Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

Research Paper: The Narrative and Persuasive elements in Mendelssohn’s

Fantasy in F-sharp minor op.28.

The narrative power of music, which is music’s capacity to convey a message

using sounds that develop through the horizontal axis of time, is long known and

explored by virtually every composer. Since the early stages of the 17th Century,

composers such as Monteverdi and Artusi where in the midst of a controversy on the

role of text and music. Monteverdi’s operas serve as an example of how the abstract

essence of music can be organized and utilized in such a way so that it communicates a

powerful message to its audience. After Monteverdi, the examples are almost

innumerable. All the great composers, from Bach, to Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven,

through Brahms, and all the romantics, until our very present day, have been fully aware

of music’s communicative power. As Tchaikovsky expressed in his letters to Von

Meck, “all music is programmatic in essence, the only difference is that there are pieces

that explicitly display a program, and pieces that don’t do this in an evident manner”

(Gotteri, 150). Mendelssohn is an example of a composer who didn’t compose a great

deal of programmatic music. His main focus was in absolute music. However, what

does the term “absolute” mean? Doesn’t all music convey or transmit something?

Whether it is a message, an image, an idea, a concept, a story, an atmosphere, an affect,

or a simple character, isn’t music always constructing a discourse? The main purpose of

this thesis is to focus on the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Fantasy in F-sharp minor,

and demonstrate that although there are no programmatic references anywhere, and this

piece is in essence “absolute,” Mendelssohn skillfully uses form, harmony, and

Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

structure to convey a powerful message and build a narrative within the first movement

of the Fantasy.

The F-sharp minor Fantasy is also titled, “Sonate écossaise,” which stands for

“Scottish Sonata.” The manuscript for the piece was finished in 1829. It is in essence a

one-movement piece, however, Mendelssohn clearly divides it into three separate

movements: I) Con moto agitato-andante II) Allegro con moto III) Presto. The overall

structure reminds us of Beethoven’s Op.27 N.2. The first movement is rather slow,

somber, melancholic and dark, although it does have a fast and turbulent section. The

second movement, in A Major, is almost like a flower between two abysms (which

reminds us of the second movement of Beethoven’s Op.27 N.2). The third movement,

very much like “Moonlight,” is an incredibly dramatic, restless, pleading movement,

full of despair. What is first surprising in the Fantasy is the subtitle “Scottish Sonata.”

Why did Mendelssohn choose this title? Did the composer choose it because he

happened to be travelling to Scotland at that time? Yes and no. This would be a very

basic explanation. In order to give an accurate answer to this question we must consider

and understand Mendelssohn’s Hebrides overture, and then visit some of his letters and

drawings, as well as several writers and painters that had a great influence in the

composer and in Romanticism as a whole.

Scotland, during the 19th century, was seen as a symbol of romanticism. This is

due to many different and complex factors. Geographically speaking, its position in one

of the far ends of Europe, its history and ancient castles, along with its incredibly

overwhelming nature with its beautiful highlands, cascades, and cliffs all added to its

idealization. Indeed, Scotland contained several crucial characteristics of Romanticism:

the sublimation of nature, exoticism, and longing for the past. The idealization of
Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

Scotland is seen in writers such as Sir Walter Scott or Robert Burns. This latter one

wrote in one of his poems:

“Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,

The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;

Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,

The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.”

(Self, 2014)

However, Sir Walter Scott is the main responsible writer for building the image

the romantics adopted of Scotland. To put it in the words of Charlotte Higgins, “the

author of Ivanhoe and the Waverley novels was (…) crucial in creating the idea of

Scotland as it persists today” (Higgins, 2010). Sir Walter Scott himself said “Where is

the coward that would not dare to fight for such a land as Scotland?” (Self, 2014)

Overall, Scott’s Waverley novels were extremely popular in Europe during the first part

of the 19th Century, so it comes in no surprise that with such popularity he influenced

artists all over Europe with the image he exposed of Scotland.

The paintings by Caspar David Friedrich also help us understand why Scotland

was so idealized during the 19th Century. This painter lived from 1774 – 1840, and

many of his paintings became a rage during his time, and today still remain very

popular. His paintings such as Morning Mist in the Mountains (1808), The Monk by the

Sea (1808-10), Wanderer above a Sea of Fog (1818), or Morning (1820-21) all depict

images where nature is depicted in a sublime grandiose manner. Mist and fog are very

prominent and recurrent in many of his works, as well as characters in solitude, such as

the The Monk by the Sea, or Wanderer above a Sea of Fog. This paintings, although

they don’t explicitly depict Scotland, tell us what the audience and the artists had in
Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

mind, this is, the landscapes and images they liked to imagine and admire. Thus, no

matter if these painting portray Scotland or not, it is no wonder that when artists became

aware of Scotland they loved it, since this land matched in perfection what they already

had in mind.

Going back to Mendelssohn, it would be of great interest to take a look into his

drawings. The composer was also a well-taught amateur artist, and during his trip to

Scotland in 1829 he kept some notebooks of sketches and paintings which were inspired

to him by the ostentatious and beautiful landscapes. Here are some examples:
Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

The vast majority of his Sketches depict Scotland as Sir William Scot or Caspar

David Friedrich portrayed it, each in their own artistic medium. The elements of mist,

fog, sea, cascades, highlands, and overall grandiose depiction of nature are always

present in the composer’s drawings.

Having arrived to this point it seems somewhat clearer why the composer

decided to title the Fantasy in F-sharp minor as the “Scottish Sonata,” and how this

might have influenced the piece as a whole, and in particular, the first movement. His

decision to travel to Scotland wasn’t arbitrary. “Felix’s parents, and Felix himself, were

avid readers of the works of two Scottish writers: Sir Walter Scott whose Waverley

novels were all the rage throughout Europe at the time, and the 3rd-century Bard,

Ossian” (Carpenter, 2015). The composer’s parents “hoped that Felix would meet the

great Walter Scott when he was in Scotland” (Carpenter, 2015). His collection of books

prove that he actually read many of the novels by Sir Walter Scott, and since

Mendelssohn was an amateur artist himself, it would be very likely that he also knew
Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

the paintings by Friedrich. Thus, the decision of traveling to Scotland came almost as a

rational choice since Mendelssohn and his family was already so exposed to it.

The Hebrides Overture is without doubt Mendelssohn’s most famous example of

a musical representation of the Scottish landscape before the Fantasy in F-sharp minor.

There is a popular story about the composer that tells how when he returned from his

trip, “he was asked by his sisters to tell them something about the Hebrides, and his

answer was, 'They are not to be described, only played about'” (Grove, p.2). Right after

this, he sat down on the piano and played the very beginning of the Overture. Even

further, the main theme of this piece was a direct inspiration from Fingal’s Cave in the

Hebrides. “We owe the knowledge of this fact to a letter of Mendelssohn's to his family,

which is dated 'From one of the Hebrides' (auf einer Hebride), August 7, 1829, as if

actually written on the island, and begins with the first twenty-one bars of the Overture,

accompanied by the following words only: 'In order to make you understand- how

extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, the following came into my mind there…”

(Grove, p.3)

His trip to Scotland had a huge impression in him. The first proof of this is

without doubt the Hebrides Overture. However, after the Overture would be the Fantasy

in F-sharp minor, of which focus will be placed only on the First movement. The

information presented in the following chart on the overall harmonic and formal

structure is crucial to understand what Mendelssohn is trying to tell its listeners and how

he is depicting Scotland with this piece:

 Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

Mendelssohn Fantasy Op.28 in F-sharp minor

Con Moto Andante Con Moto agitato Andante (climax) Con moto
agaitato agitato (CODA)
Arpeggiated A Transition B theme AF Development of AF , A theme Transition B theme Single AF allusion to
Figure (AF) theme leads to climax with statement of A relative Major
over pedal A theme Theme
tone

A Section B A’ Section B’ Section A’’ Section

Section
I (expansion I, Initial Modulatio III, The development Minor V: The final I6, Climax is in tonic in Modulation F sharp Major: The tonic We begin the
of the tonic Tonic n to A Relative initiates a harmonic first inversion. After the to F sharp Modal shift. We comes in root coda in F sharp
through Major Major progression towards progression of the previous very powerful Major do get a root position in the Major and we
pedal tone) (III) minor V, going passage is: I 6 - flat progression of: I 6 - flat position tonic but original F sharp end it in F sharp
through several fully II 6 - Cadential II 6 - Cadential in a different minor for the minor in the last
diminished chords. Dominant. Dominant, we never mode. very first time measures.
resolve into a root- after a long
position tonic. journey.

I I ……… III …………………… Minor V - Major V I6 …….…… F sharp Major I, F sharp F sharp Major - F
Minor sharp Minor.
Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

In my opinion, in this Fantasy the composer talks about the idea of the loss of

paradise, and the severe, absolute and inexorable character of reality. In order to

communicate this idea, Mendelssohn portrays the journey of a character in several steps

or events.

The first most important event is the presentation of the Arpeggiated Figure.

This figure directly evokes the Scottish highlands. Its blurry character and the pedal

bass-tone dominating the entire passage depicts the mist and fog throughout the

landscape, and the constant rising and falling of the arpeggios could very well paint the

contour of the mighty rocky hills on the highlands.

In this A section, the mist symbolizes the uncertain and unstable present reality

with which the main character has to deal with. The A theme comes right after the

presentation of the mist. This theme has two main elements which give it its

melancholic and despairing character: Firstly the recurrent descending intervals (mainly

of 5ths) and secondly the chromatic upward resolving suspensions in the third measure

of both, the antecedent and consequent phrases:

Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

These two elements are Mendelssohn’s main tools to portray the individual in a

lamentable situation. A character living in grief and sorrow, that perhaps, in the

loneliness of the foggy highline is confessing his anguish. Mendelssohn is fully aware

of the capacity that these two elements have to portray agony and after the A theme he

uses them simultaneously to further project this idea of the protagonist suffering under

the unalterable destiny:

B THEME

A THEME

The fact that Mendelssohn is using so many descending 5ths or 4ths in such an

evident manner serves as proof that this isn’t just a random choice. The composer is

really trying to communicate a complex concept here. One of the most fantastic

moments of the pieces comes with the B Theme. Mendelssohn literally copies a

segment of the A theme, and then this segment simply undergoes diminution of note

values and successive repetition:

Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

As we can see in both images, the main motif of the B theme is directly taken

from the heart of the A theme. Mendelssohn even goes further by using this main motif

in a very evident manner, repeating it over and over in different pitches. The motif is not

only extremely closely related to the A theme, but it also constructs the entire secondary

theme. In my opinion this is an extremely important event in the piece. We could argue

that since the B theme grows out from the A theme in such an evident manner, the B

B THEME

theme could be the polar opposite of the primary theme. This is to say, the same

material from the A theme is used in the secondary theme, but now this material comes

in A Major, and its character is positive, light-hearted, and joyful. Mendelssohn seems

to be doing this to show the transformation of the protagonist in both themes. In the first

theme, with its sorrowful character, the protagonist is located in the present and protests

about his lamentable condition. In the second theme however, he suddenly has a vision
Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

of what his life could have been… The polar opposite to the reality he is living at that

moment. What is even more interesting is that this vision that the protagonist has of

“paradise” is what triggers the catastrophe that is about to come with the development

of the movement.

It’s the idea of what could have happened and never did that sets off the

disastrous consequences, as if the protagonist is going through a state of profound

denial and rejection of his own reality. When the A’ section comes in, the arpeggiated

figure returns, but now the mist and fog completely transform into a storm. The little

figures of the left hand at the

Allegro could even be

interpreted as literal musical

representations of thunders, due

to their sharp and striking

sound quality along with the

turbulent, stormy, and windy right hand.

The catastrophe culminates with a restatement of the B section (now B’), this is

to say, the protagonist restates his melancholic and sorrowful message, (A theme) but

now in full frustration since the music is in fortissimo. In this B’ section, as stated

earlier, Mendelssohn chooses not to resolve into a root position tonic triad at all until

later on when the B theme comes back again in F-sharp Major. This could be

interpreted as Mendelssohn’s way of teasing his listeners. We expect the catastrophe to

be the point of resolution, but instead it simply functions as a passing point that will

lead us to F-sharp Major.

Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

Now it’s extremely important to look closely at what happens from now until the

end. In the first half of the piece, the B theme, the image of paradise is what unleashes

the disaster. However, in the second half, the B theme doesn’t no longer provoke a

catastrophe, instead, the music proceeds into a pianissimo restatement of the main

theme, as if the protagonist is finally accepting the lamentable conditions which

construct his own reality. What is even more fantastic is the fact that right before the

protagonist is about to fully surrender, or die, or accept what is given to him, the music

resolves into the magical mist, but this time in F-sharp Major.

This could be interpreted in so many ways: the ascension of the soul to heaven,

death as the final salvation that will free the protagonist from earthly pain, the final

materialization of paradise on earth…

However, Mendelssohn chooses not to have a positive ending. He deceives his

listeners one more time by restating the main line of the A theme, in F-sharp minor,

right before the ending, with three church-like bells closing the movement in the lower

register of the piano.

Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

In conclusion, Mendelssohn employs a set of very evident and specific musical

devices, such as motifs, harmonies, form, and motivic development, to construct a

logical narrative within one single movement. The interpretation that we hold in this

thesis is that this movement conveys the different stages that the individual human

being has to deal with after a tragedy. These stages cover a wide range, going from

lament, sorrow, idealization, illusion of possible reality, to rage, rebellion, frustration,

denial, and finally acceptance. The ending is quite ambiguous. Does the acceptance

bring the protagonist the peace he so desires? Or does the protagonist die and what we

experience is a musical representation of the ascension of the soul to heaven? One thing

is for sure, this is not a definite ending. The A theme comes back again in a subtle

manner to remind us of its presence… and the piece should be conceived as a whole,

since the second movement is to be performed attacca. What is important to realize is

that although this is absolute music, there is a very clear message hidden in it. The

composer is trying to present its listeners an idea to which they should ponder on. It is

also crucial to understand that Scotland had a very important impression in the

composer. Mendelssohn is depicting not only the Scottish landscape, but also an

individual character interacting and dealing within this Scottish-inspired landscape. The

entire movement could be interpreted as the lonely monologue of the protagonist, where

the audience is nothing more than the mighty highlands. However, three times in the

movement the highlands acquire a leading role in the narrative. They present, lead to the

climax, or resolve the tension. This only proves the quintessential function of the

Scottish-inspired elements in the first movement of the Fantasy.

Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

Websites and Articles:

Self, Cameron. “Welcome to Poets' Graves.” Poets' Graves: find out where

famous poets are buried, 2014, Https://Www.esta-Registration.co.uk,

www.poetsgraves.co.uk/.

Higgins, Charlotte. “Scotland's image-Maker Sir Walter Scott 'invented English

legends'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 16 Aug. 2010,

www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/16/walter-scott-edinburgh-book-festival.

Carpenter, Stephen. “Why Scotland?” Mendelssohn Scotland | Felix

Mendelssohn's Scottish Journey, Mendelssohn in Scotland,

www.mendelssohninscotland.com/why-scotland.

Todd, Larry R. “Mendelssohn (-Bartholdy), (Jacob Ludwig) Felix.” Oxford

University Press, 20 Jan. 2001 (p.1-4)

Grove, George. “Mendelssohn's 'Hebrides' Overture. (Op. 26.).” The Musical

Times, 1 Aug. 1905 (p.1-6)

Todd, R. Larry. “Of Sea Gulls and Counterpoint: The Early Versions of

Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture.” University of California Press, Mar. 1979. (p.1-4)

Taverna, Alessandro. “Classical Music | Piano Music.” Free Classical Music

Online, Classical Connect, 11 Mar. 2003,

www.classicalconnect.com/Piano_Music/Mendelssohn/Fantasy/3307.

Books:
Jorge Tabarés García – History of Music II Professor Samantha Bassler

Gotteri, Nigel, et al. 'To My Best Friend': Correspondence between Tchaikovsky

and Nadezhda von Meck, 1876-1878: Correspondence Between Tchaikovsky and

Nadezhda Von Meck, 1876-78. . Clarendon Press, 1993.