Mendelssohn Symphony no.4

Mendelssohn Symphony no.4

1. HARMONY

   • Includes some chromaticism
   • Frequent use of inversions, particularly first inversion and dom 7th
   • Liked dim7th chord to create effective moments
     • Also liked extended dominant i.e b7/7
   • Fond of subdominant minor chord
   • Effective use of modulation but less imaginatively
   • Simple passages of 'block' harmony - similar to Beethoven
   • Broadened harmonic motion created impressive spaciousness
   • Inventive accompanying figures

2. INSTRUMENTATION

   • - Highly imaginative at times - high quality - utilises instruments to create space and distance - achieves colourful and significant contrasts between grand and personal - talented artist, able to draw out and manipulate 'colours' of his orchestral palette

3. MELODY

   • -'lyrical' - flowing - symmetrically rounded - less varied in melodic curve - 'the range of his musical ideas was limited' - tended to repeat the same melodic and rhythmic patterns - liked tunes that began halfway through the bar to avoid 'square' rhythms - charm of thematic material - beauty of melodic line detracts from the regularity of structure - possessed and displayed an innate and subtle melodic gift

4. TEXTURE

   • Inclined to write fugues and canons
   • Contrapuntal - often enriches the texture
   • Loved counterpoint
   • Naturally disposed towards thick contrapuntal textures

5. STRUCTURE

   • Return to the main theme is built up with cresc
   • Tends to shorten the gap between S1 and S2
   • Gives clear sense of unity and balance by bringing initial material back at end of exposition
   • In Coda: sometimes recaps material which was omitted from the development
   • Tendency to smothe over formal considerations and significant points shows the freedom he liked when interpreting and using structures
   • Influence of Haydn and Mozart can be seen in the clearly balanced themes and phrase structure
   • In sonata form, recapitulation was often modified
   • New material is introduced after the midpoint and intergrated with the initial material