Broadway musical Kismet. The quartet is in 4 movements:

I. Allegro moderato - The quartet opens with a delicate theme in the key of D major. This theme segues into the second theme that is slightly more robust but maintains a lyrical quality. The development begins with the first theme heard in the cello. The recapitulation follows the same general plan of the exposition, but the second theme is first heard in E-flat major before it modulates to the home key of D major. Borodin manages to keep the lyrical quality throughout the first movement with just enough contrast to keep the interest of the listener.

II. Scherzo: Allegro -  The scherzo begins in F major with a rapid first theme. The second theme appears and it was one of the themes used in the musical Kismet in a song called Baubles, Bangles and Beads.  The movement is not in the traditional form of a scbherzo, but it is in sonata form. After the two themes are played at the beginning, a development section has both themes played in counterpoint, sometimes both are incorporated at the same time. The recapitulation has the themes repeated with the second theme modulating to F major. A short coda brings sthe movement to a quiet close.

III. Notturno: Andante - The cello plays the beautiful theme first, and then the violin takes it up. This theme was also used in the musical. The middle section the tempo quickens slightly into a dance. The opening theme appears again, this time with modulations to minor keys that bring a sense of drama to the duet between cello and violin. The two instruments respond with a contrapuntal duet of the theme.  The theme is developed and repeated until the instruments reach a serene and quiet end to the movement.

IV. Finale: Andante, Vivace - The movement begins with an odd question and answer introduction that has the main theme of the movement presented in two sections, the question )played by the violins) interrupted by short sections, the answer (played by cello and viola). The pizaccato cello leads the beginning of the movement proper and the music increases in tempo. The movement is in sonata form, and the second theme maintains the speed of the first theme. The development section begins with the question (this time in the cello and viola) and answer (this time in the violins) as the exposition. The recapitulation begins with the question and answer, but this time all 4 instruments play it. Both themes are played and a short coda rounds off the quartet in the home key of D major.

Franck- Piano Trio No.1 In F-sharp Minor Opus 1 No. 1

César Franck's first composition acknowledged by him was a set of Piano Trios which were composed in his last years as a conservatory student. He was eighteen when he began the 1st Piano Trio in F-sharp minor in 1840. Franz Liszt saw the set of piano trios and offered constructive criticism and encouragement. Liszt performed them after he settled in Wiemar as Kappelmeister to the court there.  In 1845  Franck composed an oratorio that had a private performance for Liszt and other musicians. The work was a mild success, but when it had its first public performance a year later it received harsh criticism. Franck shelved the work and took up the life of a teacher, accompanist and composed a few smaller works on commission.

The 1st Piano Trio is Franck's early attempt at writing in cyclical form in which an entire composition is based on a few themes that keep returning in each movement. He was to perfect the form in his later compositions beginning in 1872. The 1st Piano Trio is in 3 movements:

I. Andante con moto - The movement begins with the solo piano playing the lead in to the first theme in F-sharp minor that is taken up by the cello. This theme is played three times during the movement. Franck relieves some of the monotony of the theme with expanding the theme, and one of the repeats has the theme treated fugally. The second contrasting theme is in F-sharp major and is played and developed twice in the movement. These two themes are not especially notable, but tension is built up by the contrast between the two.  The first theme comes back to finish the movement abruptly.

II.  Allegro molto - A scherzo in B minor that has two trio sections, with the second trio being a reworking of the second theme of the first movement. The first theme of the opening movement returns after the second trio and leads directly to the last movement.

III.  Finale: Allegro maestoso - The final movement is in F-sharp major sonata form with the first theme being a variant of the first theme of the opening movement. The second theme is written in D-flat major, the enharmonic equivalent of C-sharp major, the dominant of the home key of the movement. The plodding first theme returns and leads to a section in D major, which in turn leads to the recapitulation.  The movement ends in F-sharp major.

Franck's 1st Piano Trio has been criticized for being monotonous. While it is true that this early attempt at cyclical form pales in comparison to his later works, the 1st Piano Trio does give a glimpse of things to come. Liszt has been given his due for his contribution to cyclical form, but he was far from the first composer to use it.  Franck was slow to develop as a composer, and no doubt he learned a great deal from Liszt's use of the form.

Brahms - Piano Trio No. 3 In C minor Opus 101

Brahms wrote his third piano trio in 1886 while vacationing at Lake Thun in Switzerland. The scenery inspired Brahms, for in addition to the piano trio he wrote a cello sonata and violin sonata. It was a time in Brahms' life when all but one of his orchestral works (the Double Concerto for violin and cello) had been composed. He grew more introspective in his final years, writing mostly works for voice, solo piano and chamber ensembles.

The Piano Trio No. 3 is one of Brahms' shorter chamber works.  All of the movements are short but full of intensity. This trio was a favorite of Brahms' good friend Clara Schumann who turned pages for Brahms when he played the work with his two good friends the cellist Robert Hausmann and violinist Joseph Joachim. It is in 4 movements and takes just over 20 minutes in a typical performance:

I. Allegro energico - The work begins with a shout to grab the attention of the listener as the first theme rolls out of the three instruments with passion. The second theme is more lyrical but the restlessness of the first theme lurks in the background. There is not repeat of the exposition. A very short development section and condensed recapitulation lead to an impassioned coda that brings this very terse movement to a close.  

II. Presto non assai - The violin and cello are muted throughout this movement.  The music is quirky but it also has an underlying sense of melancholy. The movement is short, and ends abruptly.

III. Andante grazioso - A mellow theme, the strings have moments when they play a duet without the piano, and the piano has its solo moments also. Brahms has time signature changes of 9/8, 6/8, 3/4 and 2/4, which gives a slight hesitating quality to the music. This movement also ends abruptly in the key of C major.

IV. Allegro molto - The passion of the the opening movement returns in C minor until near the end when Brahms writes in C major. The music maintains its hectic pace and passion despite the major mode all the way to the end.